Mark Ogden's Sunday article at Telegraph.co.uk explores Don Garber's efforts at bringing the 2018 World Cup to America as well as his long-term goal: to make Major League Soccer (MLS) one of the top soccer leagues in the world. Mr. Garber's dream raises lots of questions rather than delivering methods.
America is the land of optimism. It always has been in many respects. 'Shoot for the stars' has been in many ways the motto of many an American. It is a characteristic of my country that is admired by many around the world.
Now we have Don Garber, Commissioner of MLS for the last decade, and former Director of Marketing for the National Football League (NFL), who was quoted by Mark Ogden as saying the following.
"Our goal is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world. We have a long way to go before we achieve that goal, but we might as well dream big...
We will only be in a position where we are mentioned with the EPL and La Liga when some of the world's best players are in our league and when American players are playing here, rather than playing abroad...
I don't know whether that is ten years from now or 20 years, but we certainly aspire to be in a position where we are bracketed with the other leagues. That's our goal and I think, in time, we will be able to do that...
Unlike the European leagues, we have never played in the big international transfer market, but I'm not sure that market will be around in 20 years time anyway."
Let us suppose that Mr. Garber wasn't saying this in an offhanded way. Let us suppose that his statements were made with clear intent to be direct and honest. More importantly, let us suppose that Mr. Garber actually believes that "in time (in 10 or 20 years from now)" the MLS will be one of the best leagues in the world.
Let us take this seriously instead of just brushing such a thought aside as part of a media campaign to support a USA World Cup bid, or merely a bit of hyper-speculation to add to the glitter of the recent signing of Thierry Henry by the MLS's New York Red Bulls. Let's try to understand the plausibility of this aspiration by asking the correct questions.
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For Mr. Garber's dream to come true - where the MLS is on equal footing with the English Premier League (EPL) and the Spanish La Liga in terms of quality and prestige - some of the world's best players will want to come and play in the MLS. (And let me digress and make a premise here: David Beckham is not nor ever was one of the world's best players - he was a very good player at the peak of his career while being one of the most famous players. And, Thierry Henry is not one of the world's best players, although he certainly was one of the very best a few years ago.)
Therefore, the correct question is: Why would some of the world's best players want to come and play in the MLS as opposed to the EPL, La Liga, or even the German Bundesliga or Italy's Serie A?
The answer is largely money. The level of salaries presently made available by the European leagues to the world's best players would have to be available to them in the MLS. They certainly are not now. Secondarily, there would have to be prestige available in North American soccer. For example, the UEFA Champions League, by far the most prestigious club competition on a continental scale, would have to be at least equaled by the CONCACAF Champions League. At present, the differences between the two competitions in terms of prestige are measured in units of light years.
The prestige would and could only come with time, and only after the money was made available. This means that the world's best will have to come here first before the prestige is created. I don't think it can happen the other way around.
For this to occur, an economic collapse, or at least a significant economic restructuring, would have to take place in the European leagues that would lower their economic standing and at the same time not affect the ability of MLS franchises to have the money necessary to attract the world's best in the wake of such a seismic shift of world soccer economics.
Garber alluded to this when he said that "unlike the European leagues, we have never played in the big international transfer market, but I'm not sure that market will be around in 20 years time anyway."
Does he mean that the richest clubs in Europe are financially built of a house of cards? Or, does he mean that leagues like the EPL and La Liga will adopt a salary-cap structure to limit runaway spending in order to avert financial armageddon? And if the latter is the case, does Garber mean that the MLS will eventually remove the salary-cap structure of his league in order to provide the necessary money required to attract many of the world's best players?
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My premise for Garber's dream to come true - some of the world's best players will want to play in the MLS - raises an important second question: How do the best American soccer players fit in to this dream?
Currently, the vast majority of America's best players play their professional soccer in Europe. Why? The answer is money, prestige, and the quality of the soccer abroad. In the future, if a significant number of the world's best players come to the MLS, and the MLS becomes a league on par with the present day EPL and La Liga, will America's best be good enough to participate in more than bit-part roles?
The answer is not until the Americans significantly improve in their quality of play. And this will not happen within a few years. It will take at least a generation, if not longer, to modify the ways that soccer is played and coached in this country at the lowest levels for a significant number of American players to really be considered on par with the world's best. And that will likely require a fundamental shift in the societal makeup of the game itself - from the predominantly white suburbs to the more mainstream parts of American society, if not the lower levels of the economic strata - for a significant quality improvement to occur. The game at the lowest levels will have to be open to those kids that cannot afford to pay expensive league fees and expensive soccer training camps. Sean Wheelock, one of America's spokespersons on soccer, has had a lot to say on this topic.
And the same answer - the requirement for a significant improvement in the quality of play - is arguably at the very heart of the solution to England's inability to attain expectations in recent international competitions. Yes, England - where soccer was born and still is the national game. Much discussion by UK observers includes the need for a renaissance in how soccer is approached within the lowest ranks throughout England.
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There have been no answers made available to the questions raised by Garber's dream. There are only more questions, such as: How does Garber intend to make the MLS one of the best leagues in the world, on par with current leagues such as the EPL and La Liga? Does he wait on some kind of economic collapse of European soccer and then sit with open arms to collect the world's best players as they migrate to our shores for the highest wages? How does Garber want such a league to look in terms of American and foreign players? Will he tolerate a league that is populated with world-class foreign talent at the expense of American players not good enough to fill those slots so that the MLS can be viewed on par with the best leagues in the world? Does he have time for a renaissance in American soccer at the lowest age levels necessary to produce Americans that can be considered among the best players in the world? What if any of all this is realistic?
These are all serious questions that are to be thoughtfully contemplated, which is why I choose to spurn my knee-jerk tendency to view Garber's aspirations as mere folly of a fool. But, until such additional questions are seriously addressed and realistically answered, Garber's dream is just part of a media campaign to support a USA World Cup bid and/or a bit of hyper-speculation to add to the glitter of the recent Thierry Henry signing - a dream that is nothing more than a pipe dream.
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