The Unholy Union
One of the main reasons I started this blog was to help spread awareness of how corrupt our current soccer system is in the United States. To really understand the nuts and bolts, here are a few key entities to get to know:
Major League Soccer (MLS) – Major League soccer is currently sitting in the first division slot of our current “pyramid”. It’s inception was key to have the United States host the 1994 world cup. Before it kicked off in 1996, there was no professional soccer being played in the US after the original North American Soccer League ceased operations in 1985. It had 10 franchises and tried to Americanize the worlds game by not allowing draws and the game clock ticked down and stopped instead of continuously ticking up. After the newness wore off, the league was of the brink of folding. Despite struggling for most of the 2000’s, the league got some much needed media attention when superstar David Beckham joined US Men’s National Team hero Landon Donavan at LA Galaxy. Since then the league has expanded to 23 teams and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
North American Soccer League (NASL) – The new NASL Kicked off in 2010. Despite being a Division 2 league, it had the ambition to take on MLS and ruffled feathers along the way. In 2015 it was denied an application for division 1 status.
United Soccer Leagues (USL) – The USL was founded in 1986 and has historically operated at a Division 3 level. The League was put at ends with the NASL in 2009 when 9 of its teams defected to the newly formed league. It found some much needed stability when it partnered with MLS to effectively run as its minor league.
In 2017 the United States Soccer Federation elected both NASL and USL to be co-division 2. In September, the USSF revoked the NASL of their D2 status due to not having enough teams to comply with the Professional League Standards. (or PLSs)
United States Soccer Federation (USSF) – Founded in 1913, the USSF is the governing body of all things soccer related in the US. It’s an administrative body that should operate in the best interest of growing the game. In wake of the struggles that MLS experienced, US Soccer promulgated the Professional League Standards to help ensure stability across it’s leagues.
Soccer United Marketing (SUM) – SUM was founded in 2002 as the marketing arm of Major League Soccer. It’s main objective is to sell TV rights to broadcast matches both domestically and internationally. It also has exclusive broadcasting rights to US Soccer.
This is where the trouble starts.
The USSF is financially tied to MLS through SUM.
Now if you happen to both live in a market deemed worthy by MLS and support an MLS franchise (MLS does not have clubs), this may not be a problem to you. But if you live somewhere where the metrics don’t add up, you don’t get top flight football. This is especially apparent in Sacramento. In my opinion, Sacramento deserves a first division team. Sacramento will probably eventually be awarded a franchise, but that’s only after being led along and dragged through the mud trying to appease MLS.
This is a byproduct of a closed system. The new NASL was ambitious and wanted to challenge MLS for Division 1, but did not meet the League requirements and had to settle for D2. It was after that decision that led to a snowballing of problems for the NASL. At its peak, the NASL had 12 teams, but with MLS reigning supreme it picked off some of the best performing teams. In 2017 the league was denied the waiver necessary to continue as a second division and now the MLS aligned USL sits alone in that spot despite needed waivers its self since it doesn’t wholly comply to the Professional League Standards. The NASL tried to get an injunction to stop irreparable harm from happening and was denied. It is now out right suing the Federation.
I don’t think a fully capable soccer nation would have such a cut-throat environment where leagues are pitted against each other. Why doesn’t US Soccer step in? It could be that a select few individuals hold a lot of the power. Don Garber is the commissioner of MLS. He is also the the CEO of SUM. The third hat he wears is sitting on the board of director of US soccer. Sunil Gulati is the former president of US Soccer where he ran uncontested since 2006. Despite being the president of a governing body, he also sat on the board of directors on SUM. There has not been an official recognition of a conflict of interest, but the NASL lawsuit against US Soccer hopes to bring to light some of the supposed shady dealings between these parties.
Despite the alleged conflict of interest, MLS sits alone on it’s throne. But for a lot of people, it is simply not good enough. Everything from the on field product to the way the league does business (#savethecrew) is further being scrutinized as the game grows in this country.
The shining beacon of hope for the game lays below the grasp of MLS and that is grassroots, independent clubs that are sprinkled across the country. Most of these teams are amateur or semi-pro, but the culture that is growing organically could one day be the demise of MLS.
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