Manchester United Legend David Beckham suffered a major blow after his bold dream of creating and building an MLS franchise from the ground up appears to have just hit a massive speedbump.
According to reports from Italy, Inter Milan are suing Major League Soccer over the name of the league’s newest club – Inter Miami CF.
Calciomercato are claiming that the Italian team has filed a lawsuit for Trademark Infringement and are looking to protect the use of the name ‘Inter’.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is set to analyse the position of both sides and will likely arrive at one of two decisions.
The first would be to register the ‘Inter’ brand and make it exclusive to a single club – which is what the Nerazzurri will be hoping for.
A second option, per Calciomercato, would be to ‘accept the request of the MLS which, in response to Inter, claims that the name is purely descriptive and is present in many clubs around the world’.
Beckham and his new franchise will be hoping the decision can be made quickly, as their plan is to debut in 2020.
So far, Inter Miami have overcome a number of other hurdles as they prepare to play in next season’s MLS.
The club have successfully bid to acquire Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and will use the site as a temporary home until their new stadium has been built.
With Miami now less than 12 months away from kicking off, Beckham and his fellow owners will soon be turning their attention to building a squad of competitive players.
That will be one of the final – and most exciting steps of building this franchise. But this upcoming lawsuit from Inter Milan will be a very unwelcome distraction, no matter the outcome.