Why can Los Angeles FC, which has only been in the team for seven years, win the last place in the Club World Cup?

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We released an overview of the 32 participating teams in the Club World Cup last December, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in May this year that Leon and Pachuca of the Mexican Super League belonged to Grupo Pachuca, and Leon failed to prove his business independence, so Leon's qualification for the 2025 Club World Cup was cancelled.

Pachuca Group President is Jesús Martínez Patiño, whose younger brother Armando Martínez Patiño is the chairman of the club, and his son Jesús Martínez Murguia is the chairman of the club Leon.

It is worth noting that Leon and Pachuca are the champions of the 2023 and 2024 Central and North American championships respectively, and Leon ranked second in four years, better than Pachuca (seventh), but the one who was eventually disqualified was Leon, who had higher points and won the championship earlier. Pachuca Group said that this was not a decision they made and did not understand why they operated (it may be said intentionally, and they should be believed with caution), and hoped that FIFA would explain (no reply yet). FIFA's admission rules for the Club World Cup is that "each association can only have two teams participating, unless there will be more than two teams in this association to win the championship of the top continental club competition (A cap of two clubs per country is applied to the access list with the exception in case more than two clubs from the same country win the confederation’s premier club competition over the four-year period." This has led to Liverpool's points higher than Porto, Atletico Madrid and other teams, because Manchester City and Chelsea have already obtained the Club World Cup qualification through the Champions League championship, making Liverpool unable to participate in the Club World Cup.

According to this rule, after Leon's quota is vacant, Mexico already has Monterrey and Pachuca as the champions of the Central and North American championships and has been eligible for the Club World Cup. Even though America's points ranks third, they cannot qualify for the Club World Cup. Instead, Philadelphia United, which has fourth points, should qualify for the Club World Cup, because among the two American teams that have previously qualified for the Club World Cup, Miami International used the host quota, and only Seattle Gulf people used the Central and North American quota.

However, FIFA will not implement this rule in the Central and North American region, but will ingeniously allow the 2023 runner-up of the Central and North American champions to be defeated by Leon, Los Angeles FC and the Americas, which have the highest points in four years and have not won the championship, to play a single-game final play-off, and the winner will win the last place in the 2025 Club World Cup. The

play-off will be held at the home court of Los Angeles FC, with a capacity of more than 20,000 people, on May 31 (Pacific Time), which has a strong sense of "walking" Los Angeles FC.

Los Angeles FC seized the opportunity and fell 0-1, first tied in the 89th minute, and then in the 10th minute of the second half of the overtime (the 115th minute), Giroud assisted Buanga to defeat America, winning the last place in the 2025 Club World Cup and a guaranteed participation fee of $9.55 million, and finally allowed the United States to have 3 teams participating in the Club World Cup.

Los Angeles FC was founded on October 30, 2014. Because it is a startup team, they did not participate in the official league in the first few years. They did not start participating in the FA League until 2018. It has only been 7 years. Therefore, they are the second shortest team in the FA League in 2025, just earlier than Miami International, which participated in the FA League in 2020.

Los Angeles FC has been ambitious since its establishment. They have introduced well-known players such as Bale, Giroud, Chiellini, Ochoa, and Hugo Lori, and won the Major League Cup equivalent to the championship (MLS Cup, 2022), twice equivalent to the Shield, the Supporters of the regular season champion (Supporters ' Shield, 2019 and 2022), and the United States Open Cup (U.S. Open Cup, 2024). The United States Open Cup is similar to the FA Cup in England and the FA Cup in China, but the difference is large because some professional major league teams only send second teams to participate, or even do not participate.

Los Angeles FC and Los Angeles Galaxy form a city derby. The former's Montreal Bank Stadium is about 21 kilometers away from the latter's Dignity Health Sports Park, which requires cross-city traffic. In addition, the traffic in Los Angeles is relatively congested, so the "Los Angeles Derby" won the joke of "El Tráfico"..

In addition, the home court of Los Angeles FC (BMO Field) is easily confused with the home court of Toronto FC (BMO Field), because they both received the name of Bank of Montreal (BMO). Although the English name is different, the Chinese translation is called Bank of Montreal Stadium.