There was a lot of news, plans and speculations from many directions regarding how and when the MLS will continue playing. The top flight of American soccer went into lockdown with the rest of major sports in the US and around the world in March, due to safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then the MLS released various statements the press about extending the moratorium, and the last official statement was that that Major League Soccer is extending the shutdown through June 8th.
In the meantime, MLS executives were considering various options on ways to resume the game, amongst which is the route that many other major sports leagues are now looking to take as the first step towards resuming activities: playing in empty stadiums without fans. MLS commissioner Don Garber told the press that “all options are on the table” when it comes to Major League Soccer resuming the 2020 season, and that he, and others in the league would still want to see a full season being played. Garber is also coming to terms with MLS teams playing soccer in front of empty stands, and dubbed it: “Soccer Studio Games”.
Now it seems that plans to return and play during the coronavirus pandemic are taking shape and becoming more concrete, with the league looking to hold a summer tournament in sunny Florida, featuring all 26 Major League Soccer clubs. The plan is to have players, coaches and staff commence training on June 1st in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. And this training will be in preparation for a tournament with all the teams in attendance, kicking off 3 or 4 weeks later. Tournament matches are planned to be held without fans.
There are still debates as the format of the competition, and it’s still unclear if these games will be considered as part of the MLS regular season, or how it will impact places in the CONCACAF Champions League. One option considered is to divide the MLS teams into groups, which each side playing five matches in the group stage. These will be followed by a knockout stage with a few more “consolation matches” that will give the losing teams more playing time.
There are many challenges and unknowns still, as this proposal needs to be approved by the MLS players association that is still negotiating the league’s proposed 20% pay cut to players.
There are also concerns over fair play, with some MLS teams that cannot hold training and workout due to safety regulations, whilst others are already allowed to train at some capacity and are holding individual workouts for their players. A few MLS Western Conference teams such as LA Galaxy, LAFC and San Jose Earthquakes for example, are amongst the clubs that did not receive the go-ahead to start any form of training.
The MLS is not the only major sports league that is debating fair-play issues that come from differences in early training and the availability of training facilities. NFL Pittsburgh Steelers’ coach Mike Tomlin also discussed this issue with the press and league officials earlier this week.
