{"id":40375,"date":"2025-03-30T12:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T17:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=40375"},"modified":"2025-03-31T03:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T08:07:14","slug":"fifa-considering-lafc-v-club-america-playoff-to-replace-leon-at-club-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=40375","title":{"rendered":"Fifa considering LAFC v Club Am\u00e9rica playoff to replace Le\u00f3n at Club World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Liga MX side Le\u00f3n were removed due to Fifa regulations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Clubs determined by Champions Cup, Fifa ranking<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A Fifa spokesperson confirmed on Sunday that the organization is considering holding a one-game playoff to determine the team that will occupy Club Le\u00f3n\u2019s spot in this summer\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/worldclubchampionship\">Club World Cup<\/a>. The victor of this playoff would also take home $9.55m in prize money awarded by Fifa to qualified teams from the Concacaf region, and would be Chelsea\u2019s first opponent in the tournament due to be held in the US this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Fifa said it was considering MLS side LAFC and Liga MX giants&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/club-america\">Club Am\u00e9rica<\/a>&nbsp;as the playoff teams. Those selections notably keep Costa Rica\u2019s LD Alajuelense out of the competition after the club\u2019s complaint in 2024 led to Le\u00f3n\u2019s recent ouster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Fifa expelled Le\u00f3n from the tournament last week due to the club sharing ownership with Pachuca, another team in Mexico\u2019s top division. Pachuca qualified for the Club World Cup by winning the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup, while Le\u00f3n qualified by winning the 2023 version of the same tournament. Both clubs are owned by Grupo Pachuca, which also has stakes in Spain\u2019s Real Oviedo and other clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Article 10 of Fifa\u2019s regulations for the 2025 Club World Cup stipulate that \u201cNo individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in the competition,\u201d and that \u201cIf two or more clubs fail to meet the criteria \u2026 only one of them may be admitted to the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Alajuelense submitted a complaint to Fifa on those grounds in November of 2024, then elevated the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in January. Fifa expelled Le\u00f3n last week, but did not offer any guidance as to which club would replace them. Grupo Pachuca said it would argue its case to Cas in a hearing on 23 April in Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are dissatisfied with this decision and will appeal it to the fullest extent possible,\u201d the group said in a statement, insisting that the clubs are administratively distinct. \u201cWe will defend what was won on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Alajuelense has stopped short of making a direct appeal for themselves to replace Le\u00f3n in the competition. However, Fifa\u2019s 2025 Club World Cup regulations theoretically work in their favor. According to those regulations, Club World Cup teams qualify for the competition by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">a) Winning their confederation\u2019s championship (like the Uefa Champions League or Concacaf Champions Cup), or\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">b) Landing high enough in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/inside.fifa.com\/fifa-rankings\/fifa-club-world-cup\">Fifa\u2019s club ranking<\/a>, which takes into account results over the previous four years and separates teams by confederation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Importantly, Fifa also stipulates that no more than two clubs per country may participate in the tournament, unless those clubs have qualified by winning their confederation\u2019s championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">For example, the first of Uefa\u2019s 12 Club World Cup spots went to the winners of the previous four Champions Leagues: Manchester City, Chelsea, and Real Madrid (who won twice in that span). That left nine spots open, which were allocated based on Fifa\u2019s four-year ranking. Austria\u2019s Red Bull Salzburg made the cut over the likes of Liverpool, Barcelona, Milan and sister club RB Leipzig because those clubs\u2019 countries had already qualified two or more teams to the competition, while Austria had not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Concacaf was awarded four spots in the competition, plus an additional \u201chost country\u201d spot for the US, which Fifa President Gianni Infantino awarded to Inter Miami. Aside from Pachuca and Le\u00f3n, the other qualifiers included the Seattle Sounders of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/mls\">MLS<\/a>&nbsp;and Liga MX side Monterrey, both of whom won the Concacaf title over the previous four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">However, without Le\u00f3n in the picture and with Miami\u2019s selection, both Mexico and the United States will still be represented by the maximum number of two teams in the tournament: Monterrey and Pachuca for Mexico, Seattle and Miami for the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In Article 10 of its regulations, Fifa says that the \u201cgeneral secreteriat\u201d should decide how to replace a club that runs afoul of multi-club ownership rules. The regulations state that the decision should \u201ctake into account, in particular, the respective ranking(s) of the club(s) concerned and the applicable quota per confederation and\/or member association.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">If Fifa were to block clubs from the US and Mexico from taking Le\u00f3n\u2019s place, it would theoretically default to its four-year rankings to determine who will occupy the open spot. The highest-ranked non-Mexican, non-American team in the confederation is Alajuelense: No 15 in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement to the Guardian, Fifa said LAFC was selected for the playoff because of its status as runner-up to Le\u00f3n in the 2023 Concacaf Champions Cup. Club Am\u00e9rica, meanwhile, was selected due to being \u201cthe top-ranked team in the Fifa Club World Cup confederation ranking through which qualification is also determined,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Le\u00f3n players and staff have spoken out against Fifa\u2019s decision to expel them from the competition, with captain Andr\u00e9s Guardado taking an indirect swipe at Alajuelense in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe teams raising their hands for the right to compete in our place should be ashamed of themselves,\u201d Guardado said, according to ESPN. \u201cIt is a brutal injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2025\/mar\/31\/fifa-considering-lafc-v-club-america-playoff-to-replace-leon-at-club-world-cup\">theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Fifa spokesperson confirmed on Sunday that the organization is considering holding a one-game playoff to determine the team that will occupy Club Le\u00f3n\u2019s spot in this summer\u2019s&nbsp;Club World Cup. The victor of this playoff would also take home $9.55m in prize money awarded by Fifa to qualified teams from the Concacaf region, and would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":40376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[32844,32843,32842],"class_list":["post-40375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-club-americas","tag-fifa","tag-lafc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40377,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40375\/revisions\/40377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}