The Oz Blog View about stuff while living in the Land of Oz

MLS Length of Season

By: Ed Blythe Twitter: ed_blythe

On October 10, 2011 US Men National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann made comments about the length of the current MLS season.  I didn’t think too much about it until news keeps coming out about MLS players going on training stents with European teams or just working out on their own.  Sporting Kansas City’s own CJ Sapong said as much during his interview with Yanks Abroad about his call up to the USMNT.  Now why is Sapong working on improvements taken from the USMNT coach own his own or at the max with just a few people?  For the development of the league and US players something needs to be done.  I did some comparisons of MLS Teams (LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, and Sporting KC), European Teams (Manchester United, English Premier League; Barcelona, Spanish La Liga; AC Milan, Italian Serie A; Nottingham Forest; English League Championship) and Mexican Team (Tigres UANL, Primera de Mexico).

 

Below you can see how much difference the number of games and length of breaks taken throughout the world is and why it seems that MLS players take so much time off. The first thing that many people know is that FIFA’s world football calendar runs August/July to April/May. MLS does not run this way but they are the only major league. Mexico runs two separate seasons with the top eight teams going into a home and home aggregate playoff.  They take a small break in winter and a longer break in summer.

 

Calendar year 2011

 

TEAM	GAMES PLAYED	LEAGUES	DAYS BREAK	LAST GAME/ FIRST GAME
ManU	62	Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, FA Community Shield	70	UEFA Champions League/FA Community Shield
Nott Forest	53	English League Champions,  FA Cup, Carling Cup	87	English League Champions/English League Champions
Barcelona	60	La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League, Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup	77	UEFA Champions League/Super Cup
AC Milan	50	Serie A, UEFA Champions League, Super Cup, Coppa Italia	75	Serie A/Super Cup
Tigres UANL	42	Primera de Mexico	76	Primera de Mexico (Clausura 2011)/ Primera de Mexico (Apertura 2011)

 

FIFA Season 2010/2011

 

TEAMS	GAMES PLAYED	LEAGUES	DAYS BREAK FROM 2009/2010	DAYS BREAK TO 2011/2012
ManU	60	Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, FA Community Shield	90	70
Nott Forest	53	English League Champions,  FA Cup, Carling Cup	87	81
Barcelona	60	La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League	104	77
AC Milan	51	Serie A, UEFA Champions League, Coppa Italia	105	78
QPR	49	English League Champions, FA Cup, Carling Cup, Barclays Premier League	96	97

 

MLS

 

TEAMS	GAMES PLAYED	LEAGUES	DAYS BREAK FROM 2010	DAYS BREAK TO 2012
Seattle	49	MLS, CONCACAF Champions League, US Open Cup	127	126
LA	46	MLS, CONCACAF Champions League, US Open Cup	120	107
Sporting KC	39	MLS, US Open Cup	146	131

 

As you can see from this small sample size the MLS teams play a significantly fewer games then their European counterparts and take a much longer break in between their seasons.  Even if a team is playing in the MLS Playoffs and CONCACAF Champions League their break is still long.

 

What is there to do about the significantly long breaks for many players? Is this something that the MLS should be worried about? Does it affect the players that are off for 140 days or so? Does it ultimately hurt the League in the way of prestige, talent, competitiveness? There are so many questions that can be asked and solutions that can be guessed on.  Some of the more fortunate players are afforded the opportunity to train with a European club or even go on loan to a European club.  But are those few players getting the most for their time or would it be better spent with their club here in the MLS?  This is a problem that MLS will need to look at sooner rather than later.