Sepp Blatter has gotten himself in hot water for recent comments, but the FIFA president steered clear of controversy when talking about Major League Soccer.
In an interview with Fox Soccer, Blatter addressed the MLS schedule, maintaining his position that it would be better if the league aligned itself with the European calendar as opposed to continuing the March-to-November schedule.
"If (U.S. Soccer) has the courage to change, they will do it," Blatter said in an interview that will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel during the week. "But they need some time to change that – to adapt to the international calendar. It means to the European calendar. It would be better for U.S. Soccer, and specifically also for the [United States] national team. And the popularity inside the country."
Prior to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, MLS officials appeared more open to the idea of shifting to the European calendar as a concession to having the United States secure hosting rights for the 2022 event, but that was before FIFA gave the hosting rights to Qatar. No radical change to an August-to-May schedule appears imminent, even though Blatter says that MLS is heading toward that direction.
Here are a couple of more items to get your Tuesday going:
TWELLMAN REPLACES HARKES IN TV BOOTH
There will be a noticeable change during MLS and U.S. Soccer television broadcasts next year.
Former New England Revolution and national team striker Taylor Twellman will reportedly replace John Harkes in the ESPN TV booth for MLS and U.S. national team games, taking his seat alongside lead play-by-play voice Ian Darke.
Twellman was the color commentator for Philadelphia Union games this past season and has done studio work with ESPN for MLS and U.S. games. The oft-criticized Harkes, meanwhile, did not have his contract renewed by the network.
ANELKA LINKED WITH CHINESE CLUB
Well-traveled Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka is a name frequently linked with MLS teams as a potential Designated Player signing, but he reportedly has interest from the other side of the world as well.
Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua is looking to sign Anelka during the winter transfer window for a reported £9.17 million salary, according to The Guardian, something that would likely price him out of MLS range.
The 32-year-old Anelka's contract with Chelsea expires this summer, when he will become a free agent and therefore a more attractive signing for MLS teams, who wouldn't have to pay a transfer fee for his services.
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Do you think MLS should align itself with the European calendar? Think Twellman is a better choice for the TV booth for MLS and U.S. games? Would you want your MLS team to sign Anelka?
Share your thoughts below.
would Love to see Glenn Davis with Ian Darke. That would be the best team
A break from November to mid-February? But doesn’t MLS currently play into November, and then resume in March?
It is official the Winter MLS schedule is a very stupid idea……Blatter thinks it is a good idea.
This is nuts, I was thinking ESPN should do this at the last game against Slovenia. Twellman will be an exceptional analyst.
Of all the things Blatter has said recently, this is probably the least idiotic. Granted that’s not saying much, but at least I can see where he’s coming from on this. That said, the MLS scheduling system is a much more complicated issue than Blatter, or any European based FIFA exec for that matter, probably realizes.
At the moment, I don’t see moving to a European calendar as a viable option. While the league has grown substantially and made gigantic leaps and bounds in the last decade, the reality is that it’s still trying to gain a foothold in this country and teams are still fighting to turn profits. Putting weather issues aside for this debate (I agree they could be solved by a winter break and creative scheduling), I would say the biggest issue is that a majority of MLS fans are people who are fans of the game and who want to see it succeed in the US. Essentially, they’re fringe fans. Sure there are diehards in every city, but I doubt the league can survive on those fans alone. The reality at the moment is that for MLS to be successful, it NEEDS the fringe fan to pay attention, tune in on TV every once in awhile and attend a couple games here and there throughout the course of the season.
While I understand the idea that ending the season when there’s no competition as opposed to starting it when there’s no competition would increase people’s opportunity to watch and be excited about the MLS playoffs, I just don’t see there being enough revenue in that short time frame to keep the league going and growing (at least not in the current MLS fan climate).
If you increase the competition for the fringe fans’ time and attention, I think you see drastic dips in attendance during the regular season and TV ratings for regular season games (which are already relatively low) drop substantially. If that happens, I don’t care how much interest you generate around the playoffs, it won’t matter if there are only a few teams who can financially manage to get there.
Just my .02.
“But MLS must get with with the program and build magic heating robot clouds for their new winter schedule… then they will be a real league!”
I agree. If the Football was a nation Twellman would be a gun loving, bible hugging redneck. He opposes to single table he says is not American enough and you ever saw his tweets man does that guy not know what he talks about saying Agudelo is over rated during the Argentina game saying we should have larentowicz there instead. Tell ESPN to hire Andres Cantor.
Network TV > Subscription TV.
Boston is colder than Stockholm. Which means, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania have less severe winters than Boston, but not Ukraine. Poland has winters like Germany, so do all the others you listed. Geography analysis is faulty. [FYI, I’ve spent three winters in Sweden, it’s not marginally different than a Winter in Utah]
Also, that’s a freaking LONG break! Which none of them do. It’s more like 4 weeks, not 10.
