As soon as it became clear that FIFA had the ability to award one final Club World Cup spot to the host nation, there was always likely to be just one team considered.
On Saturday, FIFA made it official: Inter Miami will be at the 2025 Club World Cup.
The Herons will be one of two MLS teams at the expanded tournament, which will be held in the United States next summer.
There were four spots available for Concacaf teams to actually qualify for the 32-team tournament, with one from MLS (Seattle Sounders) and three from Liga MX (Monterrey, León, Pachuca) qualifying by virtue of winning the Concacaf Champions League between 2021 and 2024.
That left one “host nation” spot remaining for FIFA to award as it pleased. In a tournament that has gone over like a lead ballon with players and has left FIFA still scrambling for a broadcast partner, having the ability to put Lionel Messi in the competition was always going to prove too tempting.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino was at Chase Stadium on Saturday as Miami beat New England to clinch the all-time MLS record for points in a regular season.
In addition to the spot in the Club World Cup, Infantino also confirmed Inter Miami would host the tournament opener.
“First, you were the best team of the season in America. Second, based on this outstanding performance of this year, you deserve to be and will be in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. And the third, as the host team in FIFA Club World Cup 2025, you have the honor of playing the opening game in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium,” Infantino said during the postgame celebration.
It would be difficult to argue that Inter Miami doesn’t deserve to be at the Club World Cup. The Herons are statistically the best team in MLS history, and feature many of the league’s most marketable stars.
But even though Miami won the Supporters’ Shield this year, Infantino mentioning that as justification feels hollow given the Shield was only cited after the Herons met that particular criteria.
In other words, if Miami had won the 2023 MLS Cup and the Columbus Crew won the 2024 Supporters’ Shield, instead of the other way around, Infantino would probably be mentioning a different trophy while awarding Miami its spot in the Club World Cup.
