Club León has lost its appeal against FIFA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and will not play in the Club World Cup next month in the United States. As a result, América, another Mexican team, and Los Angeles FC of MLS will compete in a playoff to fill the vacancy.
TAS stated that its judges rejected León’s attempt to overturn its exclusion by FIFA from the 32-team tournament for belonging to the same ownership group as Pachuca, another participant in the Club World Cup.
“The panel examined the evidence, including the Club León trust established by the club owners, and concluded that this trust was insufficient to comply with the regulations,” TAS said in a statement.
The TAS ruling, one day after the appeal hearing, enables FIFA to organize the playoff match to complete the roster of 32 teams for the tournament that begins on June 14. FIFA has not announced a date and venue for the playoff match, which will guarantee the winner nearly $10 million from the prize fund of the Club World Cup’s $1 billion purse.
FIFA’s plan to replace León
América vs. LAFC was always FIFA’s plan to replace Club León in the next Club World Cup, once the TAS decision regarding the participation or not of La Fiera in the international tournament was known.
This was acknowledged by the president of the highest body in world soccer himself, after a press conference two weeks ago at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, one of the venues that will host the competition that will start on June 15.
“If the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirms the decision of the FIFA Appeal Committee, it is possibly to play a match, a playoff, between the team that lost the Champions final with León, which is LAFC, and the next team in the ranking, which is América,” Infantino said.
see also
CAS confirms León will not participate in the Club World Cup: FIFA’s decision on the replacement
FIFA’s official statement
FIFA has received positively the decision adopted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) to reject the appeals of CF Pachuca, Club León and Asociación Liga Deportiva Alajuelense in relation to the FIFA Club World Cup 2025″.
“Under the applicable regulations, and in order to determine the team that will replace Club León in the competition, FIFA has decided to organize a single-leg play-off between Los Angeles Football Club (runner-up of the Concacaf Champions League in 2023, behind Club León) and Club América (the club best placed in the confederation ranking for the FIFA Club World Cup at the end of the 2024 edition of the Concacaf Champions Cup, that is, the last season that is taken into account for the ranking of clubs in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025,” the note concludes, detailing the reasons that led them to select this pair of North American institutions.
How will the LAFC vs. América playoff work?
LAFC vs. América will play a single-leg playoff, which will define the team that will occupy Club León’s place in the 2025 Club World Cup. Therefore, the winner will access group D, along with Flamengo (Brazil), Chelsea (England), and Espérance Sportive (Tunisia).
