The Union’s dreams of playing in next year’s Club World Cup are all but over

The Union’s dreams of playing in next year’s FIFA Club World Cup were all but dashed late Wednesday night when the Columbus Crew knocked Mexico’s Monterrey out of the Concacaf Champions Cup in the semifinals.

Monterrey had already earned a Club World Cup berth by winning the Concacaf title in 2021. If Los Rayados had won this tournament, the World Cup berth would have gone to the next eligible team in FIFA’s ranking of the continent’s clubs. That team was the Union.

Columbus won the first game of the series 2-1 at home last week, then delivered a stunning 3-1 rout in Mexico this week. Monterrey scored Wednesday’s first goal to tie the aggregate at 2-2, then the Crew scored all three of theirs to run away with the series.

The Crew will play Mexico’s Pachuca, the team that topped the Union in this year’s round of 16, in a one-game final on June 2 at Pachuca.

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There will be one more Club World Cup berth given to an American team, because the host country gets one separate from Concacaf’s allotment of four.

Traditionally, that slot has gone to the most recent champion of that country’s domestic league. But that was in the tournament’s old format, when just seven teams were included in a staggered knockout bracket.

Next year, the event will expand to 32 teams, with a group stage format like the World Cup for national teams. There will be a host country slot, but FIFA hasn’t said yet how it will be awarded.

“Host country slot allocation details will be communicated in due course,” a statement on the governing body’s website says.

If FIFA decides to give the slot to this year’s MLS Cup champion, the Union could claim it by winning the title. But there’s a widespread belief that the slot will go to Inter Miami, in order to build interest in the event by having Lionel Messi in it. (And the odds of the Union winning MLS Cup seem slim.)

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That belief grew last month when the New York Times reported that FIFA and Apple are “close to an agreement” for the tech giant to buy the tournament’s worldwide broadcast rights. Apple also has Major League Soccer’s global rights, and has commercial deals with Messi individually.

Those deals have led to the company carrying not just Messi’s games, but two documentary series about him: one on his winning the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, and one on his first season in MLS last year. Messi also gets a cut of sales of Apple’s MLS streaming package.

If FIFA feels a need to give Inter’s inclusion some legitimacy — and to be clear, there’s no actual need — it could put the Club World Cup final at the Miami Dolphins’ NFL stadium. It will be a venue for the 2026 World Cup, and regularly hosts big soccer games.

Venues for the Club World Cup haven’t been picked yet, and there have been few hints about which cities are even in the running.

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