United States, Canada, Mexico could form combined league after 2026 World Cup - Liga MX chief

Let’s see how long that lasts when the best players in Europe are making a crap ton of money in ESL.

 

This isn't like North America or the NHL and their ridiculous boycott of the Olympics. Those millionaires were furious for not participating.

As for soccer, the World Cup is the ultimate prize for most if not all the players belonging to nations that participate. Being banned from participating in it will dissuade more than you think from joining that league when they can make the same kind of money and still go to FIFA sanctioned tournaments.

I would assume that ESL players would also be banned from Continental cups and Champions league.

Despite what people still stubbornly believe in this forum, this isn't the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL. FIFA has the bigger stick.

 

The subtext becomes text.

 

As Stan points out in his link above, there's no reason to think the players will act as a bloc. Some of them will balk at being eliminated from National Team consideration but some of them will have million$ of reasons not to, not to mention a reduction in travel and play that may be appealing to some of them (especially South American players who won't have to make long trans-Atlantic trips in this scenario). And of course there are numerous players on those teams who are not in their National team picture or who are fringe players for their National teams that would be giving up very little.

Don't act like one pronouncement makes this idea dead. This is the just the start of the next stage of this discussion, not the end.

 

FIFA has a big stick, no denying that. But assuming the ESL consists of the clubs everyone thinks it will include, they’ll be able to soften the blow to their egos with a giant pile of cash. As Jason points out, there’s also the collection of players that aren’t in their national team pictures, who have issues with their national teams, etc, etc.

If ESL were to break away, it would certainly get ugly and those clubs would likely get cut off from continental competitions, but these are, by and large, the most popular clubs in global soccer who have huge global followings that are, in many ways, independent of their home league.

They’ll have to overpay to get players, coaching staff, etc, but, for the most part, these teams are already paying the highest pkayer salaries and have the money to absorb the additional costs.

 

Or, more cynically, FIFA hasn't been offered a big enough bag of cash (yet) to throw their support behind a ESL.

The idea that FIFA cares about the integrity of national leagues or some other bull-plop is painfully naive. They'll conveniently forget about all that once someone puts enough zeroes on a check. And a ESL would be able to shovel a lot of Euros into FIFA's gaping maw.

That's kind of the problem with an unaccountable, corrupt organization like FIFA- if you're expecting them to protect the little guy (or the Belgian or Canadian national leagues), you're going to be awfully disappointed.

 

This idea isn't a new one and still...nothing

No one's dumb enough to believe it has anything to do with integrity or protecting the little guy. This isn't about money either... It's about control.

They will throw everything at it to break that idea. Hence my skepticism it happens because like it or not, they have more leverage to get their way. How long before one of those founding members or invited members cave and backs off? Divide and conquer, right?

Or

Come up with some kind of compromise to avoid the ESL.
Modification to Champions Leagues Format allowing more top 5 league teams with byes for the "11"?
Inter league games that counts against the teams respective tables?

Who knows... but an ESL outside of their control will be relentlessly and aggressively be fought against by FIFA.

 

There is no difference. They want control so they can control the money.

 

If y'all haven't yet, check out TSS' show on this topic. I like their conclusion: it's possible ESL long term plan is to create a sanctioned ESL within UEFA with continued threats and power grabs. They're already well on their way.

 

There's is one.

The poster implied that FIFA would relinquish control over payment. Your definition is much more accurate

 

I think that's the most likely outcome. The ESL would be more or less the top division of European soccer, and FIFA/UEFA would maintain their "control". All parties involved would have larger piles of money to sleep on. Everyone's a winner. Well, except the teams that aren't part of the ESL. And nobody cares what they think.

It could work in North America, too. I'm not a fan of the idea, personally, but if the Dollars are there, CONCACAF, the various national federations (how much would it really cost to buy CSA's support, really?), and the national leagues could be bought off.

