Last weekend saw the conclusion of Major League Soccer’s regular season, with a star-studded Inter Miami side, owned by David Beckham and featuring a number of global stars, crowned Western Conference champions.

Unlike what we’re used to in England, where your league position at the end of the season determines your fate, the end of the season in America simply signals the beginning of the post-season, which is where things get serious.

The post-season sees the best teams from around the country compete for the MLS Cup, the winners of which become the nation’s true champions. Incidentally, the winners of the MLS Cup are typically chosen to represent USA in the FIFA Club World Cup - a supposed ‘global Champions League’ designed to bring together the best teams from nations around the world to compete for the ultimate title.

This season, however, FIFA decided to do things differently. Following Inter Miami’s Western Conference victory, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, took to the pitch to announce that Inter Miami were now “one of the best teams in the world” and “deserved participants” in the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup, despite not yet having been crowned MLS Cup champions nor being guaranteed to do so.

There was no precedent to this decision, nor was it announced before the season that the Western Conference Champions would automatically qualify for the Club World Cup, which happens to be hosted in America next year.

The reason behind FIFA’s controversial decision appears to be simple; Inter Miami have Lionel Messi, and other teams do not. The Club World Cup has struggled to take off since its inception back in 2000. Teams are reluctant to take part, fans struggle to watch it, and rights holders are unsure if they want to show it, and that’s a major problem for FIFA. Meanwhile, Messi is one of the biggest stars to ever grace the pitch and would indeed attract more fans to the competition than perhaps ever before, but at what cost?

More than anything, the decision represents a blow to FIFA’s credibility, highlighting their willingness to prioritise commercial interests over the integrity of sport. In sport, you are supposed to be rewarded on merit, not on how marketable your team is, and Infantino’s decision certainly undermines this principle.

FIFA’s job is to be a leading voice of authority on football matters around the world, so when fans sense that their decisions are motivated by financial gain rather than absolute fairness, it leads them to worry about the future of the sport. It also leads to a breakdown in the relationship between fans and the governing body itself, which can have lasting repercussions when it comes to fan engagement in future tournaments.

It’s incredibly important for an organisation of FIFA’s stature to maintain consistency in its decision making, regardless of what is at stake, and their willingness to shoehorn Leonel Messi’s side into the Club World Cup suggests external factors are at play here.

Above all, fans want consistency when it comes to decision making around all of FIFA’s tournaments, regardless of where they are and who is involved. FIFA’s handling of this particular incident highlights the need for transparent decision making moving forward, with an increased emphasis on fairness and equality. Demonstrating this commitment will be vital in restoring trust with fans around the world whilst paving the way to a less turbulent future for the sport globally.