Following the participation of three of its teams at the Club World Cup, held in the United States, the MLS (Major League Soccer, American soccer league) seees the pressure by solving an old dilemma: keeping its equity championship, with spending limit, or allowing the assembly of expensive casts to compete at international level.
While studying changes in regulation and, especially, in the calendar to adapt to global football, MLS has been registering expressive audiences. On the 28th, for example, one of his games had more spectators than the same day clashes in the round of 16 of the Club World Cup.
Valid for the classification phase, the 1-1 draw between San Jose Earthquakes and Los Angeles Galaxy in the California classic attracted 42,881 Stanford University stadium fans. At the World Cup, that Saturday, the Lincoln Financial Field, in Philadelphia, received 33,657 people to Palmeiras 1 x 0 Botafogo, and the Bank of America in Charlotte, received 25,929 for Benfica 1 x 4 Chelsea.
The next day, sales of the international tournament lived up to the investment of FIFA (International Football Federation), with an average of 63,244 fans per match. But the duel of the biggest audience of that day at the World Cup had an MLS club, Inter Miami. One of the tournament’s surprises, Messi’s team was eliminated against 65,574 fans by losing 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Responsible for this public success, one in the US League and one in the World Cup, La Galaxy and Inter Miami live opposite moments. Being the current MLS champion, the California team could have stayed with the Florida rival at the Club World Cup.
To take advantage of Messi’s hype, however, FIFA did not wait for the MLS final dispute, scheduled for December 2024. He announced before Inter Miami, owner of the best campaign in the regular season, as chosen to fill the last vacancy of the World Cup.
With the decision, Messi’s team immediately guaranteed the initial prize of US $ 9.55 million (R $ 52.2 million) just to participate in the FIFA tournament. Having advanced the round of 16, it earned another $ 7.5 million ($ 41 million). A victory and two draws won in the first phase yielded another $ 4 million ($ 21.8 million).
The total amount received by the Miami association was US $ 21.05 million (R $ 115 million), a prize paid directly from FIFA to a team that has not won the main championship of the US League to date.
At the other end, the Los Angeles Galaxy, winner of 6 of the 29 MLS cups already played (2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2024), received only US $ 300,000 (R $ 1.64 million in the current quotation) for the entire title title campaign.
Shortly after the celebration, the biggest winner in the history of the tournament would begin to suffer the consequences of his good technical performance.
Thanks to follow the parity rules that regulate the 30 MLS clubs, the Los Angeles team had to get rid of four holders, one of them midfielder Brugman, elected the best player of the 2024 season. The main limitation is the salary ceiling set for the franchises, which is why Galaxy captain Maya Yoshida had to accept a cut in his payments.
The difficulties encountered to rebuild the cast were not few and led La Galaxy to fall sharply from top to last place. The vexing performance this year this year had its worst chapter in the 7-0 rout suffered by New York Red Bulls, runner-up of 2024.
There is no relegation in the US professional championship, a detail always mentioned as a novelty to be adopted in the future in an attempt to adapt MLs to international standards. Flexibility of spending and increasing the limit of three “designated” athletes (those who do not need to respect the salary ceiling) per club are other of the suggested changes for the future.
For now, conservatives, league leaders are only close to announcing, the adequacy of the European -style calendar – starting and ending in the middle of each year – from 2027. With the transfers, consequently adjusted, the pressure of rich clubs such as league globalization and the flexibilization of the spending ceiling only tends to increase.
Founded in January 2018, the team, which has David Beckham as an co-owner, proclaimed, on the first day of its existence, a “hyperglobal but local” project. The club’s motto contradiction can also follow MLS in a transition phase.
Created late in 1996 as a FIFA requirement for the United States to be the 1994 World Cup headquarters, the US League is again charged to adapt its “soccer” to the global patterns of football.
With a new World Cup of Selections scheduled for next year, MLS realized that it will be difficult to remain isolated from FIFA’s influence. The typical parity rules of the four largest US alloys (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) no longer seem to fit the reality of MLS.
Unlike what happens in “Soccer”, NFL football, NBA basketball, MLB baseball and NHL hockey are the main world technical references in these sports. The championships already have consolidated audiences and therefore do not depend on any approval of international entities to survive.
Still not popular in the country compared to other modalities, MLS football can hardly resist the temptation to seek globalization. The values of the checks offered to participants of the Club World Cup point to this direction. The question now should be more about which strategy will be for the league to equalize contradictions while going the new path.
