FIFA Council confirms key details for FIFA Club World Cup 2025™
FIFA · 2023-12-17
The final slot is allocated to a club from the host country, with further details being provided in due course.
Inter Miami CF
Also known as: Inter Miami
Messi’s MLS club from 2023. Earned the 2024 Supporters’ Shield on the field; FIFA separately selected it as host representative for the 2025 Club World Cup — two distinct propositions, never merged (§26.1).
Timeline appearances
- 2023-07-21Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami wins the 2023 Leagues Cup, the first expanded all-club edition
- 2023-08-02Inter Miami & MLSOrlando City head coach criticizes officiating after Round-of-32 loss to Inter Miami
- 2023-09-27Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami loses 2023 U.S. Open Cup final without Messi and misses the 2023 MLS playoffs
- 2024Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami eliminated from 2024 Leagues Cup by Columbus Crew
- 2024-02-04Inter Miami & MLSMessi does not play in Inter Miami's Hong Kong friendly; organizer withdraws government-funding application and issues refunds
- 2024-04-03Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami eliminated by Monterrey in Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal; Concacaf fines Inter Miami over post-match incident
- 2024-10Club World Cup host berthFIFA Club World Cup 2025 host-slot regulation — citation corrected to official FIFA document
- 2024-10-02Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami clinches 2024 Supporters' Shield on October 2 and sets 74-point regular-season record on October 19
- 2024-10-25Inter Miami & MLSNo. 1 seed Inter Miami eliminated by No. 9 Atlanta United in Round One best-of-three
- 2025-04-24Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami reaches first Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal, eliminated by Vancouver Whitecaps
- 2025-05-18Inter Miami & MLSMessi criticizes MLS officiating after home loss to Orlando City
- 2025-07Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami reaches 2025 Leagues Cup final; loses to Seattle Sounders 3-0
- 2025-08-27Inter Miami & MLSOrlando City files an official complaint over officiating in the 2025 Leagues Cup semifinal
- 2025-12-06Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami wins 2025 MLS Cup; Messi named MLS Cup MVP and 2025 Landon Donovan MLS MVP
- 2026-03-03Inter Miami & MLSInter Miami's 2026 season to date — new stadium, naming rights, Messi's 900th goal, and early continental elimination
Relationships
MLS → Inter Miami CF (member club) — Major League Soccer (MLS)
FIFA selected Inter Miami as 2025 Club World Cup host representative — FIFA
Sources
- Independent sources:
- 0
- Total references:
- 3
Regulations for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ (October 2024)
FIFA · 2024-10-03
Host (club TBC) | 1 | One club (access for the club occupying this slot will be determined by FIFA at a later stage).
Phase 7 recorded this PDF as INACCESSIBLE (ROBOTS_DISALLOWED). Phase 8 Annex B C-04/C-05 supersedes that: the official PDF was retrieved and quoted, and Article 49 records approval by the FIFA Council on 3 October 2024 with immediate effect. The regulations do not name the Supporters' Shield as the host-slot criterion.
Inter Miami CF forward Lionel Messi named 2025 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player for second consecutive season
Major League Soccer · 2025-12-09
Lionel Messi has been named the 2025 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player, becoming the first player in league history to win the award in consecutive seasons.
Live URL dead as of the 2026-07-20 link check (404). NO archive copy is available: an Internet Archive availability query and a CDX index query for this URL both return zero captures, so no archiveUrl is recorded rather than a substitute or reconstructed link. The accessStatus and retrievedDate are unchanged: the page WAS retrieved on 2026-07-17 (§35.2), and the exactExcerpt above is what was captured from it then. Until a capture or a replacement MLS publication is located, the excerpt is held on this record alone and is not independently confirmed.
Explicit limitations
- Full VAR-review log for each 2023 match not exhaustively retrieved this session.
- Whether Leagues Cup opened any formal review of the 2023 R32 officiating — NOT FOUND.
- Exact round/date not independently re-verified from an official Leagues Cup URL this session.
- Exact medical records NOT public.
- Exact fine amount NOT disclosed; the specific Concacaf Disciplinary Code article NOT retrieved this session.
- Phase 7 recorded the verbatim Art. 11.1/11.4 host-row wording as INACCESSIBLE (PDF blocks automated retrieval) and the "2024-10-03" Council date as unconfirmed. Phase 8 SUPERSEDES both: Annex B C-04 and C-05 record that the official PDF was retrieved, that Article 49 states the regulations "were approved by the FIFA Council on 3 October 2024 and came into force immediately," and that Article 11.4 reads "Host (club TBC) | 1 | One club (access for the club occupying this slot will be determined by FIFA at a later stage)."
- Phase 8 §23: no retrieved FIFA primary document dated before 2 October 2024 states the berth would go to the Supporters' Shield winner; no published FIFA Council vote, minute or circular naming Inter Miami was retrieved — an evidence gap, not proof that no such internal act existed.
- MLS's historical secondary-assist methodology not fully verified; ESPN/Opta independently cite 16 assists, so the figure appears to be primary assists.
- EDITORIAL NOTE: Inter Miami EARNED the Supporters' Shield on the field. FIFA SEPARATELY SELECTED Inter Miami as host representative (see MIA-008 / the Club World Cup host-berth case file). These are two distinct propositions and are not to be merged into a causal claim; commercial motivation is a reasonable inference, not a documented official rationale.
- Whether MLS conducted a non-public internal review — NOT FOUND (distinct from "no violation found").
- Exact match-by-match 2025 bracket (Atlas/Necaxa/Pumas/Tigres/Orlando) not each independently re-verified via official pages this session.
- Outcome of the complaint — NOT FOUND.
- Exact live MLS standings on 2026-07-17 not pinned to an official table (a mid-May 2026 snapshot had Miami ~2nd in the East, Nashville leading); any reported dollar valuation of the Nubank deal is unofficial.
- A SEPARATE 2026 referee-area incident (Messi reportedly cleared, the door "did not lead to the officials' dressing room") is distinct from MIA-032; teammate Ian Fray was reportedly fined for 2026 referee criticism. These 2026 discipline items are DEVELOPING and not fully verified against official MLS pages this session.