I don't know, maybe because they have a holier than thou mentality when really all they care about is how much money we shove into their grubby little sausage fingers.
instead of relegating a team to the 2nd division i think mls should punish the last place team and make them start with -5 points the next mls season ???? yes no maybe?
a guy who supports a polish team, from Tampa, who puts his "country" as USA... So, when you criticize MLS, what point of view are you coming from? maybe we need to get that Russian mob (who I am sure has heavy influence in Poland) to back us more...
Do you have proof that Russia gave FIFA millions if not, well then shit happens. My point of view is Blatter has been trying to hint over the past 5 years to MLS to conform to the international standards, and everyone was laughing, well here you go. who's laughing now.......
I can't speak for everyone else but I'm against FIFA because they like to complain openly about our schedule and they don't say a damn word about other leagues that run the same schedule. They insist that they live by the terms "fair play" and they award a World Cup to a nation that a few year's ago was openly trying to give foreign nationals Qatari citizenship so they could play for their national team (read as: trying to cheat to get to the World Cup). They also like to criticize how leagues are run and how players are treated unfairly (remember the "Ronaldo is a modern day slave because Man U won't sell him" spiel?) but as soon as anybody questions them they become defensive and pretty much do everything in their power to ignore the charges (or, in England's case, say screw the 15 million pounds that you spent on your bid; none of us are voting for you because your free press is going to do stories on us). And lastly (and this pisses me off the most) they tell governments that they should stay out of the sport (the threatened sanctions against Nigeria after this year's World Cup) but they will try and use the government to get leagues to bend to their will. Blatter tried this when he met Obama. His first question was "Mr. President, when is your American league going to be a proper league?". Nothing like trying to use the President as a tool to try and get your way. So why the hate for FIFA? Because they are an incompetent bunch that will go out of their way to get what they want and will defend to the bitter end their own, even if they are accused of going against everything that FIFA is supposed to stand for. I'm not mad that Qatar got the World Cup. I'm mad that FIFA pretends it is about the merits of the bid and not their own whims and desires. I'm mad that they make people spends tens of millions of dollars to submit a several thousand page bid packet. I'm mad that they then make these countries wine and dine them for their vote. I'm mad they run bids through technical committees and waste people's time and money. And I'm really mad that they do all this and then make a decision based on an answer that Miss America would give. "Our hope is that if you give us [Qatar] the bid that we can promote peace in the Middle East through football." The simple fact that the lowest rated bid package almost got a majority in the first round of voting shows that the technical merits mean nothing. All they needed to do was have the bid groups submit a three page, double spaced essay and made their decision. So you can choose to support FIFA and believe that they hold the answers to all questions pertaining to the sport. I'll view them as what they are. Politicians that got their way to the top and know how to do things, not for the good of the sport or people, but for themselves and to fulfill the need to stroke their own ego. All you have to do is see what Jack Warner did to lead England on just to vote against them.
If they really want pro/rel in MLS, then they should have given us the '22 Cup so we could grow the infrastructure enough to have a real second division and maximize the First Division.
[/thread] I'm not interested in FIFA's views on MLS because Sepp Blatter sits in an office in Zürich, counting his money, and all he sees is a league that doesn't play its matches at the right time, doesn't get out of the way for FIFA dates, and doesn't look like the leagues he's used to. He's trying to force the matches he DOESN'T get a cut of into a place that doesn't interfere with the matches he DOES get a cut of. (FIFA dates -- president of FIFA -- coincidence?) But if he came around here more often, he'd see a completely different American sporting landscape that doesn't prioritize soccer above all else, doesn't prefer instability that comes with pro/rel, doesn't allow certain teams to spend their way to titles (except for baseball), doesn't have climate that's conducive to a long, fall-spring schedule without complication, a continent that has travel issues that no other league has on a weekly basis, and a soccer culture that's too new and too uncertain to be able to assure everyone that trying a whole bunch of different, goofy shit will work. Pardon me if I trust the people who deal with MLS full-time, and not a guy on the other side of the world who couldn't spell "Clean" if you spotted him "Lean", all the while touting the slogan "FIFA Fair Play".
I once watched an out-of-town businessman try and chat up one of the girls sitting at the bar at the Ritz in Georgetown, but he didn't know she was "working." Yeah,dude, that 25 year-old hottie was interested in your 50 year-old self.
