The Seattle Sounders are not sure whether MLS will bolster their ability to spend after their CONCACAF Champions League victory gained them a spot in the next FIFA Club World Cup.
MLS has for years hoped a team would break through and win the Champions League, and after a decade of heartbreak got their wish as the Sounders knocked off Liga MX’s Pumas 5-2 on aggregate last week. That means that Seattle will do something no MLS club has ever had to do: play in the next Club World Cup, potentially setting up a competitive match against a giant club from Europe or South America.
Historically, the league has given Champions League qualifiers an extra pile of allocation money to bolster their squad for the higher-level competition. The Club World Cup is the next step up the ladder, but according to Jeremiah Oshan at Sounder at Heart, the Sounders currently don’t know whether MLS will follow that precedent.
I'm told that it's not yet determined what — if any — allocation windfall the Sounders could receive to better prepare them for the Club World Cup. "It's an unprecedented situation."
— Jeremiah Oshan (@JeremiahOshan) May 11, 2022
The issues are twofold here. MLS has never had a team get into this situation, so they haven’t had to pass any internal rules on the topic before. The adjustments the league has made for its Champions League qualifiers include extra allocation funds, an earlier preseason start date, and a willingness to reschedule league games so its top teams don’t have to prioritize continental play over MLS matches.
Secondly, it’s not even clear when FIFA will hold the Club World Cup, or what the structure will be. Plans to hold the 2021 edition in China included an expanded 24-team field, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced a postponement. FIFA has not announced plans on when the next Club World Cup will be held, much less whether the changed tournament format will be maintained, altered, or scrapped entirely.