Truth all around. I'd agree that MLS is somewhere around #10. Are we anywhere near top five? No. Could some of the best MLS teams compete in the top leagues? I'm sure they'd be respectable. No way could the best teams compete for UEFA slots, but they could easily avoid relegation. The league *has* made huge strides in the last 10 or so years.
You guys know that the writer conceded that MLS isn't near the top 5, right? It's not the BEST article, and some of the reasoning is a stretch, but it's also interesting to take a step back and try to place it in a bigger context through different means.
But admitting that MLS is a top ten league means admitting that - gasp - maybe MLS is a legitimate soccer league. And we must never admit anything close to MLS being legitimate, especially as Crew fans. MLS Sucks, dontchaknow.
I'm saying #9. The 7 Euro leagues listed earlier, MX, then MLS. Brazil and Argentina are better soccering nations than the US and Mexico, but have weaker leagues, IMO.
It ignores how rosters are constructed. MLS teams have a few top players and round out the roster. Teams in other leagues need twenty some players at a certain level or they feel the sting of relegation.
One strength of MLS is the owners. There's stories of players not being paid for months or handed trash bags of cash for their work but not in MLS. I might not care for Paulson or Blank but if they are writing a check it's going to cash every time.
If MLS were to drop all the bullshit roster rules, make the salary cap around $25 million, and stop using designations (DP, TAM, U22, etc) and just let teams do whatever they wanted with $25 million of salary cap (transfer fees not included) we would see much more balanced and talented rosters. I think most of the big spenders are already around $20-25 million (TFC at one point was around $30 million I think) so its not like it’s a huge jump from what teams are already spending. Hell, make the cap $30 million, and the floor $10ish million. If MLS did this, then I think we’d be closer to completing with Liga MX, Eredivisie, and Portuguese Liga.
Still gotta have the DP rule. An MLS team would never be able to sign a worldwide star without it because it could conceivably eat half their budget. Agreed on the rest.
Yeah, I’d be more of fan of a floor and ceiling cap with a luxury tax for those that go over, allowing them to sign those top end players.
The current cap is $5 million. Teams are already spending $15-25 million in real dollars salary. It would just change how accounting is done (i.e. no need for GAM). And if fees aren’t part of the cap, that would actually give teams more money to spend.
That'd definitely be a lot easier to follow than a trade of GAM for TAM and a "draft pick to be determined."
I think most people worldwide agree with this assessment, with some people rearranging Spain, Germany, and Italy to suit their personal biases....but with it generally understood England is top and France probably the bottom of the 5. Im curious where some other leagues match up with us because I dont know a lot about them, besides things ive heard/read but I have no real knowledge. English Championship has to come in somewhere right below the top 10 I would think. I feel like its pretty agreed upon that most of the Scandinavian leagues are a step down from MLS (but im guessing probably significantly better than USL though). I think the Danish league is a little more of a force than the rest of them though isnt it? What about like the Belgian, Swiss, Austrian leagues? Are those cases where MLS teams are probably better than 90% of their teams but their top 1 or 2 "powerhouse" teams would be top of the table teams if in MLS (Standard Liege, Anderlecht, Basel, YBs, Salzburg, etc?) Then im also curious about more obscure leagues like the Turkish league, where im guessing teams like Besiktas, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce would probably run it up in MLS, but the Crew would probably run through all the Turkish teams, except those few? Im 100% not interested in the geo-politics of the day but I feel like I dont hear enough about leagues like the Ukrainian and Russian leagues even though they have some big clubs. A lot of big players have came out of clubs like Shakhtar Donetsk. I feel like MLS teams, or at least lets say the perennial playoff caliber teams, may be able to avoid the drop, in most big European leagues, besides the EPL (and possibly Spain, Germany). Interested in yours (or anyone elses who may have any knowledge) opinion of other leagues and what they may look like against us.
Are we looking at just the top-tier leagues around the world or are we throwing in every league? What about Serie B or other second-tier leagues? How far might they push MLS down? Or are they all significantly worse than MLS with maybe the exception of England's League Championship?
Having attended both 2 Bundesliga and Bundesliga matches in the past 10 years, I'd say that the best teams in MLS are somewhere between lower Bundesliga and 2BL in terms of quality of play (things like players making simple mistakes, how they attack, skill levels of individual players, etc.)
Cross thread news here. Copa 2024 will be in the Concacaf Region, guessing that means US, Mexico and Canada. 2024 Womens Gold Cup will include eight Concacaf and four CONMEBOL teams. Last but not least, a new club tournament will includ the best men's clubs from Concacaf and CONMEBOL. Lot's of good soccer coming our way the next 2-4 years.
That'd be awesome from a competitive standpoint, but logistically it would be tough. Argentina and Canada are a loooooong distance apart.