Vancouver isn’t the problem winter. It’s SLC, Denver, Chicago, Columbus, Toronto, Montreal, Boston.
No, this a no brainer from an American perspective.
He also referred to a person that succeeds as a “successor”.
“Hmmm…everyone is calling me stupid and a racist…I know…lets try to rally the world support against the American league and its schedule!!! I am sure I can get people to unite against them and forget about my recent headlines. Competing against all those other sports while playing soccer in the winter in the Pacific North, New England, Salt Lake, Colorado and much of Canada seems like a no-brainer and should be something we can solve with a handshake + courage, plus it will make soccer more popular in the US by magic…..oh…speaking of schedules…I need to look at moving the World Cup to the Winter and push some of the winter leagues into the summer when we play in Qutar…turns out it really is hot there and they might not really have magic air conditioning robot clouds in time.”
EuroSnob the marketing wizard speaking to a potential customer:
EuroSnob: Crow (sic) a pair and get out there and support your team in crappy weather.
Potential Customer: No
Perhaps Blatter wants us to use Qatar’s airconditioned stadiums in winter… oh, wait, Qatar was advised by construction companies/engineers that the technology for such stadiums does not exist and, in any event would, would not be not viable in a Qatar’s brutally hot climate. I bet FIFA will try to reschedule the WC from the summer to winter as we get closer to 2022.
3 quid
He’s just really good at being an idiot.
Won’t miss his biased, petty comments at all. Now he’ll rip into ESPN every chance he gets.
I just hope my former coach and current GolTV announcer Ray Hudson moves over to ESPN. He would drive them crazy and they will have to bring Harkesy back!
And just for reference; Twellman was a loud mouthed pre-madona on the field as well. Awesome!!!!!
#BlatterOUT
There is no problem with our schedule nor calendar’s and there is no conflict with the ‘European calendar’ Sepp…..Just shake hands with it.
I cannot believe that people actually think Twellman is going to be an improvment over Harkes, and that the idea of actually having a cold month season is being entertained (if it really is)
NFL diehard have to squeeze a few games in (maybe 3 home games when it’s really cold in december) …they have a total of 8 home games and most of them are when it’s JUST starting to get cold.
Can you imagine sitting in Red Bull Arena or in Massassachutes in Jan and Feb? they would be 3,000 people in the stands.
That’s because the Russians are changing their calendar next season.
#BlatterOUT
What an imbecile.
I hear ya. But what I like is that it’s bold. Harkes wasn’t really working out. Twellman brings energy and hopefully a spark.
At this point lets keep cycling thru until we find a good one.
What I like most about Twellman is he’s a move away from the “dumbing down” the sport for the audience.
Count another who is NOT excited for Twellman. By no means am I a fan of Harkes. However, when I read that Twellman was the replacement, I was less happy than when I thought Harkes would continue.
I thought I would like Twellman; he seemed like a level headed player, and gave alright interviews. Then I had to witness the last 6 months with his constant whining and negative comments. I could at least ignore Harkes. Twellman burrows into your brain like a weevil.
+1
@ Euro Super Snob:
Why wouldn’t you play in Vancouver in the coldest weeks before and after the break? The WhiteCaps play in a Dome. And only 1 of the dozen dumb things in your post.
He=Harkes, of course, not DC Josh.
Resisting impulse to attack the person who calmly expresses a preference, but I’m actually amazed. He is illiterate. He simply says words to say words. “Three hat trick opportunities [for Christman], no goals.” (Wouldn’t that be nine chances he missed?)
“Robbie Keane, thinking he had the first opening goal of this MLS Cup FInal.” The second opening goal, of course, is worth only half a point.
I will not miss this guy.
Actually, Russia plays a March to November calendar, and I don’t hear Blatter blabbing on about Russia changing their league’s schedule.
Completely agree. When Twellman was asked before the MLS Cup which team he picked to win he responded with something like “I HATE both teams – so neither!”. You just can’t pay enough for commentary like that. Harkes is weak, no doubt – he speaks in sentence fragments, his analysis is weak, and he often comes off a bit pretentious. Twellman on the other hand sounds like a complete blowhard, like a surly college student spouting one-liners. Not impressed.
Glad to see Harkes go. I was never a fan of his. I actually like Taylor Twellman. I got to think some where Eric Wynalda is smiling though.
We currently have a perfect winter break. It lasts from two days ago until March. Do you really think February would be a good time to play in Denver, Chicago, DC, Philly, KC, New Jersey, Columbus, Colorado, Salt Lake, Toronto, or Montreal?
