“The 2006 Barcelona tour was the best in history”

“The 2006 Barcelona tour was the best US tour in history.” These are the words of Nelson Rodríguez, Chief of Staff’ (head of the Commissioner’s office) of MLS, the soccer leaguein which 28 teams have already participated, three of them from Canada, with a forecast to reach thirty before 2026, the year in which the World Cup will be held organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada, with the opening match in Mexico, group stage with 48 teams and matches in three countries and the knockout phase in the United States. If the 1994 World Cup marked the birth of Major League Soccer (MLS), Rodríguez, who attended the media coverage of Barcelona’s tour of New York with Alfonso Mondelo, MLS sports director, believes that what follows is the definitive bringing together ‘soccer’ in the world’s largest sports market.

Since the Barcelona tour, then reigning champion of Europe with Ronaldinho, a young Messi and the Xavis, Iniesta and Puyol unknowingly on their way to European success in 2008, things have changed dramatically. “At those games in Los Angeles, Houston and New York there were full houses to see Barcelona. This year, in Charlotte, everyone who came to see Charlotte-Chelsea came to see their team, Charlotte,” Rodríguez gave as an example. charlotte is the last team which was integrated into the MLS and valued the franchise at 300 million dollars.

15 new stadiums

Since 2006, there have been 16 new clubs and 15 stadiums built to play soccer, with a total investment of 5,000 million dollars. the soccer’ race for space North American sports with four monsters: “American football, which is the sport with the most followers in the world; the NBA; the baseball league and the ice hockey league. I think that ‘soccer’ is about to overtake hockey”, ventured Rodríguez , who believes that “the 2026 World Cup will be the biggest sporting event in history.”

One of the great engines of MLS is the global agreement with Apple, an agreement that goes beyond television and for MLS 2,500 million dollars over ten years guaranteed, including participation according to subscribers. All games from MLS can be followed on Apple TV worldwide. “This is not just a rights agreement, but an alliance that is more and we have been working for many years: we have told the clubs that from 2022 they cannot negotiate. TV rights themselves, but discussed by the League as a whole”.

evolution of football

Another engine is sports evolution. MLS has created the League of Affiliates, a second division (MLS Next) with 130 clubs and 13,000 families involved, and MLS Next Pro, equivalent to the Third Division, will soon be inaugurated. “Almost 2,000 million have been invested in players since 2013”, explained Rodríguez, who also highlighted that “we are the first of VAR and there are things from other North American sports that should be transferred to ‘soccer'”, referring to video arbitration.

Also the Leagues Cup was created, a competition to be played by teams from the MLS and those from the Mexican League. “It will be played between July and August with World Cup format: 32 teams from two Leagues (after a previous one, because between the two there are a total of 47 teams), group stage and then ‘knock out'”, explained the sports director of the League, Alfonso Mondelo .

For Mondelo, native of Barakaldo, former assistant of former North American coach Bruce Arena and technical director of MLS since 2005, “the creation of club academies is the great step forward in MLS, the most important thing is the growth in player training”. He explained that the MLS reached a coach training agreement with the French Federation about ten years ago and also emphasized that “currently you can make eleven guarantees to North American players playing in European teams, as is the case with Dest in Barcelona”.

“A before and after Beckham”

MLS doesn’t set aside signings like Messi’s. “Good players are accepted, for me there is before and after Beckham,” said Mondelo. In MLS there is a salary cap for all teams, which can make three exceptions: three players who can break that cap. This system allows all clubs to have options to become champions: in 27 editions, there have been up to 16 different MLS champions. The sporting evolution is noticeable in international competitions: for the first time, an MLS team, the Seattle Sounders, won the CONCACAF Champions League, so it will participate in the Club World Cup.