On Friday evening at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood (California), Mexico take on the Dominican Republic in the opening fixture of the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Nearly 24 hours later in Florida, Inter Miami face Al Ahly in the opening game of the expanded 32 team FIFA Club World Cup with the tournament being staged in the United States.

For approximately one month, the U.S. will become the global soccer epicentre with both competitions running simultaneously, albeit the bulk of Gold Cup games being played on the West Coast with the majority of the CWC action reserved for the East Coast.

But what happens when a player is eligible to participate in both competitions? The answer is a straightforward one with the FIFA tournament eclipsing the Gold Cup.

CWC Infantino pet project

Since the inception of this expanded 32 team Club World Cup, the tournament has become a major priority for FIFA head Gianni Infantino. Whilst the tournament will serve as an invaluable acid test for FIFA ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Infantino has taken the project under his wing and ensured that vast sums of prize money are available to ensure there is a lucrative incentive for participating teams with a total prize pot of $1 billion at play.

The FIFA chief even has his signature engraved on the trophy not once but twice and he also appears in the Panini CWC sticker book such is his personal level of implication with the tournament.

Club vs country

There are a handful of players, particularly from the USMNT and Mexico, who could, in theory play in both competitions and on this occasion, the general rule of country edging out club is not in play.

Weston McKennie and Gio Reyna will be pulling on their club jerseys (Juventus and Dortmund) and not the red, white and blue of the U.S.

A similar situations befalls the likes of Monterrey’s Gerardo Arteaga and Ricardo Chavez who would nominally be in the Mexico squad for the Gold Cup as would Pachuca’s Jorge Berlanga.

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