FIFA's inclusion of Lionel Messi's Inter Miami in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup has now been called into question.
Inter Miami were knocked out of the Major League Soccer Cup on Sunday, 10 November, by Atlanta United after three play-off games.
This meant that the Florida-based side will not be the overall 2024 club champions in the United States despite a promising campaign that saw them finish first in the regular season of the MLS Eastern Conference for the first time in their history.
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Despite missing out on the most important title in US club football, Inter Miami had already been handed a spot at next year's Club World Cup after winning the MLS Supporters' Shield last month.
Following their triumph, FIFA announced that the David Beckham co-owned side have qualified as the 31st club in the new 32-team format of the tournament and that they will be the host representative club.
However, following Inter Miami's recent failure in the MLS Cup, former US men's footballer Alexi Lalas has raised questions over the merits of the club's qualification, suggesting that FIFA may have used Messi as a draw card for the Club World Cup next year.
"I think that the team that wins MLS Cup is the champion. MLS Cup trumps the Supporters' Shield, and I think that if you are picking a team to represent Major League Soccer in next summer's Club World Cup, it should be the champion of your league," Lalas said on his podcast, according to Essentially Sports.
Lalas' co-host David Moose remarked that the decision to invite the winner of the Supporters' Shield instead of the MLS Cup should have been communicated at the start of the season by the organisers.
"If the Supporters' Shield was this invitation, then everybody should know about that," Moose stressed.
Lalas added: "I understand what they're doing, but they should have been upfront about it… everyone needs to know what's at stake.
"If you tell me that you won the MLS Cup, that's much more important to me."
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By Lukhanyo Mtuta
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