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DeAndre Yedlin in favor of implementing promotion/relegation in MLS

Add DeAndre Yedlin to list of people who think Major League Soccer would be better off with promotion and relegation.

Yedlin did an interview with ESPN this week in which he spoke about a range of topics, including how he thinks MLS can improve. The Newcastle United fullback stated he believes that adopting promotion and relegation would be greatly beneficial to the the league, as it would make for a more cutthroat environment in which matches mean more.

“There’s a different energy to when you win or lose a game in MLS to when you win or lose here. It is that feeling that here, every game matters,” Yedlin told ESPN. “Kids here are growing up knowing about relegation and how important it is and things like that. (In the United States and Canada), there’s just not that feel for it yet.

“If that got introduced, the league would be much more competitive. Something needs to be done to take the league more seriously, and I think that would be good.”

A former Seattle Sounders player, Yedlin joins a growing list of players that have recently come out in favor of Major League Soccer adopting promotion and relegation. DaMarcus Beasley told SBI last year before he retired that the league would benefit from introducing the system that is used widely around the rest of the world, while former LA Galaxy striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic hit out at how the structure of the MLS season puts an emphasis on making the playoffs.

Like his former U.S. Men’s National Team teammate Beasley, Yedlin talked about how there is an overall indifference to defeats in MLS in the current system.

“My first game playing with Seattle we lost and I was pissed off and really frustrated and I remember them saying, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and this and that,” said Yedlin. “Obviously you have to keep a balance of how you react to games and losses and wins and things like that, but I remember thinking, ‘How can these guys be so not angry about a loss?'”

Yedlin noted it would be difficult to introduce promotion and relegation in MLS because of the financial implications. He added, however, that he believed implementing the system would help breed a more competitive environment that would both help the league’s perception abroad and push players to another level.

“It was actually quite tough for me in the beginning,” said Yedlin of heading to Europe. “There were times when I was like, ‘This is too much,’ the jump from MLS to here in all aspects of it, not just the football aspect. I remember being in my apartment thinking like, ‘I can’t do this, I want to go back.’

“…I’ve learned a lot about myself and I think I’ve learned things about myself that I definitely wouldn’t have learnt if I wouldn’t have come over here.”

Comments

  1. until someone demonstrates a pro/rel argument that includes the financials required of MLS to maintain the system there will be no pro/rel. there simply is not enough money in terms of broadcast and sponsorship (never mind tepid attendance at stadiums) to keep mls afloat in a pro/rel world. the owners, who already lose A TON of money, will never opt for something riskier just to “align with the rest of the world” and appease a bunch of internet trolls.

    it simply cannot work given the current state of the league so it’s laughable that pro/rel is held as this fix-all as if when mls implements it they become the top league in the world and the us wins every world cup forever…

    Reply
    • “until someone demonstrates a pro/rel argument that includes the financials required of MLS to maintain the system”

      1.) MLS does not implement promotion and relegation (even if they wanted to). Leagues can’t do that; only federations can. The federation and MLS should not be one and the same and its the federation who grants MLS and other leagues divisional sanctions, etc. to be recognized by FIFA. If MLS doesn’t want to do it, fine…they can then forgo their divisional sanction and allow USSF to create and organize the football pyramid.

      2.) Have the federation announce #prorel today with the intention of implementing it in say arbitrarily 5 years time (after all, Sunil Gulati said in a 2009 NYT article, “Questions about promotion/relegation, schedule — they are second-half issues. We will need to be more mature. Maybe 10 years down the road with a couple more southern teams, maybe one dome, more passionate fans. Is it the next year or two? No.”…so we’re kinda behind the eight ball on that one fellas).

      “there will be no pro/rel. there simply is not enough money in terms of broadcast and sponsorship (never mind tepid attendance at stadiums) to keep mls afloat in a pro/rel world. the owners, who already lose A TON of money, will never opt for something riskier just to “align with the rest of the world” and appease a bunch of internet trolls.”

      3.) To be fair, MLS artificially caps the potential growth of any soccer league in the US because it’s a sanctioned monopoly. We don’t know what types of broadcast and sponsorship deals would exist in a world where US clubs/franchises could actually compete on merit. It could be as you say, but I would wager that there would be greater national interest and investment if the sport was open to everybody and everyone had a fighting chance to get to the first division (or even lower tiers of the pyramid).

      4.) Re: internet trolls, perhaps there hasn’t been enough well-thought out discussion from the media and others (#prorel advocates like myself included) re: explaining why promotion and relegation is such a necessary thing. It’s not only about increasing competition. That’s part of it for sure, but for me the main reason we need it is because it aligns the business side of soccer with the development side. Hopefully, I can be succinct with this:
      – a.) #ProRel allows teams to make their way up the pyramid
      – b.) But it also provides for a free market where owners, coaches, etc. can determine how best to use their resources to achieve their goals because it activates two mechanisms essential to player development: 1.) training compensation and 2.) solidarity payments
      – c.) Of course there will be clubs that want to spend $$$ on name-brand players, but there will be plenty of others who will choose to invest that same $$$ in their academies/scouting networks because a.) that’s their prerogative and b.) the market is now able to 1.) reward teams up and down the pyramid for developing/finding cheap, but good players and selling that at a major profit that benefits the training/scouting clubs and 2.) incentivize those developing clubs to create players actually capable of making an impact for professional first teams all throughout the pyramid and the world because of the compensatory fees they’ll receive for them.
      – d.) I think MLS owners are either ignorant or don’t know what they could potentially have with #prorel. I think they’re potential for making more $$$ is much much greater if they were to open the system rather than keep it closed — both on the development side re: the sale of players and on the business side re: better TV deals (no more no-bid SUM contracts!) and sponsorship deals (e.g., allowing each club to negotiate with kit manufacturers for exclusive deals, etc.).

      “it simply cannot work given the current state of the league so it’s laughable that pro/rel is held as this fix-all as if when mls implements it they become the top league in the world and the us wins every world cup forever…”

      It’s not a fix-all. Problems still exist with it, but I find it laughable that we’re not willing to test it before we immediately dismiss that it won’t work. In my opinion, not implementing it will continue to stifle and or reduce development.

      Reply
  2. MLS channel had the Bayern Munich and Chelsea All Star games from the past, and it was clearly evident the intensity in those matches from MLS was way higher than what would be seen in regular season games. So they do have the potential to play with a higher intensity for something more meaningful; this only helps the players in the long run to improve.

    Reply
  3. “DeAndre Yedlin in favor of implementing promotion/relegation in MLS” is more like DeAndre Yedlin is in favor of “having MLS players understand what it means to fight game after game to stay afloat in a Division 1 league”

    A league with serious competition, when every game matters and when failure has consequences, builds character….

    Reply
  4. Time to brand Yedlin Eurosnob in 3, 2, 1…(cue in all the deluded folk here)

    In the meantime, beating Mexico will be the equivalent of winning the World Cup, and games against Trinidad and Jamaica will be the true tests for that third spot in concacaf qualifying onto another cycle of mediocrity…

    But, please, quit whinning about soccer in the US…plastic turfs and all…

    Reply
    • Your comment looks a bit ironic on the day when Mexico suspends pro/rel for 5 years!
      Repeat after me: This is not happening in the US! It is much more likely that pro/rel will be suspended in other countries than implemented here. And that’s ok!

      Reply

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