New contender emerges to replace León in the FIFA Club World Cup, surprising everyone

Months before the Club World Cup begins, FIFA has made a controversial ruling: Mexican team Club León is out. Their shared ownership with Pachuca violates FIFA regulations prohibiting multi-club ownership groups in their competitions. On March 21, FIFA released a statement that announced Club León would be removed from the tournament but did not name a replacement.

While some might find Philadelphia Union’s participation unlikely, the club is the fourth-highest-ranked club in CONCACAF, according to FIFA. Union beat reporter José Nuñez wrote about the possibility for Carnell’s side to make the competition in November. The Union are ranked higher than both the Seattle Sounders and Inter Miami, who are ranked 9th and 21st respectively on FIFA’s list.

Club World Cup spots go first to continental champions from the past four years. The remaining places go to the highest-ranked clubs in each confederation. Think about the following European clubs who did not win the Champions League but earned a spot in the competition due to this rule: Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, PSG etc.

By using FIFA’s own rules, the highest-ranked team that has not already qualified for the Club World Cup would gain entry to the tournament. The highest-ranked team in the CONCACAF ranking not qualified for the tournament is Club América. Instead of giving the Mexican team a chance in the tournament, FIFA have decided to ignore their own rules for qualification.

A play-off between LAFC and Club América?

The Guardian has reported that FIFA is considering a play-off between two teams to determine the last entrant in the competition. They also reported that the “general secretariat” decides who would replace a team that is disqualified from the Club World Cup. Typically, the teams that qualify in our region would do so by winning the CONCACAF Champions Cup or by ranking as the highest team to not win the tournament. Thus, the next-highest team by rankings would be Club América of Mexico— but FIFA has desires to include another MLS team.

No. Sadly for Philadelphia fans, it seems as though the club has been overlooked by FIFA for another MLS team: LAFC. According to The Guardian, FIFA is considering a play-off between LAFC and Club América to determine the last possible spot in this summer’s Club World Cup. While these are the teams being reported, a case can be made for Philadelphia to take their place.

“…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,’…” – Alexander Abnos, The Guardian

According to ESPN, no official decision will be made until Club León makes their final appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on April 23. For context, LAFC ranks 10th on FIFA’s list of CONCACAF clubs.