Hernández: 'We know what's at stake': LAFC braces for shot at Club World Cup

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2 days ago

Forward Denis Bouanga and LAFC need to beat Club America on Saturday at Banc of California Stadium to earn a spot in the Club World Cup this summer, which is worth at $9.55 million qualifying prize. (Shaun Clark / Getty Images)
LAFC has won an MLS Cup and played in two CONCACAF Champions League finals.
None of those games were worth as much as the team's upcoming match.
Literally.
Next up for LAFC is the $10-Million Game, in which it will play Mexico's Club América on Saturday at Banc of California to determine the final entrant in the Club World Cup. The 32-team tournament, which will be staged across the United States from mid-June to mid-July, has a record-breaking billion-dollar prize pool.
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By simply qualifying for the event and playing in three group-stage matches, LAFC would be entitled to a participation fee of $9.55 million.
That might not be considered a significant prize for the Dodgers or Lakers, but it's a major bounty for LAFC, which had a payroll of about $20 million last season.
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'We know what's at stake,' LAFC co-president John Thorrington said.
Imagine that, a Major League Soccer team playing a game with real consequences. The stakes are unusually high for a team in a league in which 18 of 30 teams reach the postseason and the threat of relegation is non-existent.
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Real money will be on the line.
That's money that could go toward covering the transfer fee or salary of the team's next signature player, as one of LAFC's three designated-player slots could open this summer.
Thorrington preferred to emphasize the symbolic importance of LAFC reaching the Club World Cup, how it would move the team one step closer to its long-stated ambition of becoming a global brand.
'The conversation here is not dominated by the financial benefit here, but rather the competitive opportunity that this game and the tournament present,' Thorrington said.
If LAFC advances to the Club World Cup, its opening game will be against Chelsea of the English Premier League. The other group-stage games would be against ES Tunis of Tunisia and Flamengo of Brazil.
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'I think it would be something special,' defender Eddie Segura said in Spanish.
The tournament could also be a wake-up call for MLS, which has two other teams in the competition in Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders. The league has a salary cap, as well as paint-by-numbers roster compliance rules that permit minimal flexibility on how its teams can spend money. Soccer is a sport in which teams are only as good as their weakest links, but the regulations force clubs to construct top-heavy rosters.
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As it was, the financial restrictions were already handicapping MLS teams in its competitions against its Mexican counterparts, with LAFC relying on its smarts instead of the economic might of its deep-pocketed owners to reach two Champions League finals. Now, MLS teams will be taking on opponents with virtually unlimited budgets. Just two years ago, Chelsea spent more than a billion dollars buying players in a single transfer window.
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The Club World Cup's cash prizes offer MLS a powerful incentive to loosen its rules. Group-stage wins are worth $2 million each. Teams will be paid $7.5 million for reaching the round of 16. The champion will take home more than $100 million.
The payouts could also force MLS to make changes to its collective bargaining agreement, which was signed when the Club World Cup was still a seven-team tournament. Under the current CBA, LAFC's players would divide $1 million, with the remainder of the $9.55 million participation fee staying with the club.
Segura said the players are engaged in talks over their compensation.
'The club would benefit a lot, but I hope that we as players, as the ones who are there giving everything, will also have a chance to benefit,' Segura said.
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The upcoming game has also offered LAFC a firsthand view of FIFA's operations.
LAFC's and Club América's opportunity came at the expense of León, which was removed from the Club World Cup field because it was owned by the same group that owned another Mexican team in the tournament, Pachuca.
León qualified for the tournament by defeating LAFC in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League final. Rather than award León's place to LAFC, FIFA basically invented a play-in game out of thin air, calling on LAFC to take on Club América, which was the region's highest-ranked team that wasn't already in the tournament.
LAFC was at least granted a chance. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup last season, but Inter Miami received the place reserved for the host nation before the MLS playoffs even started. The purported reason was that Inter Miami had the league's best regular-season record. However, the widespread suspicion was that FIFA wanted Lionel Messi in the tournament.
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After all, money is what is driving this tournament and money is what is driving the sport.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.