A Fifa spokesperson confirmed on Sunday that the organization is considering holding a one-game playoff to determine the team that will occupy Club León’s spot in this summer’s 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 be Chelsea’s first opponent in the tournament due to be held in the US this summer.
Fifa said it was considering MLS side LAFC and Liga MX giants Club América as the playoff teams. Those selections notably keep Costa Rica’s LD Alajuelense out of the competition after the club’s complaint in 2024 led to León’s recent ouster.
Fifa expelled León from the tournament last week due to the club sharing ownership with Pachuca, another team in Mexico’s top division. Pachuca qualified for the Club World Cup by winning the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup, while León qualified by winning the 2023 version of the same tournament. Both clubs are owned by Grupo Pachuca, which also has stakes in Spain’s Real Oviedo and other clubs.
Article 10 of Fifa’s regulations for the 2025 Club World Cup stipulate that “No individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in the competition,” and that “If two or more clubs fail to meet the criteria … only one of them may be admitted to the competition.”
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 León 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.
“We are dissatisfied with this decision and will appeal it to the fullest extent possible,” the group said in a statement, insisting that the clubs are administratively distinct. “We will defend what was won on the field.”
Alajuelense has stopped short of making a direct appeal for themselves to replace León in the competition. However, Fifa’s 2025 Club World Cup regulations theoretically work in their favor. According to those regulations, Club World Cup teams qualify for the competition by:
a) Winning their confederation’s championship (like the Uefa Champions League or Concacaf Champions Cup), or…
b) Landing high enough in Fifa’s club ranking, which takes into account results over the previous four years and separates teams by confederation.
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’s championship.
For example, the first of Uefa’s 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’s four-year ranking. Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg made the cut over the likes of Liverpool, Barcelona, Milan and sister club RB Leipzig because those clubs’ countries had already qualified two or more teams to the competition, while Austria had not.
Concacaf was awarded four spots in the competition, plus an additional “host country” spot for the US, which Fifa President Gianni Infantino awarded to Inter Miami. Aside from Pachuca and León, the other qualifiers included the Seattle Sounders of MLS and Liga MX side Monterrey, both of whom won the Concacaf title over the previous four years.
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However, without León in the picture and with Miami’s 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.
In Article 10 of its regulations, Fifa says that the “general secreteriat” should decide how to replace a club that runs afoul of multi-club ownership rules. The regulations state that the decision should “take into account, in particular, the respective ranking(s) of the club(s) concerned and the applicable quota per confederation and/or member association.”
If Fifa were to block clubs from the US and Mexico from taking León’s 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.
In a statement to the Guardian, Fifa said LAFC was selected for the playoff because of its status as runner-up to León in the 2023 Concacaf Champions Cup. Club América, meanwhile, was selected due to being “the top-ranked team in the Fifa Club World Cup confederation ranking through which qualification is also determined,” the spokesperson said.
León players and staff have spoken out against Fifa’s decision to expel them from the competition, with captain Andrés Guardado taking an indirect swipe at Alajuelense in the process.
“The teams raising their hands for the right to compete in our place should be ashamed of themselves,” Guardado said, according to ESPN. “It is a brutal injustice.”
