Sounders first MLS team to make Club World Cup
The Seattle Sounders were jubilant on Wednesday night as they defeated Pumas to become the first MLS team to win the CONCACAF Champions League.
The prize, aside from a shiny new trophy and the title of the region’s best club team, was a coveted place at the FIFA Club World Cup, a tournament bringing together regional champions from all over the globe to determine who can call themselves the world’s best.
But this year things are a bit different.
The Sounders know they’ll be at the next Club World Cup, they just don’t know where or when it will be, or who else will be there.
The uncertainty stems from the COVID-19 pandemic.
China was set to host the event in 2021, which would have been the first to feature 24 teams instead of the usual seven.
But the tournament was moved to Abu Dhabi and pushed back to February 2022, and also continued in its seven-team format.
FIFA has been mum on any updates to the Club World Cup, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino saying in late 2020 that a 24-team tournament is “still on the agenda, we just haven’t decided when it will take place.”
Having the Club World Cup in 2022 is likely to be a non-starter. The tournament has typically been held near the end of the year, but the World Cup taking place in November and December of this year means scheduling another global event will be next to impossible.
Sounders general manager Garth Lagerwey had some fuzzy details on the next tournament, telling reporters after Wednesday’s match: “We don’t have the format yet; we don’t have the location. We’re told probably February-ish. Probably Middle East maybe.”
Regardless of when the tournament is, or where it is, or whether there will be seven teams, 24, or somewhere in between, Lagerwey was ecstatic that his group will be there.
“We’re going to play Real Madrid or Liverpool, man,” Lagerwey said with a smile. “In a real game! Not for giggles against their reserves, we’re going to play them for a trophy!
“This is what you do it for, right? It’s amazing.”