Imagine explaining to network TV execs about the concept of pro/rel... TV exec: "What do you mean we're about to lose Boston market because New England Revolution got relegated to USL Championship..." MLS: "Um yes, however we get KINGSTON Stockade in return because of promotion!" "Oh and Revolution might fold..." TV exec: "Yeah, but you're going to lose support and sponsorship from this, nobody in Boston or any other market would care about KINGSTON" "They would rather watch Celtics/Bruins/Red Sox and European soccer leagues" Pro/rel folks: "Who cares? Merit-based pro/rel (unless if its my team)"
Wynalda allegedly convinced Fox to make it part of their bid in the past.. MLS mocked it and gave the contract to ESPN and NBCSN.
Not even in Mexico they know what are they doing, but it is not working. Dorados de Sinaloa, one of the most popular 2nd div teams is now in financial problems, the main reason being that they need to keep a very expensive structure to be prepare to go up (if that happens) so all their time in 2nd division is throwing money into a whole with the hope you go up someday. The weird thing is, I am sure Liga MX teams and top executive would love to have Sinaloa in the top division, but they can't because of their system, so they are trapped. 3 years ago or so a team called Lobos BUAP got promoted. They are a second team in a city where the main teams barely has any fans. This guys averaged like 2,000 fans a game, no network wanted to televise their games, it was a desaster. This team does not exist anymore. What is the point?
Yeah, Crowley's an odd one. It seems part of his motivation for setting up Stockade was as a social experiment to see if he could run a self-sustaining team. After their first season, he published an article about his findings, which were basically that the team, even with their fully amateur roster, couldn't break even. Of course, he acknowledges that if he'd done x, y & z differently, he could have but that they couldn't operate as semi-pro because they couldn't cover the average $18k per season salary. He used this to argue that pro/rel is vital because if it existed, the growth potential could attract investment to allow them to do those things. This of course rings false, because he's basically saying that pro/rel still wouldn't make his team sustainable, it would just improve his chances of convincing someone else to foot the bill. As we all know from what's happening in England right now, this is a recipe for disaster because should Stockade not achieve the dream of promotion (or they got relegated to UPSL or whatever falls below NPSL), they'll be spending more than they can earn. Hell, if his team did go up, would the new investment be enough or would he need another injection of cash to cover the likely larger running costs? Hmm. It's almost as if there's a good reason that a widespread open pyramid didn't organically materialize in US sports...
Veracruz is a doozy. In 1947 they went an entire season without defeat. In 1950 they crushed Monterrey 14-0 on their way to a second title. 3 years later they folded after missing promotion by a point. The next iteration of Veracruz was sold to a neighboring city. What happened to the third iteration of Veracruz was way more complicated.
Even better, this situation led to a direct "violation" of the "FIFA mandate" everyone tried to burn the US/MLS over. FC Juarez BOUGHT the Lobos "franchise" and got into LigaMX.
Veracruz is a funny case. They have had 3 iterations in Liga MX they have never won promotion. It is a dirty franchise. But long story short, what happened in this last iteration was: It was not a wealthy club and was not well managed. However, in order to not be relegated, they had to over and over spend for years, getting in a lot of debt and by the end not even being able of paying players and coaches. Wh Why overspend that much to not be relegated? Because a Liga MX franchise is worth 10x, 20x, than a 2nd div. So when your structure (costs) is already at Liga MX level, being relegated basically means to die. And even if you survive financially, the only way to get promoted again is... to way over spend again! Veracruz then prefered to die. It was a good call.
And just last year they finished in the relegation position and paid $6 million to retain their place in the league, as the current rules allowed them to do. Six months later they were kicked out of the league and folded. Owners could have saved themselves that $6 million.
Saw that Kevaughn Frater left New Mexico United for the ISL and remembered people talking about it somewhere. Found it interesting that when I looked back at the past few years how many former (mostly unsucessful) MLS players have been through there in the past few years. Right now Deshorn Brown plays on the same team as Frater and Sunil Chhetri. That team also just released Raphael Augusto (393 minutes with DC). Victor Perez (2 minutes with the Fire) plays in the league currently as does Giles Barnes. Came across Cornell Glen a few years ago as well as Gabriel Cichero and Tim Cahill (all NY players at some point). Sambinha (who is now a starter in the Cyprus top flight) was there as was Toni Dovale (who now is in Thailand).
Sunil Chhetri never played a minute of MLS soccer. If I recall he played something like 45 minutes of USOC soccer and the Wizards' friendly against ManU.
I recall he scored goals in bunches in reserve scrimmages against college opposition but was ineffective against professional opponents. Chhetri's MLS stint was how I developed my understanding of the relationship between technical ability and speed of thought. Namely: he had better technique than many other MLS attacking players, but was never able to use it against strong opposition because his decision making was too slow.
