As much as I want MLS to open up the salary cap and relax the rules they won't do it. Teams with the most depth which are usually the top Liga MX teams will have all the advantages in a tournament like this. And usually the top Liga MX teams are also the ones that come out as Champions and runner ups in their league. So what happens when you get 1st, 2nd and/or 3rd in Leagues Cup and then also qualify to CCL via being in the final of Apertura/Clausura tournaments?
Didn't they say it was a World Cup style tournament? It could start off as only played in the US or...they can use the set up that will be done in the 2026 WC and use several cities in Mexico too.
Is there any doubt? And the (single match on weekend) CCL final will probably also be held exclusively in the US starting in 2024. Gold Cup style.
The weird thing is that attendances for Liga MX friendlies in the US have been decreasing, so I don't know why Liga MX is still so desperate to come here... I am sure their players aren't too ecstatic about leaving their families for a month EVERY year....
Precisely. Having "support in the stands" isn't the same thing as having an actual home match. You have to travel, stay in a hotel, and be away from loved ones. Far from ideal for Liga MX players.
No idea how this is going to look like in practice...six groups of 8? Three Mexican and five MLS teams in 5 groups and four in 1 group? Will they seed teams based on where they currently are in their season or season before, or perhaps based on geography? Are all games going to be played at the group's highest seeded MLS team? Lots of questions, but I guess they have two years to figure it out.
I don't disagree with you, but Liga MX aren't exactly known for making decisions in the best interest of their players. I'm also going to assume this competitions will serve as Liga MX's pre-season warm-up.
There is a nugget of a very good idea in here, and it is always a positive development for MLS to open itself to genuine competition outside of MLS. That being said, there just are not enough days on the calendar for all of the stuff at club and international level to fit in a meaningful way. I think the powers that be in CONCACAF would benefit from some blue-sky thinking about what the best way to structure its competitions would be in order to both maximize revenue and maximize the quality of play and ability of players and clubs to play their best soccer. Many of these piecemeal moves seem like steps in the right direction, but they are piecemeal nonetheless. The FIFA calendar and non-CONCACAF international tournaments are what they are. Build the best you can put forward around them.
A competition played solely at MLS sites with only the MLS teams in proper form kinda serves both parties in a way, with Liga MX wanting games where it can monetize its US-based fans, and MLS wanting to avoid the sort of player investment necessary to compete on a level playing field with its southern neighbors. That's a cynical view, but the cynical view is seldom far wrong with these parties.
I don't know, hopefully that way we won't hear the same ol' tired excuse of "tHeY wAnT tO HeLp MLS wIn ThAt's WhY tHeY AlWaYs PlAy In ThE uS". But honestly I doubt they will because they can make more money playing in the US.
If MLS can figure out Team #30, it would be a 48-team tournament, so they could mimic the new World Cup format. I suspect they will want something that can finish a little bit quicker. One minor tweak would be to advance only the group winners to a round of 16. Even with 47 they could do this with one two-team "group" playing home-and-away. (or home-and-neutral?) I'm trying to figure out where in the calendar they could fit this. If the two leagues don't make big changes to their domestic formats, then the playoff months are out, which cuts out May, November, and December. I think June and July are out because of various national team tournaments. Jan/Feb don't work because MLS isn't active, and I can't imagine MLS agreeing to March. That leaves April and somewhere in the August-October timeframe. My first thought was something like August 15-Sept. 15, but there would usually be a FIFA international window in the middle of it. They're making this up as they go, so they could do it with a break for FIFA in the middle of the tournament, who's to say? I could imagine making it fully in August before the September window, or between the September and October windows. Or April wouldn't be the craziest thing ever. Liga MX is going to have some scheduling challenges for whichever half-season there is that gets a month chopped out.
Yeah, the date this would be play which is an entire month is kind of a head scratcher. MLS is in the off season in Jan and Feb while Liga MX is off season in June and July. Plus add the Gold Cup which will be played in 2023 too, when can you add this? Copa America and Eurocup for players in both leagues is also a problem for hosting this in the Summer. Maybe the entire month of August or September? Liga MX would have to move a yearly calendar like MLS to avoid having so many games in their domestic tournament that it is done twice a calendar year.
That sounds about right. Liga MX is willing to risk its reputation (no home games, preseason form) for more money and MLS is happy to agree to a format that will make its teams look good. Which would all be fine if it didn't lead to CCL spots.
It's almost certainly got to be something with more groups than that. It would also likely be played in one country (you know which one). 8 groups of 6 (and one with 5) would mean 5 group stage games for most clubs, followed by the top 2 from each group going to Round of 16, single-game knockouts. This would be 9 games for the teams that make the final. That's really pushing it for a one-month tournament, but I suppose it's conceivable. I can't figure out how 6 groups would work in any sort of balanced way--I guess it could be top two from each plus the next best 4, but that's just weird (though similar things have been done before). But then you'd be adding 2 more games for a total of 11, and that's completely untenable. I suppose, alternatively, you could have the group winners plus the best 2nd place finishers (more reasonable to me) move on to a round of 8, but then you'd only remove 1 game (down to 10--still too many I think) and it would be entirely possible that something like 6 of the 8 knockout teams would be from Liga MX which probably wouldn't be very exciting for MLS execs. EDIT: after reading @ThreeApples post, I realize that it could also be 16 groups of 3 (assuming the 30th MLS team), with home and aways in the group stage with only the group winner advancing. This would make for a total of 8 games for the finalists, which gets to a more reasonable number of games for one month and would allow for each team to host at least 2 games.
27 teams, I am not sure how that works. #PORSITELOPERDISTE Concacaf anunció que en 2024 la Liga de Campeones de la confederación se extenderá a 27 equipos participantes. pic.twitter.com/FFvIZNhfoc— TVC Deportes (@TVCDeportes) September 22, 2021 Wrong thread
I certainly hope the league shortens the regular season. It's too packed and boring as it is. I wonder, too, how the CBA plays into this. Presumably it caps the total number of games teams can schedule. I'm in a wait and see attitude about this hyperbolic announcement. In a way it's an admission that the MLS regular season isn't worth enough to teams and fans to generate the kind of excitement (I.e., revenue) the league wants, especially during the summer. This new competition likely won't be part of anyone's season ticket package, so get ready to drop more cash on this new product if you want to see it in person. It'll probably have a different tv package, too. Hopefully, this announcement will soon be paired with one that fills in the details about the new developmental league.
This is disappointing. If this is going to happen, I'd rather it start Labor Day weekend so I can shift over to college football and occasionally pro football and MLB races for my sporting entertainment. I enjoy watching MLS (and US Open Cup), especially games where the crowds are loud and into the game. I just don't watch CONCACAF Champions League, Leagues Cup. Have no interest watching games against foreign competition. Even if the quality is better. But whatever.
Really interested to see how they're going to do seeding...the worst Liga MX team with the best MLS teams and vice versa and assume the cream will rise to the top in the knockout rounds? Keep east and west separate until the knockout rounds or through the entire tournament?