The Court of Arbitration for Sport will announce on Tuesday, April 6, its verdict in the legal dispute of the Mexican team León with FIFA regarding its participation in the Club World Cup to be held in the United States next month.
The CAS held the appeal of León on Monday, which seeks to overturn FIFA's expulsion due to the club being owned by the same ownership group as Pachuca, another Mexican team that qualified for the 32-club tournament starting June 14 after winning the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2023.
FIFA's rules for the Club World Cup, to protect the integrity of the tournament, prohibit more than one team from having the same owners. León and Pachuca qualified for the Club World Cup by winning the 2023 and 2024 editions of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, respectively.
FIFA judges subsequently excluded León in a ruling in March, deciding that the ownership structure of the clubs "clearly indicates centralized decision-making under a single authority, which is inconsistent with the principles of competitive integrity and operational independence of FIFA."
The disputed spot is worth an initial prize of $9.55 million from FIFA, plus a portion of the $1 billion total prize pool, depending on the results in the group stage and the knockout phase.
The Club World Cup includes teams that won a continental championship during a four-season period between 2020 and 2024 or had a high ranking due to consistent results in those competitions.
The governing body of world football, FIFA, is preparing to replace León in the tournament in case the ruling is in their favor; they are already organizing a unique tiebreaker match between Los Angeles FC and Club América from Mexico if CAS rules in their favor.
