If you ever needed another reason to hate Major League Soccer and everything it stands for, well here you go.
According to a report out of The Athletic, by Jeff Rueter and Pablo Maurer, MLS is in the “advanced planning stage” of a lower division league that’ll serve as a “link” between MLS academies, an essential minor league (which this new league will serve as) and the division one rosters.
This new “league” that is yet to be named will also reportedly launch in 2022 with at least half of the MLS clubs participating. Furthermore, Rueter and Maurer state that another intended goal for this D3 league will be to attract other “independent clubs” but would also look into developing new teams to fill any voids.
Frankly all of that seems like lip service by MLS as the endgame by this parasitic league is much more nefarious.
As lower-league soccer begins to garner some traction in popularity with the likes of Detroit City FC and Chattanooga, MLS can’t help themselves in their further endeavor to kneecap the lower leagues and further destroy soccer in the United States.
So how is this done?
Protagonist Soccer pointed out that MLS establishing a third division would essentially “cut the middle man” when it comes to players looking to make their way up through the U.S. system. “Why play for another tier three league, USL 1 or NISA currently” when a player could just sign with an MLS third division team and get plugged into the top-tier that way? The incentive to join the MLS third-tier is further elevated given there would be no hard U-23 age cap or roster restrictions in general so that the top-tier MLS side can essentially have carte blanche on pretty much all aspects of a third division club.
Aside from MLS simps, any soccer fan in the United States can see the gravity in this, specifically the impending death of grassroots soccer.
Simply put, when it comes to MLS there’s no such thing as grassroots soccer and/or independent clubs. Any independence a club has is surrendered the moment they become a Major League Soccer franchise given all clubs are centrally owned by the League.
There’s nothing to say that this third-tier MLS league will operate any differently.
Now I’m not saying that this particular situation is on par with what happened in Europe with big-pocketed teams looking to start the Super League. Relative to the situation you can make the argument that it’s worse.
Unlike Europe, lower-league soccer in the United States is already working at a disadvantage with the asinine notion in American sports that anything but the top-tier is “minor league”. Imagine the added nonsense from fans as they further degrade any lower-tier league that doesn’t have MLS in the name while the media fuels the backward thinking by acknowledging only the MLS third-division.
I mean we see that now.
The only domestic soccer in the United States that’s given any attention is MLS. Sure once in a great while, you’ll see a USL Championship highlight but 99 percent of the time the coverage is directed solely on Major League Soccer. Coverage on anything else is left to independent outlets such as this and social media.
Because of all this, it’s imperative that leagues like USL, NISA, NPSL, UPSL, and the regionals begin to work together. Frankly, they have no other choice. Unfortunately, however, Protagonist has already heard rumors that UPSL is thinking of defecting and forming a partnership with MLS. It’s unclear if Protagonist has heard any further confirmation on this nor is it clear what this would mean in any cooperation efforts between the other lower-tier leagues.
What is apparent, however, is if you sell out to MLS not only are you done as an independent entity but you may be done as a team or a league as a whole. That’s what’s so laughable about the earlier lip service paid by that Athletic report. There is no such thing as an independent club or league associated in any way with MLS.
Clubs consumed by MLS become MLS property. Just as St. Louis.
Leagues consumed by MLS will become MLS property.
The losers in all of this are the fans and communities who will have their clubs ripped from them, repackaged under some corporate cookie-cutter bullshit, and sold back to them for hundreds of millions in their own taxpayer dollars.
Just connect the dots. Look at past history and know that MLS is good for no one but themselves.