The Club World Cup kicks off this Saturday with a match between Inter Miami of the United States, whose star player is Lionel Messi, and Al Ahly of Egypt, one of the most dominant teams in Africa.
The Group A match, scheduled for 9 p.m., will be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami and refereed by Iranian referee Alireza Faghani. The match will also be broadcast on Telefe, Disney+, and DSports.
Inter Miami, coached by Argentine Javier Mascherano, is coming into the tournament at a difficult time, having had a poor season in Major League Soccer in the United States. Despite having world-class players like Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and Luis Suárez, among others, they are third in the Eastern Conference with 29 points.
The team, whose main shareholder is former English footballer David Beckham, qualified for the Club World Cup by winning the 2024 Supporters’ Shield, a trophy awarded to the team with the most points during the MLS regular season.
Al Ahly, meanwhile, has Spaniard José Riveiro as its head coach, who took over in recent weeks to face this competition.
The Egyptian team qualified for the Club World Cup by winning the African Champions League in 2021, 2023, and 2024, which also allowed them to extend their dominance on that continent.
Regarding Egyptian football, they are fresh off winning their third consecutive domestic league title, which was the forty-fifth in their history.
While both teams have their reasons for dreaming of advancing to the round of 16, they are not the main contenders in Group A, as they also have Porto of Portugal and Palmeiras of Brazil, two teams that in the qualifying rounds should have little difficulty defeating them.
This opening match comes amid FIFA’s fears about low ticket demand, which led them to lower ticket prices to as little as $20.
