By Mitch Phillips
LONDON (Reuters) – FIFA’s controversial decision to award Inter Miami a backdoor route into the Club World Cup has proved prescient after Lionel Messi’s team were stunned by Atlanta United in the MLS playoffs.
Miami finished the season as runaway leaders of the Eastern Conference, but on Saturday were shocked 3-2 at home by Atlanta, who had scraped in via a ninth-placed finish 34 points adrift, in the deciding third playoff game after each team had claimed a 2-1 win.
Messi scored for Miami but Bartosz Slisz headed the winner in the 76th minute to complete the huge upset.
However, the league’s glamour team will still take a slot in the expanded 32-team Club World Cup next year after FIFA last month awarded them the penultimate spot on the back of them winning the “Supporters’ Shield” for finishing top of the MLS standings after the regular season.
They will also host the opening game of the June 15-July 13 tournament being held across the United States.
“You have shown that in the United States, you are consistently the best club on the field of play,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said at the time.
“Therefore, I am proud to announce that as one of the best clubs in the world, you are deserved participants in the new FIFA Club World Cup as the host club representing the United States.”
Those words sounded somewhat hollow, and underlined the opaque nature of the qualification criteria for the tournament, after Miami’s shock defeat in the first full round of the playoffs.
FIFA, of course, were desperate to have Messi, the world’s most famous player, at their new tournament, which has yet to nail down a TV rights deal.
The Argentine joined Miami halfway through last season, helping them to a minor trophy, but not to the playoffs. This season, despite his many injury absences, they finished the regular season with a record points tally.
However, despite going out at the first knockout hurdle, Miami will join 2022 CONCACAF Champions League winners Seattle Sounders as MLS representatives at the Club World Cup.
The final slot will be awarded to the winner of Nov. 30 CONMEBOL Libertadores final in Buenos Aires.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Christian Radnedge)
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