Major League Soccer has not banned Pride flags from 2025 FIFA Club World Cup

False claims that Major League Soccer (MLS), the top tier of football in the United States, has banned the LGBTQ Pride flag ahead of the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup have been shared widely on social media. 

Many of the posts include a picture of a stadium alongside a separate picture of people in a crowd holding a rainbow flag. They also include the caption: “Pride Flags Permanently Banned By MLS For FIFA Club World Cup 2025, ‘No More Woke Prides’”, and have been liked thousands of times on Facebook. 

Some of the posts circulating include the word ‘satire’ in the caption, but many do not—apparently leading some online to believe it is a genuine policy.

The claims can be traced back to two satire articles online, the first of which appears to have been published on 15 November with the same headline that appears in some of the posts: “Pride Flags Permanently Banned By MLS For FIFA Club World Cup 2025, ‘No More Woke Prides’”.

It was published on the same day by a different website with the headline: “MLS Stadium Issues Permanent Ban on Pride Flags for FIFA Club World Cup 2025.”

But both articles have ‘satire’ tags at the top. And the ‘about’ sections of both websites clarify that they produce satirical content.

A spokesperson for FIFA told Full Fact: “There is no validity to this report. The source is a satirical site which clearly states at the bottom of the story that it is not true.”

An MLS spokesperson told Reuters that the organisation supports inclusive initiatives, including celebrating this year’s Pride month.

Full Fact has also contacted MLS and will update this article if we receive a response.

It’s true that the US is set to host an expanded 32-team Club World Cup next June and July across 12 venues, ahead of World Cup 2026 which will be held across the US, Canada and Mexico. 

However, both sporting events are being organised by FIFA, not MLS—although two MLS teams, including Seattle Sounders FC, are guaranteed to compete and some venues are home grounds for MLS teams. 

Before sharing posts online, it’s important to consider whether what you are seeing is accurate. We have previously fact checked a similar claim that the US state of Texas has declared bringing an LGBTQ pride flag into a school classroom a “crime”—which also originated as satire.