'A grave injustice' - James Rodriguez rails against Club Leon's expulsion from Club World Cup as ex-Real Madrid star claims FIFA have 'stained football' by removing them from competition

FIFA announced that Leon were not eligible to play in this summer's Club World Cup as they had "failed to meet the criteria on multi-club ownership" defined under the competition's regulations. The Mexican side are owned by Grupo Pachuca, which also controls fellow Liga MX team CF Pachuca - who have also qualified for the event. As a result, they were kicked out for owning two teams, as that is not allowed. Now, Leon star Rodriguez has criticised the governing body, saying they have "stained football".

He said, via The Athletic: “I think it’s a grave injustice. We all believe that. We won on the pitch. The club and the players are hurt by this. Thinking about this, if we’re out, it’s not fair. The team that would replace us would be stained, football would be stained. So many fans have planned to travel to the tournament, how do you tell them that they can’t go? I have a lot of questions about all this. It’s odd. I think FIFA has to get their things together. Football is stained by this.”

Leon qualified for the tournament by winning the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2023 but since then, the Club World Cup has been revamped, and new criteria are in place. The importance of competing in this tournament has only grown as the overall prize fund is £775 million ($1bn), with all 32 teams getting a piece of that pie. So Leon seem set to miss out on a big financial boost, too. They were poised to play Chelsea in the group stages, but that will no longer happen.

Leon are set to present their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on April 23 to try to get back into the Club World Cup.