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." All doubt removed from your curriculum vitae. Not that there was much to begin with... Just sayin'.
kinda an amusing outcome here: https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-l...P94FPQNxl8Ow7DfDnyZSmbivcTmW_m0qGCnGkAMzkjd4I
Actually it's downright hilarious---after all the crowing the argument is seen to be without merit. Not only did they lose but now they have to pay legal costs to US Soccer, CONCACAF, and FIFA!! I hope this court ruling puts to rest the whole argument that the structure of the league is outside FIFA rules.
Last post I quoted was December 2010. A decade or so later, now that MLS is somewhat stable, relegation and promotion is still nowhere in sight. Ten years from now, we will still be talking about it and it won’t happen.
Maybe because it's a bad system that no one would implement now if it wasn't already entrenched in the countries where it's used?
The North American sports mindset just won't accept relegation and promotion. Everyone loves the playoffs- finals and they are an institution. Fans look forward to watching the Super Bowl , World Series,, Grey Cup, Stanley Cup or the NBA finals. Depending on the sport, ending up last also has its rewards where teams benefit by loading up on 1st round college draft picks. That has been going on for decades and something that doesn't exist in Europe. In Europe, making an UEFA CL or EL tournament for some clubs is their only reward because they know they will never win a trophy. The Concacaf CL is nowhere as interesting as the MLS Cups playoffs. I mean, I'm sure the league and federation want it to turn into something special but for most fans and teams, it still isn't that great currently. Just looking at the NHL, NFL, MLB or even the CFL as an example, it would be impossible to relegate a team. The Forty Niners were 4 & 12 in 2018 and if they were relegated, there wouldn't be anyway they could go 13 & 3 the next year with a Super Bowl appearance. The Golden State Warriors were in the last 5 NBA Championships winning 4 and this year they are the worst team in the league. If there was pro/rel in place, the team would be headed to the D-League , playing in Santa Cruz and I don't know which investor/owner, fan , sponsor or TV Network (with millions of dollars invested in the sport) would ever accept this. You can go worst to first and vice versa but never to a lesser, minor league. If in fact they were to implements pro/rel, instead of expanding to what is now 26 teams, MLS teams would be folding clubs at every turn. I lived in Italy and even did some work for Fiorentina when they got relegated to the 4th division. The thing is, they had 33,000 screaming , loyal fans , an 80-100 year history and tradition , then were quickly promoted back up to the second, (skipped the 3rd as they were graced by the federation) and back up to the Serie A. Fans know/knew that there is such a system in place and expect it as part of the game but nothing like this will ever happen in any other North American sports league.
Of course, even though fans are familiar with the system, teams will still usually take an attendance hit with each level they drop. The bigger clubs hold crowds much better, especially in a situation like Fiorentina's where they're likely to rally around the team but it's normal to see a dip. I actually did some stat comparisons a few years back and interestingly, lower league attendances aren't necessarily better than what the US sees for minor leagues. In fact, the further you go down the levels, the better the minor leagues compare.
Fiorentina , Parma all went down to the 4th and went right back up. They were Serie A teams playing in a 4th tier so they were bound to succeed. They may have all had 2nd and 3rd rate players at the time but playing in front of all those fans with a tradition , history and pressure to go back up was electric. From what I saw , they were easily a 1st tier level. It was no wonder that they went back up two or three years later. Palermo is also tearing it up in the 4th after bankruptcy. They may take more time going back up as owner and sponsorship money in southern Italy is very tight. It’s still not easy to compare their situations with MLS or USL , for that matter. I could just imagine what would have happened to the LA Galaxy had they finished up in the USL in Beckham’s first two years when the team finished last or at or near the bottom. I doubt he will have stayed regardless of what they paid him. Heck he left twice to Milan against most fans and pundits wishes. He also got injured while he was on loan. Just using him as an easy, obvious example , how or why would AEG pay his salary in the USL?
Agreed. I also don't see a Los Angeles audience sticking with a team that has dropped to a lower league. They're pretty fickle when it comes to successful, iconic teams when they have a bad spell, let alone teams in a niche support. That's why I'd be hesitant to hail LAFC as a roaring success just yet. Just from the things their fan base says, a lot of their reasons for ignoring the Galaxy and/or getting on board with LAFC come across as very superficial. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out if they don't sustain the on-field success of the first two seasons.
Right.. Its sexy in theory and steeped in tradition but even in the Euro leagues the richest/bigger clubs are always at the top and mid table no matter what. Outside of something unexpected, a total collapse, or a scandal(like Juventus for example) its usually three bottom feeders sent down and three new future bottom feeders sent up and wash, rinse, and repeat.
If t were to happen, they would be reverting back to the days of the Hollywood Kickers and the Los Angeles Heat , drawing less than 1,000 fans a game. If that...