No Messi and just eight MLS teams in US Open Cup after deal

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami will not participate in the US Open Cup this season with just eight Major League Soccer clubs competing in the traditional knockout competition, after a compromise deal between the league and the US Soccer Federation

The U.S. Open Cup, which began in 1914, is the oldest tournament in the American soccer landscape and is similar to England's FA Cup or Spain's Copa del Rey. MLS had initially attempted to withdraw all 26 of its US-based teams and instead be represented by reserve and affiliate clubs from the third tier MLS Next Pro.

That move came after MLS commissioner Don Garber had criticised the Cup in May, saying it was "not the proper reflection of what soccer in America at the professional level needs to be."

Garber was critical of the lower league venues that games were held at and the broadcasts of the games.