With professional soccer leagues around the world making announcements for leagues to start to begin play again, the MLS is looking to join the list, with a league wide tournament that will be held in Orlando at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Teams will start training June 1st, which will last for 3-4 weeks. Teams will compete against each other with zero fans in attendance. This proposal needs to still be approved by the players association, along with a 20% pay cut across the board along with other monetary concessions.
One proposed format for the tournament would see the league’s teams divided into groups, with each team playing around five games during the group stage. This would be followed by a knockout stage, with “consolation games” staged to make sure each team played the same number of matches.
There are many different factors that play into the decision as to whether the tournament will happen or not, and testing all players and staff is another issues in itself. There is also debate as to whether these games will count in towards regular season play. Luckily, fans will be able to see new and returning faces in the MLS hopefully next month, and soccer will be back in the states before we know it.
thoughtsfromthebench.com 