As the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 is set to begin on Saturday, Major League Soccer (MLS) finds itself embroiled in a dispute with its players over compensation from the tournament.
Three MLS clubs – Inter Miami, Seattle Sounders, and Los Angeles FC – are among the 32 teams participating in the event, which runs from June 14 to July 13 across 11 venues in the United States. The players from these clubs, represented by the MLS Players Association (MLSPA), are protesting the amount of compensation offered by the league for their participation in the prestigious tournament.
What is behind the dispute?
The players are demanding a larger share of the tournament’s prize money, in addition to the participation fees that they are set to receive. The MLS Players Association (MLSPA) has accused the MLS of failing to engage in meaningful negotiations, while the league has claimed it has already proposed an “enhanced structure” for player compensation.
The situation came to light on June 1 when players from Seattle Sounders FC wore T-shirts reading “Club World Cup Ca$h Grab” during their warm-up session before a match against Minnesota United FC. Several other players from the participating MLS clubs also posted on social media with the hashtag #FairShareNow, which quickly gained traction among fans and sparked widespread online discussion.
Prize money breakdown
Each MLS team participating in the Club World Cup will receive a guaranteed participation fee of $9.55 million. Additionally, clubs can earn further prize money based on their performance in the tournament. Each win or draw will bring in additional funds, and further increases in prize money will come if the club advances to later stages of the competition. For instance, LAFC, which qualified for the tournament after defeating Club America in a playoff game, earned an additional $250,000 in prize money.
How much will players receive?
Under the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the MLS and MLSPA, players are entitled to 50 percent of the prize money earned in undefined tournaments like the Club World Cup. However, the MLS insists it has proposed a more generous compensation plan for the tournament, which includes:
- A guaranteed $1 million per team for qualifying.
- 20 percent of all prize money earned from the group stage onward will be allocated to the players.
- If an MLS club wins the tournament, its players could collectively receive over $24 million in performance bonuses.
Players’ demand a better deal
Despite the MLS’s revised proposal, the players are pushing for a better deal. The MLSPA has criticised the MLS offer, claiming that it lacks sufficient participation bonuses for players and provides “below-standard” back-end compensation. The union also accused the league of trying to extract unrelated concessions from the CBA.
At the heart of the dispute is the provision in the current CBA that caps the total amount of prize money players can receive at $1 million. The MLSPA believes that players deserve a significantly larger share of the tournament’s earnings, pointing to the disparity between their compensation and international standards for player payouts.
MLS’s Proposal
The MLSPA has expressed deep dissatisfaction with the MLS’s proposal. A statement released by the union on Sunday read, “The timing, substance, and retaliatory nature of the proposal sends a clear message: MLS does not respect or value players’ efforts with regard to this tournament.” The MLSPA further criticised the offer, calling the 20 percent share of prize money “below international standard,” and stated that the proposal failed to reflect the players’ contributions to the league’s success on the global stage.