It seems to me MLS and the Mexican could only benefit from some synergy between their two operations. So here's a plan that would "merge" the leagues but preserve their integrity, a la the old NFL-AFL "merger." Have each team in both leagues play a certain amount of games each year (four, six?) against teams in the other league. Those games would count in the MLS and Mexican league stadings, but each team would still have its own playoffs and championship games. At the end of the season (okay, so timing is a bit complicated) the winners of the two leagues (complicated again by the Mexican league's split season) would play a home and home "North American championship" or some such. Of course, the timing of all this would be complicated, but it seems like a good way of injecting a bit of the cash and lure of international soccer into the two leagues on a permanent basis. And I think the MLS teams would benefit by exposure to the intensity of Mexican league soccer (remember how Bruce Arena said the current MLS league structure produced too many meaningless games?). Discuss or flame as you wish.
ummm....not a bad idea really. I have a better proposal. Adapt baseball format and split the two leagues into American league and Mexican league just like national league and american league in baseball, except that there is never any interleague play ever. Baseball for the longest time has no interleague play either. And also there is no world series either. So the two leagues are merged but never play against each other
what makes it very difficult for me is that it would be very hard to get the MFL people to change everything unless there are HUGE profits to be made. Also the fact that in Mexico they can play year round while weather in some parts of this country makes it hard to do here.
Let's not ruin the Liga Mexicana by doing this, por favor. It's the only quality league on the North American continent. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
It's not gonna happen... At least not until it gets to point where the Mexican clubs start losing their fans to the MLS. But right now, there's just no reason for the MFL clubs to want to work together on something like this.
Uh, no. I'd prefer a league where diving and pretending to be hurt is frowned upon instead of the norm.
once MLS has 14-16 teams, and at least 10 SSS, we can talk on a more equal footing (if we feel it makes both leagues better) In the meantime, no...
In Mexico, 1 point or even goal difference can decide which team qualify for playoffs. It would be really unfair for a Mexican team if they have to play CHicago Fire at Chicago while a rival team in the same qualifying group gets Dallas Burns.
Are some of you aware that one of the reasons the NASL was not a FIFA sanctioned league was that they had teams from Canada in the league? There were other reasons too, but the fact that Canada had teams in the league was one of them. This is a bad idea. And really, MLS is eventually going to be better than MFL. Much better.
I'll join the chorus in the anti camp. We have inter-league competition in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which admittedly is garbage now but maybe will improve in time. I think that's plenty. The more strong North American leagues the better. And yes, I'd also be in the let's get Canada their own league camp.
Hell no. This is about the stupidest idea ever, why dont you guys try to merge with a league from central america or canada instead?
I doubt FIFA would allow this to happen, no matter who's pockets you lined. And there's no way MLS would want this to happen.
Alot of people used the same reasoning to argue that Freddy would end up with ManU or Real Madrid. They were wrong.
Welsh teams play in the English league, and there was talk of Rangers and Celtic moving there too. And they're from three different FIFA members. I guess I posed the question intially because look where the European teams make their big money: in the Champions League. And realistically, you can't build something similar on this side of the pond with just two leagues (South America and the Libertadores are too faraway, and the Central American leagues will never have the money to develop the exceptional teams people will want to see play abroad.) So it makes sense in the long run, especially as MLS becomes more competitive, for the two leagues to find a way to work together. The Mexican league is probably the most affluent in the Americas right now...
Cadiff and who? And every team in the EPL is indeed English. Rangers and Celtic don't seem to be moving any time soon. The differnce between Wales and England is not quite as distinct as the difference between the USA and Mexico. As far as I know, the top three teams from the EPL, Serie A, the Spanish first division and the Bundesliga qualifiy automatically for the CL. Add to that only the top team from just about all the other Euro leagues. The number of European teams who play in the CL is probably less than 2%. More qualify for UEFA Cup, but still, even with that you're probably less than 5% of all pro teams in Europe. Teams make their money from fans coming to league games. Regardless, results from he CL and UEFA Cup have NOTHING to do with standings in the teams' domestic leagues. Finally you didn't say something a North American Champions League. You said an MFL / MLS merger. We already have CONCACAF Cup. That IS our version of the Champions League. Does it need to be improved? Hell yes, the thing is ridiculous, but as long as Jack Warner pulls the strings in CONCACAF, oh wait, sorry, The Football Confederation (or whatver the hell it's called now) you're going to see teams like Joe Public qualify every year. Again, we already have something like the CL where every federation in CONCACAF sends representative teams. I'm all for making that tournament better and more meaningful. That would have nothing to do with a "merger" between MLS and MFL. If you want CONCACAF results between MLS and MFL teams affect standings in each other's leagues, why limit it to those two? Why not add Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Trinida & Tobago, Jamiaca, etc etc? Then tell me your idea still makes sense.
Cardiff City, Swansea, and Wrexham are the big 3, and there are others in the leagues below the conference. But their participation in the English pyramid goes back a long way, well before the establishment of the League of Wales.
This has been mentioned in the past. FIFA will not allow it. In Euriopa there has also been mention of merging scotland, holand portugal and other small countries. UEFA and fifa said...nyet. PLus it is obvious that the soccer quality in MLS is not evolving. If anything it is going down. They will just get clobbered by the Mexican teams. No good for MLS