 

I think UEFA would likely draw the line at pro/rel, where North America would be less likely to do so (the issue here is Costa Rica/Honduras/etc). The difference between Europe and North America is that there are thousands of decent cottage-industry-sized football clubs that are likely to wither and die under the maximalist version of an ESL. North America generally isn't as strong beneath the top flights.

There are other ways to do this. One I proposed some years ago was to basically bifurcate the season into a 'domestic phase' and a 'continental phase.' Basically, each domestic top flight would have to reduce the number of teams and get its championship over within half a season, so that the second half could be devoted to European play.

Imagine the PL having 10 teams or so and playing 18 or so games, all over with before Christmas. 5 or so of the top ones move on to a somewhat larger ECL, where they will play a couple dozen games or so, all after that point. The rest of them would compete in a pro/rel tournament with the teams that finished at the top of the second division for the right to be in the domestic top flight the following year.

This way, ManCity gets a pretty good reward--they get to lose a lot of games against Burnley in exchange for more games against Bayern. These games would also often take place on weekends, as opposed to all Tuesday/Wednesdays, making them more lucrative. But you haven't locked out 99% of the clubs, as has always been proposed so far, and you've left intact a domestic title that would still mean something.

It would be a radical change, and people would be slow to come around to it, but they might buy in if they could be convinced that the alternative was more radical still, and certainly worse for someone.

 

The best way IMO to make a unified league: Have two season like Mexico does and have the 1st season be for the domestic title and placement into the Unified Football League(UFL) and the second season there would be a mixed league based on their domestic league's finish. Just my two cents.

 

https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/garber-on-mls-in-copa-libertadores-i-dont-see-it-happening/

For those who were against MLS competing outside its league can rejoice! USOC is more prestigious and important than playing in Copa Libertadores. Can't wait to see a USL vs an MLS bench team, makes for some exciting games! At least MLS is growing.....mmm...i mean expanding to more teams so we can continue to compete at a domestic level.

 

Could always start by winning this region's Champions League. I think that's also on his mind

 

Wow, that's the direct opposite of what he said, but thanks for the hottake.

 

What a ********ing straw man argument you've got there. Did you build that all by yourself.

Maybe it's not about "prestige", but about not taking 16 hour plane flights to and from Buenos Aires in the middle of the week between two league games.

 

And I've yet to see any sign that CONMEBOL wants MLS teams in their confederation championship - including having to fly 16 hours each way in the middle of the week between two league fixtures.

 

They want US money, not their soccer teams. They have made that pretty obvious.

IMO, we might get a North American/South American SuperLiga type event in a best case scenario.

 

Especially at the national team level, but I've seen no interest whatsoever beyond the long canceled Copa Merconorte that they want anything to do with MLS clubs or the travel it would entail. It's been 20 years since the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL Intercontinental Cup was played, and even that was a single "neutral" site game played in Miami.

 

I would be concerned about MLS teams getting crushed, counter to the narrative that we are catching up with other leagues.

 

I would be concerned about developing Deep Vein Thrombosis on the insanely long flights back and forth.

 

That's nice, but it's all about how you finish, not how you get there.

98- Mex finished way better

02-usnt was better

06-Mex

10-tied

14-Mex

18-Mex

So no, there was not enough consistency from usnt to close the gap. No non-usnt fan ever felt the gap was closed, and it wasn't. Footsteps, maybe, but Mex was always ahead. That isn't empirically falsifiable.

As for the thread topic, it'd be terrible for LMX to join up with a league that can't even outdraw a studio panel watching the same clips over and over again:

The postponed #RiverBoca game on Saturday averaged more viewers on FOX Deportes (265K) than Sunday's #MLSCupPlayoffs Portland-Sporting KC game on FS1 (237K) 🤔#CopaLibertadores #MLS pic.twitter.com/nDpJQwKyff

— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) November 28, 2018

 

USSF should join UEFA. After all If Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Australia are members of confederations based on a different continent, why not the US?

Surprised Klinsi never suggested this

 

Throwing out 60 data points to count 6 is not an acceptable definition of the word 'consistency.' And show me a person who takes bets on non-falsifiable claims, and I'll show you someone likely to renege.