Lionel Messi at the Club World Cup makes sense – but how he got there is ridiculous

FIFA is no longer hiding this.

When you’re desperate for a major broadcast deal and a few big American sponsors in the next few months, the time for niceties is over.

Lionel Messi Inter Miami have qualified – the word “qualified” does more of the heavy lifting than a tightwad picking up the bar tab after a wild party – for next summer’s newfangled, massively expanded Club World Cup in the United States.

How and why Lionel Messi Inter Miami recognized as worthy of a place among the 32 best football clubs in the world? By winning the 2024 MLS Supporters’ Shield, of course!

Where will the first game of next summer’s tournament be held? Of course, in Miami!

If this all seems too convenient, that’s because it is. Miami and Messi’s participation in a global tournament that is in dire need of financial success makes sense for FIFA, but does it make sense for ordinary people?

By giving Miami a spot through the Supporters’ Shield, which is a trophy (okay, shield) awarded to the MLS team with the best regular season record (but before the deciding MLS Cup playoffs at the end of the season). champions), FIFA has shed light on the legitimacy and authenticity of the new Club World Cup. Yes, make your faces look stunned.

To be fair, Miami just broke the MLS record for most points scored in a regular season with 74 from 34 matches, a total reached on the final day of the campaign when they thrashed the New England Revolution 6-2 behind Messi. Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick in 11 minutes from the bench and scored twice.

This is Miami’s first silverware in MLS since they joined the league as an expansion team in 2020 after winning the Leagues Cup (a tournament for MLS teams and Liga MX, the top division of Mexican club soccer) last year.

“You have shown that in the United States you are consistently the best club on the field,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was on the field at Miami’s home stadium for the big Supporters’ Shield celebration. “I am therefore proud to announce that you, as one of the best clubs in the world, are deserved participants in the new 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.”

Whether you think Miami should be included in the tournament or not, there are two obvious things to disagree with in these quotes.

1. Miami has not proven that they are the “consistently best team” in the United States. They have certainly proven that they are the best club in the MLS Eastern Conference, which is only half the size of the US (and a couple of chunks of Canada). Yes, they’re undefeated in six league games against Western Conference teams this season, but they’ve only won three of them. This all sounds a bit like saying Celtic proved they are the best team in the UK by winning the Scottish title.
2. “One of the best clubs in the world”, Gianni, right? They may have older legends playing for them, but if you can’t guarantee they’ll beat, say, Crystal Palace in a one-off match tomorrow, they won’t get that nickname.

Miami became the 31st club to qualify for the Club World Cup and the only one to qualify exclusively through a domestic league. The remaining 30 have so far come through continent-wide competitions or rankings among teams from a given continent. Simply put, either win a confederation tournament or achieve good and consistent results in competitions involving teams from more than one country.

In Africa (via the CAF Champions League), the Club World Cup has four teams, as in Asia (AFC Champions League). In Europe there are 12 (UEFA Champions League), in North and Central America and the Caribbean there are four through the CONCACAF Champions League, in South America (CONMEBOL Libertadores) there are five, and there is one from the OFC through the continental rankings, namely Auckland City, and one from the host country, which is Miami.

How will the 32nd and final team qualify? Will FIFA give it to Disney+ All Stars? Maybe Mohammed bin Salman Select XI?

Well no, it will be the 2024 Copa Libertadores champions, joining the 2021 (Palmeiras), 2022 (Flamengo), 2023 (Fluminense) winners and the two highest ranked clubs in the CONMEBOL confederation – River Plate and Boca Juniors”. Great. It works.

Even if the same criteria means Chelsea qualify because they won the 2021 Champions League final, a triumph that involved Roman Abramovich, Thomas Tuchel (four Chelsea managers ago), Timo Werner and Olivier Giroud a long time ago , there is confirmation because they won. The largest tournament in Europe.

And even if the ranking criteria mean that Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg, who lost their first two Champions League matches this season by 3-0 and 4-0, somehow sneak into the game despite For four years, it advanced beyond the group stage of the Champions League only once. years, again, so be it. Be yourself, FIFA.

This is not about the team from the host country getting a place in the competition. This is far from true. There must to be the host team of the tournament, just as the host country is rightfully guaranteed a place at the World Cup. FIFA can’t guarantee that there will be a home team through CONCACAF (as it turns out, the Seattle Sounders are in, winning the Confederation Cup in 2022), so saying there will be an American team from the start isn’t a problem. . Just yesterday they announced that the winning team of the Supporters’ Shield will qualify.

How else should they have done it? Having a wildcard guaranteeing some US participation would not be at all unreasonable.

This is common in tennis, where top players who for some reason, such as long-term injury, may not be ranked high enough to qualify for one of the four Big Sam tournaments can earn a place at Wimbledon or the US Open . Goran Ivanisevic once won Wimbledon with a wild card, and Andy Murray and endless Brits have secured places at the London tournament over the years. This increases the number of viewers and television audience.

Miami’s participation in the Club World Cup is for the same reason, as a wildcard that will bring in larger attendances and attract more eyes, perhaps to watch Messi’s match with old rivals Real Madrid or his former Barcelona mentor Pep Guardiola and Manchester City” won’t be special. wrong.

But by clumsily making up the rules and giving the Supporters’ Shield a spot instead of the MLS Cup winners (which Miami could very well win in early December) or maybe a one-off game between the Shield and the Cup winners. if they are different, you expose yourself to ridicule. Especially if you’ve already called it “the greatest, most inclusive and merit-based global club competition” that has ever existed.

The competition, already struggling for respectability, has taken another reputational hit.

(Lead photos: Lionel Messi and Gianni Infantino; Getty Images)