More of Messi

Alaa Abdel-Ghani , Tuesday 10 Dec 2024

Egypt’s Ahly have faced the Argentine superstar twice before. Next year they will meet him again as he leads his team Inter Miami in the opening game of the Club World Cup in Florida

Ahly of Egypt have the distinction of playing in the opening game of next year’s Club World Cup against Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami team in the US.

The two teams are part of Group A that will also feature Palmeiras of Brazil and Porto of Portugal.

The three group-stage games will be played in Florida, including opening the tournament at the Hard Rock Stadium on 14 June.

The tournament will be held in the US from 14 June to 13 July, using 12 stadiums in 11 cities. The final will be at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the same stadium that will play host to the 2026 World Cup final.

In fact, the Club World Cup will serve mainly as a dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup which will be jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada.

Among the powerhouse clubs in next year’s tournament: Defending champion Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan. There’s also the four highest-ranked teams from South America: Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate and Fluminense.

Africa’s entries include Ahly, three times champion of Africa in the last four years, and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa. Saudi Arabia sends Al-Hilal, the 2021 champion of Asia, which won the domestic league last season.

Europe got 12 spots and South America six to lead the field, while Africa, Asia and North America all got four — with Inter Miami essentially a fifth from North America since it has host status. Oceania got one spot.

This new format of the Club World Cup, with 32 teams, is a departure from the previous seven-team structure. Furthermore, the Club World Cup will henceforth be held every four years instead of one. And next year, the tournament will be held in summer when prior it was usually held in December.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has promised hundreds of millions of dollars in prize money, with reported guarantees of $50 million to top European teams.

The draw ceremony was held last Thursday across two separate Miami locations and lasted more than 90 minutes during which the new Club World Cup trophy was revealed. The new gold trophy was fashioned by Tiffany and has Infantino’s name engraved on it twice, plus his signature.

There was also a video message from incoming US President Donald Trump whose daughter Ivanka drew the first team.

Clubs were chosen according to accrued points over the past four seasons, based on their performances in their continental club competitions.

But one club choice stirred much controversy: the hosts themselves, Inter Miami, who will contest the tournament’s curtain-raiser.

Messi’s side were winners of the regular-season, taking Major League Soccer’s Supporters’ Shield, but they were beaten in the MLS play-offs, meaning they are not this season’s champions. That distinction went to the LA Galaxy who won the MLS Cup title on Saturday after they beat New York Red Bulls 2-1.

FIFA did not even wait for the MLS Cup title game before determining that Inter Miami, with the double star power of Messi and co-owner David Beckham, should appear in a tournament as big as the Club World Cup and one being held in the US.

The tournament, since its inception in 2005, has always had a place for the champion of the host nation (in this case the North American champion Seattle Sounders) but for next year it has come up with another, new slot, the “representative” of the host nation, seemingly just to allow Inter Miami a way in.

There was also another divisive issue: that of the players playing too much. FIFA is facing legal action from player unions and leagues about the scheduling of the event, which begins two weeks after the Champions League final at the end of the 2024-25 European calendar and ends five weeks before the first Premier League match of the 2025-2026 season.

But football’s world governing body believes the dates allow sufficient rest time before the start of the domestic campaigns.

“The FIFA Club World Cup is not responsible for calendar congestion. It is a competitive tournament that takes place once every four years and, as independent studies have verified, FIFA is only responsible for a small percentage of matches per season,” a FIFA spokesperson told BBC Sport.

“FIFA cares about the welfare of the players. Following a decision taken earlier this year, FIFA is formalising the Task Force on Player Welfare, headed by Arsene Wenger, to promote further global dialogue on player welfare issues with key stakeholders across football.”

The competition will consist of eight round-robin groups of four teams each, with the top two from each group advancing to a knockout bracket of 16.

Unlike previous tournaments, this Club World Cup will have no third-place play-off. That might be bad news for Ahly who have never won the tournament or reached the final but have finished four times in third place.

Ahly have met Messi twice before, both times when he was with Barcelona. Barcelona won 4-0 in 2007 when Ahly were commemorating their 100th anniversary. Two years later, Barcelona defeated Ahly 4-1 in another friendly.

This time, Ahly will face the Argentine superstar after he captained his country to the 2022 World Cup victory over France and after being named just last week as Major League Soccer’s Most Valuable Player.

Messi helped Inter Miami to a record regular season points tally of 74, and at age 37, had a league-leading 36-goal contribution, scoring 20 goals and creating 16 assists.

The award came despite injuries limiting Messi to just 19 regular season and two play-off appearances for Miami this year.

Along with Messi, Inter Miami feature Uruguay striker Luis Suarez and Spanish duo Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, all former teammates of Messi.

Ahly have faced Palmeiras before in the Club World Cup. The Egyptians secured a 3-2 victory after a shootout in the match for the bronze medal in 2020 but suffered a 2-0 defeat in the semi-finals in 2022 against the Brazilian side. There have been no head-to-head encounters between Porto and Ahly.

Should Ahly advance from Group A by coming in first or second, they will face one of the two qualifying teams from Group B, which features Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Brazilian club Botafogo, and US side the Sounders.

Ahly have the second highest number of appearances at the Club World Cup, just behind New Zealand’s Auckland City, who hold the record with 10.