Sepp Blabber is at it again .... fast forward to 20:40 .... FIFA President Sepp Blabber Slams MLS, Casts Doubts On Future Of League [VIDEO] MLS TalkWherein FIFA president Sepp Blabber demonstrates his ignorance of MLS NBC Sports These two gentlemen have your best interests at heart.
Wow, there could easily be a back story somewhere in there, maybe the international calendar or pro/rel or single entity/salary cap or retroactive justification for World Cup decisions. Or maybe just ignorance or not liking Garber and crew. Paging Don Garber...
I just wish the head of FIFA understood there is no such thing as an international calendar. Or is he also demanding Scandinavia, Ireland, etc. also change their seasons? There are international match windows, which more and more MLS is leaving open, but even then there are plenty of leagues that play through match windows as well and I don't see Blatter going after them.
Bump. For example ... in 2012 ... on the following FIFA match days, Brazil's Serie A ... June 1-5 . . . . . . . . .Played games on the 6th (Weds) June 8-12 . . . . . . . Played games on the 7th, 9th, and 10th (Thurs-Sun) August 15 . . . . . . . Played games on the 15th (Weds) September 7-11 . .Played games on the 6th, 8th, 9th, and 12th (Thurs - Weds) October 12-16 . . . Played games on the 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, and 17th (Weds - Weds) November 14 . . . .Played games on 10th, 11th, 17th, and 18th (Sat - Sun) Seems to work out just fine for them. Not to mention the Serie A season runs from May - December.
I guess MLS is in a sweet spot for European complaints. Significant enough to give a damn about, but not so significant that people around you care when you say something stupid about it.
He wasn't talking about that in the interview though. I know it's easy to jump on old Sepp but he said that the US doesn't have a strong set of soccer leagues and only has MLS as of now that is popular. In that case he's right. Only in the last couple of years it is starting to look like the 2nd and 3rd divisions of soccer are starting to get stronger. There is a pyramid but it's a rather weak one right now.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...ides-mls-as-'struggling'-to-take-hold?cc=5901 How much longer until this idiot is no longer in charge of FIFA?
Perhaps Sepp ought to worry about La Liga collapsing under the weight of the two dominant teams more than our perfectly fine, growing league. Also, he can take the "international" calendar nonsense and go scratch.
what's the argument against moving to the international calendar (apart from the stadium issue)? I don't really follow MLS so I'm genuinely curious is all
MLS is growing, quality of play improving, but the TV ratings are still poor, very poor. Most soccer fans in America watch the EPL or Liga MX. Americans don't like 2nd, 3rd best. They want to watch the best players, in the best league. In terms of popularity and mainstream no, but in terms of the quality of play getting better and a more stable league, yes. Gulati is a tool, like many other's in his position. I should add, MLS will never be as popular as the top Euro leagues, nor do I think the top stars will come. The UEFA Champions League, the history and prestige certain clubs have surpasses anything in the Americas. I mean that as no disrespect to the Copa Libertadores or the great clubs in South America either.
This has been discussed ad nauseum, but weather would be #1 (you would struggle to play any games from Dec-March in Chicago, NY, NE, Col, TOR, MON, and PHI) followed by "there's virtually no good reason to hold to one arbitrary way to schedule your league as opposed to another." I don't want this thread to go down that sinkhole, though. I just thought that Sepp bringing THAT up in the context of what he was saying was stupefying.
I have a football club just down the road from me that I should do a better job of supporting (FC Dallas)... that's part of my New Year's resolution to be honest
in bold Getting really tired of hearing that, specifically the word "never". With all the money in this country, it is most certainly possible for MLS to rival the top European leagues.
Soccer in America is still all about actually being there. If people want to watch soccer on tv, yes, they'll try to watch the best they think they can find. But dude, make it out to a few Dallas games and see if MLS isn't at least a lot of fun... I think Blatter's just out of touch because he thinks we should try to align ourselves with Europe's dominant schedule. If we do make that switch (and it would be a tough thing, that year where we have months of no playing or anything because the schedule has moved) it would far more likely be because we want to align with Mexico et al. Well, that's not the only reason he's out of touch. But in this case, trying to leverage us with England (or with international dates for things like the World Cup, in which we will, I would have to guess, give up maybe a dozen players for in 2014 during our season?) instead of trying to convince us via our closest neighbor and greatest competition.
Doubt it. The teams dont have the allure of a Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan, Inter, Barca, R. Madrid. And they don't have to for the league to be successful but that casual fan is still going to ignore the league and watch Chelsea instead. That money wont be there and the cap wont see a significant increase until the TV ratings are better. Ratings must improve. Attendance has, and that's good to hear but better TV ratings, more incentive to spend.
Lets see Series A or Ligue 1 etc take on MLB, NFL, NBA, NASCAR and college sports and do a 1/4 as well as MLS. Please.
They would do fine. No one would watch MLB or NFL. Both countries have basketball leagues already. No one watches NASCAR, but Formula 1 is huge in both countries. And college sports would be considered... strange and weird.
