Inter Miami is likely to participate in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup as a top team

The Times journalist Martin Ziegler reports that FIFA is expected to designate Messi's team, Inter Miami, as a top seed in the upcoming 2025 Club World Cup draw, despite not being the champions of this season’s MLS. As the host team, Inter Miami is likely to be allocated the A1 position in the draw. In past FIFA tournaments, such as the men’s and women’s World Cups, the host nation is often seeded and given the honor of opening the tournament.

The report states that while FIFA has confirmed Inter Miami will play in the opening match, it has yet to announce how the top eight seeds among the 32 participating teams will be determined. David Beckham’s Inter Miami was recently eliminated from the MLS playoffs by Atlanta United, meaning that the MLS champion will not be the team representing the host nation’s league in the tournament.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced three weeks ago that Inter Miami would be awarded the host country’s spot following their Supporters’ Shield victory. However, the MLS champion will only be decided in the playoff finals in December. Prior to this unexpected announcement by Infantino, FIFA had not revealed the criteria for host nation qualification.

It is believed that FIFA wants to ensure Messi’s involvement in the Club World Cup to attract sponsors and broadcast partners, especially as no broadcaster has yet been confirmed for the tournament. As such, they did not want to risk Inter Miami missing out on qualification through the MLS championship.

Club World Cup regulations state that the seeding will be decided by the FIFA Council or relevant committees, with teams assigned into groups “as much as possible according to sporting and geographical factors” through seeding and an open draw. While FIFA did not disclose why the qualification criteria for MLS teams were previously unannounced, they stated that the regulations were unanimously approved by the FIFA Council last month. However, before Infantino’s public announcement, FIFA Council members were reportedly unaware that the host nation’s slot would be given to Inter Miami.