Yeah, that's the revolution that Paul Riley is bringing to women's professional club soccer. The NC Courage have never had the top talent in the league (Portland) or world (Olympique Lyonnaise), but what he has spent the last five years doing is pushing the speed of thought (and play). The Courage play so fast compared to everyone else out there. That's why they've been so successful, even against more talented (on paper) teams. Most players at the pro level can elevate themselves for periods or get "in the zone", but training and practicing and playing at speed year after year changes everything. And if you wonder why the Courage occasionally trade away a very gifted young player, it's often that they're struggling to adjust to the speed of thought.
Full ruling is up: https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Award_CAS_5264-5265-5266_internet.pdf Couple fun lines in there on pages 19 and 20,.
Wow.. Silva and the other guy are just getting dunked on by FIFA, USSF, and CONCACAF. USSF Basically just calls them lying liars that lie (which I’m assuming are the comments on page 19 and 20 that PhillyMLS mentioned.
Riccardo still going at this over on his twitter page, saying "An OpEn MeRit-bAsEd sYstEm..." yadda, yadda, yadda... Who wants to tell Kessell's associate that not everyone including MLS isn't interested in a pro/rel system now or five years from now? "300 clubs signed our petition paper for pro/rel!" - Kessell That means 97% of the ~9,000 clubs here aren't interested in pro/rel...oops.
What the hell, I've never been afraid of beating beating a dead horse, so why stop now? START YOUR PRO/REL LEAGUE! WHO'S STOPPING YOU? You don't need 300 clubs, just take 60; split up into 3 division and have at it. Hang tough for a couple of years and fans will abandon MLS is droves and take up with your authentic, organic, grass roots league. Of course you'll have to market your league properly and do it right.....and of course extra credit for marketing your league to local Hispanic fans.
My main one was this: "Claimants allege that U.S. Soccer “was faced with a world ban” since FIFA “accused the NASL of violating the rules in setting an arbitrary offside line” and suggest that this occurred recently – in February 2018." To which the USSF said: "The incident occurred 37 years ago – not in 2018. And, U.S. Soccer was not facing a world ban, a then-existing professional was. Indeed, U.S. Soccer was actively supporting FIFA’s efforts to force the professional league to comply with the FIFA Laws of the Game." Also, now that I'm somewhat awake and looking at timelines, I wonder if Miami FC ever was actually interested in playing in the NISA. There were rumors that they joined USL because they needed to be in a professional league in order to continue the case. I actually think they thought that last year and it is the reason that they joined NISA when they were preliminarily accepted division 3 status. They bring up multiple times from page 40 onward in response to a challenge to their standing to sue after they withdrew from the NASL.
They'd be no match for Schroedingers USSF, a federation that is simultaneously so stealth and cloak-and-dagger that it perpetrates multiple covert ruses to expertly destroy MLS's competition, yet so incompetent it apparently selects USMNT coaches based on nepotism and can't for the life of it figure out youth development. Basically USSF is as powerful, devious or incompetent as their detractors particular narrative needs them to be that day.
Dennis Crowley at Kingston must be fuming mustn't he? I imagine he was added to the lawsuit simply because Miami wanted a second claimant and he volunteered. It's an utter humiliation, not only because the claims turned out to be worthless but they only moved forward as a claimant at the discretion of USSF: "USSF also explained that when the proceedings were initiated, USSF knew that Kingston Stockade FC was not a member, either directly or indirectly, of USSF, but yet USSF decided not to challenge the standing of the Claimants, nor of Kingston. Stockade FC alone, because at the time, because at the time, Miami FC remained a member of the NASL." The outcome completely also leaves the pro/rel crowd in a much weaker position as it's been very clearly found, with a ton of corroborative evidence, that USSF were not subject to the pro/rel requirements of article 9. Indeed A-League is in a much stronger position to fight FFA and AFC after this ruling. Pro/rellers are left to either make an objective argument for pro/rel or just whine on about it being more "authentic", or quote a hastily put together consultant's report that concludes that the US is not ready for pro/rel. 275. The Panel concludes that Claimants have failed to establish that maintaining a closed league system in the United States is a violation of competition law. The Claimants have not established that, assuming they meet MLS’s criteria for membership, they are prevented from gaining access to the league. Also, closed leagues are commonplace in professional sports in the United States and the Claimants did not argue why such practice could not be maintained in soccer, if it were not for Article 9 RGAS. 276. Although FIFA may not like closed leagues, it condones closed leagues in member associations as long as such member has not previously implemented the principle of promotion and relegation in its professional leagues. Accordingly, unlike in member associations with open leagues, clubs in the United States do not have a right to participate in the MLS even if sporting merit would justify that they do. 277. A competition law violation can only be established if the Claimants could establish any unfavourable treatment in comparison with others. The Claimants however failed to establish any such unfavourable treatment. 278. Consequently, the Panel finds that Swiss competition law was not violated. Personally I would like to see pro/rel but it's a long way off.