I think he means stateside. Not the reverse. It is the equivalent of trying to start a professional football league in Europe to compete with their sport scene. Oh yeah, that was tried before, wasn't it? Funny thing is I think the NFL could do better nowadays with a minor league there than back when they tried. The world has grown a lot smaller since the 1990s.
Put down your pitch forks. Sepp is right. He isn't ragging on MLS specifically. He is ragging on the USSF, NASL and USL-Pro. From his standpoint he wants a strong football association with several leagues that are doing good which includes the lower divisions. The lower divisions have been pretty weak until recently but they are showing signs of turning around. Watch the video again (starts at the 20:30 mark).
It's an immense lack of understanding of the market in either event. It shouldn't be surprising, but it is irritating.
Especially if NFL decided to do something like NFL Germany. Instead of trying to incorporate ALL Of Europe. Heck, maybe they'd be allowed to compete in the Eurobowl.
The problem is that it's Sepp Blatter talking. I guess that might be what he means. I really don't get angry at anything he says because after all these years I just don't take anything he says seriously. Not sure how anyone can. My first thought was that I saw he was doing an interview wit Al J, and knowing his audience, and pandering for his cash, he knew it was easy to criticize anything US and it would make that target audience very happy. That's all. The words are meaningless, it's just Sepp trying to look good for the crowd he was talking to. At best he truly shows an ignorance for the market and what the game actually means here at this point in time. Again, that fits his MO also....the ignorance part.
I would like to thank Mr. Blatter for the one thing he is really good at: an inflammatory statement that generates conversation. It is the offseason here after all, and we need something like this!
Sometimes I wish all the proper football fans in every developed football nation (the Euro nations, USA, South America, Australia, Japan/SK) would just put pressure on their national FAs to vote for a decent candidate for FIFA President. It's amazing that this buffoon can continue to control the organisation and it's even more amazing that the institutional corruption that everyone knows exists, and which keeps Sepp in his job, is accepted with little more than a shrug by everyone.
Since when was the European season the "international calendar" anyway? Brazil plays a calendar year season, but no one argues with 5 World Cups. The majority of CONMEBOL nations use calendar year seasons too, along with the majority of Asia.
While I mostly think Blatter is A) wrong, B) corrupt and C) full of shit, there is some validity to the point that league hasn't caught on as much as hoped and isn't as big a part of the sporting landscape as FIFA wants. Of course, what FIFA wants isn't exactly objective and collectively ignores all the competition MLS has for attention, the head start that competition had and the yoke of carrying around the failures of past pro soccer leagues in the US creates a very large burden for MLS to overcome that the sport doesn't fave in other countries. They also had to start a league in an era when there is an unprecedented availability of foreign pro soccer leagues available for viewing from home, something that just increases the rock MLS has to roll up the American sporting landscape's hill. That said, MLS has done a lot of things to handicap itself and it continues to be very conservative and risk-averse in international signings and going whole-hog on player development, still relying on amateurs to produce the bulk of their talent. While there's no assurance that spending more on big-name players and developing better players on your own will help, it's also clear the status quo isn't going to get MLS over the hump and in that regard, criticism of MLS by Blatter and others is valid.
It's mostly a eurocentric argument. Some people just assume all Europe plays on the "international calendar" as well. I had an argument a few weeks ago with one of my friends about Scandinavian leagues and he just assumed that Sweden and Norway played the same schedule as England.
MLS will be the strongest league in the world top to bottom within 10-15 years the way Garber and co are building a strong foundation. The USA is getting more and more soccer friendly every year whether you want to consider that due to changing ethnic demographics, increased exposure to top European leagues and international tournaments for TV viewers, more people having been raised with soccer as a part of their youth, or all of these variables and more combined. MLS too is growing... it is in more markets, getting more fannies in seats with more big name players than in years past. This trend will also continue. Over time this course will lead MLS to be one of the top leagues in the world. That might take another 10-15 years. But it will come with more stability than any other league, and probably a much better distribution of quality throughout the league even if our top team won't beat the champion of La Liga or EPL, our bottom team will be much better than their bottom team. It's just going to take time. MLS has more rivals for sports entertainment in this nation than any of the big European leagues has in their nation, and just as importantly no sports league in our nation has strong international competition from leagues in other nations as MLS does (Nippon Baseball vs MLB, Euroleague vs NBA, KHL vs NHL, CFL vs NFL... please, no comparison to EPL/La Liga/Serie A/Bundesliga/Mexican League/etc/etc/etc vs MLS). MLS is doing it right and doing it right takes time. Sepp Blatter will probably not live to see it.
I think this is totally overblown. First he says that MLS isn't at the same level at other American pro leagues, which is true, then he says that he hoped they would have been at that level by now, which would have been overly optimistic but isn't exactly strong criticism. He doesn't make any specific criticisms or call anyone out. It's a throwaway comment at the end of an interview about something else. Half the ESPN article is about old comments because there just isn't much here. TBH the most egregious thing is that they repeat the (false) claim that soccer is the most popular participation sport in the US.
I'll take Blatter seriously when he begins to address that rampant systemic corruption thing...until then I plan to wish for his death and stockpile urine for his grave.
Blatter said something? Once the article used "THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE MLS", I stopped reading.
Sounds like FIFA is, or should be, angling to give the USA another World Cup to host. Certainly that would again help to boost the sport that is "still struggling" here.
"It's a question of time, I thought - we had 'Show Racism the Red Card' in 1996," Blatter told no one. "But it's now 16 years in so it should have been done now. But I am still struggling". "It's a question of time, I thought - we had 3 ExCo members taking bribes in the 1990s," Blatter told no one. "But it's now 2 decades later so corruption should have been done now. But I am still struggling".
But the market is the market (regardless if someone like Sepp notes the full reality and market-specific conditions in the US). From FIFA's perspective, soccer in the USA is "struggling" in many ways -- relative to what the sport is doing/dominating elsewhere. Again, to me that just sounds like FIFA may want to do something to step in and potentially help deal with and try to overcome those struggles (and market conditions here). And more US-hosted World Cups (and/or other FIFA events) could be just what FIFA might need to keep (repeatedly) trying. Or in the mean time, maybe they should reconsider and allow the 2016 combined Copa America to be on FIFA's official international calendar to be hosted in the US.