Los Angeles (AFP) – The 25th season of Major League Soccer kicks off on Saturday with two new teams joining the rapidly expanding league as it targets an increasingly prominent place on the US sporting landscape.
A legacy of the 1994 World Cup finals in the United States, today’s Major League Soccer bears little resemblance to the fledgling competition which featured 10 teams when it launched in 1996.
With expansion franchises Nasvhille SC and Inter Miami entering the fray this year, MLS now boasts 26 clubs split into two 13-team regional conferences — the largest domestic football championship in the world.
With four more sides due to join in 2021 and 2022, MLS will soon comprise 30 clubs, a reproach to sceptics who doubted the world’s most popular sport could ever gain a firm foothold in the United States.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber said while the league would still struggle to compete with the technical quality on show in Europe’s top domestic competitions, MLS nevertheless compared favourably in other areas.
“Our focus is how we are comparing to the other soccer leagues around the world,” Garber told the MLS website this week.
“We have grown in credibility and respect. We still have an enormous way to go before the typical MLS team on a day-to-day basis could beat Real Madrid or Bayern Munich or Manchester United.
“But if you look at the totality of where we are in ownership groups, structure, our partnerships, our facilities, our development programs, our organization, our content and media and marketing, I think we are without a doubt viewed as one of the top soccer leagues in the world.”
– Going global? –
MLS’s ownership group now officially includes former England, Manchester United and Real Madrid star David Beckham, whose Inter Miami team make their debut against Los Angeles FC in California on Sunday.
Miami’s entry to the league comes after a tortuous six-year journey marked by setbacks and frustrations, with wrangles over possible stadium locations delaying the team’s launch.
“We all had our doubts and many people doubted us,” Beckham said this week.
Inter Miami’s managing owner Jorge Mas believes in another 25 years the MLS will rival the biggest leagues in the world.
“It’ll be on par or exceed the best leagues in the world, be it Premier League or Serie A or La Liga,” Mas said.
“I think the success of the MLS will be global, it won’t only be in our country because soccer is a global sport.”
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/32wWnYp
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