FIFA plans a decision-making game for the free space at the club World Cup, which was created by the exclusion of Club Léon from Mexico.
The Los Angeles FC from the USA and Club América from Mexico are to be met. According to ESPN and The Athletic, FIFA confirmed corresponding reports. The winner would play in Group D with Chelsea, Flamengo and Esperance de Tunis.
The measure should only apply if the legal steps of Club Léon against his exclusion and that of the association LD Alajuelense from Costa Rica are unsuccessful. The hearing from the International Sports Court CAS is scheduled to take place on April 23 in Madrid.
Why Los Angeles and América were selected
The reasons why Los Angeles and América have just been selected is the form of qualification.
The basic rules for the qualification for the 2025 club World Cup:
- Each country can provide a maximum of two participants.
- An exception applies if more than two different clubs have won the most important continental competition between 2021 and 2024. This means competitions that are comparable to the European Champions League. Then more than two are allowed, Brazil places four clubs in this way.
- If there are fewer than two, up to two clubs can qualify via a continental ranking. In this way, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are there, who did not win the Champions League between 2021 and 2024.
- With CF Monterrey, CF Pachuca and Club Léon, three clubs from Mexico won the Concacaf Chamions League and thus qualified.
Now FIFA says according to ESPN: “Los Angeles finished second in the Concacaf Champions League 2023, through which Club Léon had qualified. Club América would take part as the best-placed team in the Concacaf ranking for the club World Cup.”
| Pl. | club | country | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | CF Monterrey* | Mex | 52 |
2 | Club Léon* | Mex | 47 |
3 | Club América | Mex | 44 |
4 | Philadelphia Union | USA | 41 |
5 | Cruz Azul | Mex | 39 |
6 | Columbus crew | USA | 37 |
7 | CF Pachuca* | Mex | 34 |
8 | Tigres uanl | Mex | 32 |
9 | Seattle Sunders* | USA | 28 |
10 | Los Angeles FC | Mex | 25 |
11 | Pumas unam | Mex | 24 |
12 | New York City | USA | 19 |
13 | New England | USA | 19 |
14 | Atlanta United | USA | 13 |
| LD Alajuelense | CRI | 13 |
* The marked clubs have qualified as the winner of the Concacaf Champions League (now called Champions Cup) for the club World Cup.
The catch for LD Alajuelense: Inter Miami is considered the host, not as a US team
LD Alajuelense from Costa Rica had also taken legal action. Since two US teams were already qualified with the Seattle Sunders and Inter Miami and Mexico also had its quota, the club from Costa Rica sees itself as the best team in the ranking outside of the USA and Mexico as a logical successor.
But because FIFA Inter Miami is now obviously expressly treating as a host team and not as a representative of the United States, the Los Angeles and América decision are preferred, subject to another decision.
The Grupo Pachuca, the investor of Club Léon, is proceeding against the decision of the FIFA Changeover Changeover to exclude the club. “According to the evaluation of all evidence, the chairman of the FIFA call-up committee came to the conclusion that CF Pachuca and Club León do not meet the criteria mentioned to have several football clubs”it said from FIFA. The Grupo Pachuca has both Club Léon and the CF Pachuca, both of which were qualified in sports.
The space distribution for the confederations, i.e. continental associations such as UEFA, is basically:
- Europe: 12
- South America: 6
- Asia: 4
- Africa: 4
- North/Central America and Caribbean: 4
- Oceania: 1
- Host (USA): 1