With J Hutcherson -- Let's hope Major League Soccer leadership asked for something other than a power tie, suspenders, and hair gel for the holidays, because the last thing this League needs is to decide they're 80's guys and this is the time for the big play. Namely, continuing to put the US Soccer Federation and, by extension, CONCACAF and FIFA on notice that MLS sets the schedule in North America.
Travel back to the actual 80's, and we have the North American Soccer League finally deciding outlaw status wasn't worth their beloved 35-yard offside rule. That's what FIFA ended up threatening to return the American soccer experiment to international standards. It took a couple years for the NASL to actually comply.
MLS is currently adopting an interesting position. Almost all or none against a world soccer bureaucracy that normally prefers actually following their dictates.
In a World Cup Qualifying year and an official FIFA tournament summer, MLS is talking about limited schedules, flex time for clubs who want to beg off a couple of games if they're facing significant international absences, and anything but actually following the rules.
For those out there who can't wait for FIFA to overstep and end up facing off with MLS under US jurisdiction, what exactly would that solve? Wouldn't it be better to just setup this League to follow international specifications?
As SoccerTimes' Bob Wagman works through it's possible to play the '09 season while observing the international calendar. MLS knows that. Pretending like this is an issue beyond the best and the brightest in American soccer is silly. Just like it was in years where the League could trot out the 'no control of venues' excuse.
Thirteen seasons in, MLS has basically removed itself from its original role in developing talent for the US National Team. In many ways, the League is now a general soccer promoter in competition not only with the National Team, but with it's own core product. As developments go, it's not exactly one where the League can step back and point to decisions that went beyond self-interest.
Professional sports normally end up with that mindset. In North America, that comes without the problem of an international sanctioning body. Eventually, FIFA will choose to pay attention.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
