Despite what Don Garber and the executives of Major League Soccer would want you to believe, Major League Soccer is ruining the game in the United States. Despite boasting stars like Messi and a strong Miami team, Major League Soccer’s focus on profit over tradition is detrimental. Their dispute with the U.S. Open Cup highlights their disregard for the game. Proposed solutions range from drastic measures like pulling MLS’ division one status to potentially canceling the cup, painting a bleak future for U.S. soccer.
All that is important to MLS is the almighty dollar, and that is further proven to be true by the creation of leagues cup and their use of it as an excuse to pull out of the U.S. Open Cup. The U.S. Open Cup has existed long before MLS and it will continue to exist long before MLS as long as the grassroots fans of this sport in the United States get their way. As far as MLS is concerned, they could not care less about the U.S. Open Cup and the tradition of soccer in this great country.
What’s The Problem?
MLS wants to pull all of their professional sides out of the cup and put their youth sides in the competition. However, the United States Soccer Federation has put a temporary halt to that as it technically would force them to remove MLS from division one sanctioning within the United States soccer pyramid. There have been several other compromises proposed over the last few months, and with the U.S. Open Cup only a few weeks away, there has still been zero progress made.
MLS has suggested sending a partial amount of their teams into the cup. However, as of right now it is unclear what the final result will end up being. There has even been talks of the cup being canceled because of the selfishness of Major League Soccer and their refusal to play with their professional sides. Major League Soccer is rumored to be requesting 40% of revenue from the games that do not take place within MLS stadiums. However, Major League Soccer has no plans to share the revenue from games that take place inside of their stadiums. Which just brings to light even more of the selfishness from Major League Soccer and Don Garber. MLS is using the excuse that schedule congestion would make it difficult for their teams to participate in this year’s editions, and future editions.
However, it is hard to ignore the fact that Major League Soccer is solely responsible for the congestion of their own schedule with the creation of leagues cup. Rumors are going around stating that regional governing body CONCACAF has stepped in, and depending on what you take away from their statement, it seems as if they are siding with Major League Soccer. As they have informed US Soccer that they cannot award a Champion’s League spot to the winner of the open cup unless Major League Soccer is a full participant.
What’s The Solution?
Well, at the moment there are a number of solutions that US Soccer and MLS could come up with. The first one is more solely a US Soccer solution, and that is to pull the division one sanctioning of MLS. That would immediately send the league into a tailspin, as it would make all of their teams and players ineligible for any future FIFA or CONCACAF competitions. That would arguably be the final straw in this battle between the federation and MLS. It would be the world equivalent of hitting the nuclear panic button, but there are several other options they could decide on prior to what would basically be a death penalty for the league.
Another option is to give USL their long awaited division one sanctioning within the United States soccer pyramid. If that were to happen, it would be the first country in all of world football to have two divisions, one leagues, and it would also exist on both the men’s and women’s level after the division, one sanctioning of the USL women’s league a few weeks ago. The third option and what seems to be the most likely solution is allowing MLS to have their way and pull all of their professional sides out of the cup or only send a certain number of teams.
As much as that would disrespect the tradition of the competition, with Soccer United Marketing controlling the majority of meteorites within the region, it seems like the most likely of solutions. However, there is a fourth option, and this would be the most unfortunate option for lower level league fans. As it would be the cancellation of the cup this season, and potentially beyond. It would be a groundbreaking and disappointing moment for soccer in this country, and it would like soccer back in this country for years to come.
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