It would be interesting to hear from a player whether they would rather play in Toronto in Feb or Houston in August. Just a thought.
You may be joking with the “Soccer Bowl” comment, but the NASL final back in the day was actually called that, hahahah
Just opinion, of course. But, man, I don’t see it. Maybe Harkes was overly critical at times but at least there was some thought to his statements — some soccer intelligence. Twellman has zero soccer nous, no tactical insight, just sits there and blurts out things like “Awesome!” and “I like that!” It’s embarrassing, frankly. For a former professional soccer player, he’s not much better than Roger Twibell.
I like Harkes in the booth. This was a big mistake by ESPN. It also doesn’t help that Ian Darke is so good that he makes anyone else in the booth sound horrible. I honestly rarely pay attention to the analysts anyways as I am so into the game.
Creative scheduling to only play in warmer areas during the winter, huh… Not a bad idea, until you remember that leaves just LA, Dallas, and Houston to host games. At least until Orlando and Atlanta join, but even then…
Also: Why are you so insistent on the Fall-Spring schedule, Solles? Don’t you enjoy having year-round soccer? Do you really want to go three months with nothing to watch but baseball?!
There are a lot of issues with MLS moving to a European schedule. But one that is rarely brought up is this: there is no true European schedule. Oh, there’s a general approach–things start up in August, end in May. Except b/c of climates, some take weeks off in December-January while others plan on. Others start earlier or end later. There is no uniform, rigid European calendar b/c the climate in Denmark doesn’t match the climate in Italy.
What a lot of Europeans like Blatter forget is the USA may be “one” country but it’s a range of climate zones. It’s not just about playing soccer in February in Toronto. B/c MLS could take a month off in the middle of the season say in January. Which would be a golden time to be playing soccer in Florida or Texas or Arizona.
The USA can look at a calendar that runs Fall to early Summer when Europe has a consistent calendar–all countries start and end at the same time, take breaks at the same time.
agreed. the number of times twellman says “awesome” should disqualify him from getting this much air time. I wish they would just get McManaman to do the USMNT games.
I agree that taking a break mid-season poses a challenge for American fans.
I have an American style solution though, albeit one inspired by South America:
Apertura and Clausura – a Fall Season and a Spring Season.
Two for the price of one? What could be a better deal than that?
You get an MLS champion in November and another one in July.
Then you have a bunch of international exhibition games packing in big crowds in August. Call it Happy Hour.
You still get your break like now – but you get two championships in each year.
You could even have the Apertura winner play the Clausura winner in the…..Soccer Bowl.
A sports federation with more income than than the GDP of some countries…
NBC is rumored to be getting Arlo White and Kyle Martino.
Thank you. I wasn’t sure. I knew they had been on a different schedule.
Good, because a three month winter break in some markets is stupid.
Once we switch the calendar, Blatter will have to complain that we need to “align” the name of the sport with the rest of FIFA.
Actually i’ve always found Twellman to be much more insightful than Harkes, who seemed to always phone it in. Both are loudmouth blowhards, but that’s not always such a bad thing in announcers.
+1
Harkes has actually improved. Which is not to say that he’s not annoying, he is, but Twellman is a whiney contrarian so this certainly represents no improvement to me. In fact, I’d say it’s a regression.
I think Twellman is outstanding. He definitely doesn’t just “whine” or point out negative things. He often breaks down the game in the booth and notices smaller things (like the distribution from a keeper or the positioning of a player) that more advanced audiences enjoy. Yes, he wears his heart on his sleeve but I personally like that. Plus, he’s new on the job and can only grow.
For a league trying to establish itself, draw in casual fans, attract fans from other sports, and really cement a place in American sports culture, is taking a 6 week break and disappearing in the middle of the season the best way to do all that?
I’m a big soccer fan….but if the game is played in the Northeast between late November and Early March I’m watching on TV. I bet I’m not alone.
I also like how MLS doesn’t completely overlap with the Euros, so in America we have the advantage of year round soccer – especially in World Cup Years.
Russia is switching to the standard European calendar next season.
How long a winter break? There already is a winter break — November (except for playoffs), December, January and into mid-March. What do you propose to cut from that break? Play to Thanksgiving? Mid-December? Christmas? When would the league re-start? You’re saying not January — even though that’s when most EUro leagues resume. So, when? Mid-February is still brutal up north. FIrst or second week of March? OK, so now we’re moving that 2 or3 weeks? And we’ve gained a month on the other end — maybe 6 weeks, if you forget the playoffs.
What do we gain? A break, from July 4 to end of August, when MLS gets its biggest crowds. And, playing through some rough cold weather — maybe a little easier on the players than playing in August, but much harder on the fans, and murder on the fields. But, it would align us with EUrope and that’s got all these intangible benefits….