MLS commissioner Garber won’t rush ‘seismic’ calendar shift

The MLS commissioner, Don Garber, reiterated that a change in the calendar of the League will probably not come before the 2026 World Cup, insisting that a “seismic” change like this one would take time to implement.

Garber has teased the possibility of aligning MLS with the FIFA calendar, seeing a falling calendar in the spring instead of the calendar from February to December today that the League has used since its start of the game in 1996.

“We continue to assess the transition potential to the FIFA international game calendar,” Garber told Media before the MLS star match. “We do not make any announcements today, but we continue to do a lot of work with our fans, with our partners, with all our main football officers and with our clubs to get closer to the point that we are able to make this decision. But we think that this alignment is something that makes sense.

“If it will happen, it will happen after the 2026 World Cup. So making this change is seismic. It is not something that we should do light. We obviously have teams in several climatic zones, several time zones, unlike any other league in the world. I therefore prefer goods and take our schedule to make it in error and do it quickly, because life is long when it comes from something.”

Garber added that league officials will continue to rethink the calendar while considering a new list strategy and possible changes in the competition format. Several owners of clubs and directors general had previously expressed their frustration in the face of strict restrictions on the alignment of the league, claiming that the rules are hindering the growth and competition of the League on an international framework.

The MLS commissioner addressed the potential of the various regulations put in place to appease the teams and facilitate more ambitious teams.

“While we are entering the ABC negotiations, it is time for us to rethink while we are developing the future of our league, what should be our list strategy,” said Garber. “We are examining an evolution of our competition format which examines a different structure of our regular season. Think of different structures for conferences to think of a different format of qualifying series which, in our opinion, will be something that will maximize the competitiveness of our league, will do more than each regular season game counts even more than today and will engage our fans.

“We have rules because we examine the data. We assess where we adapt and how our resource allocation can help our league move forward. Now, if the objective is to win the club World Cup, which is, we must simply understand how to manage this in the global economic environment that exists today.

When asked if the league would plan to employ a season of two tournaments, such as the Liga MX format Clausura and Apertura, Garber said it was too early to discuss details.

“It is too early to talk about it [possibility of divisions or a Clausura/Apertura structure]”Said Garber.

“And it will make the regular season more significant. It will be more aligned with the rest of the world in terms of playing their competition.”

MLS is currently playing a regular season of 34 games, followed by a tournament in playoffs, where the best seven teams of each conference progress directly to compete in a series of the first round of the three advantages before moving on to a direct elimination format to reach the final. The teams ranked eighth and ninth of each conference in competition in an eliminatory series to qualify for the playoffs.

Garber also revealed that the MLS Cup will take place on December 6 of this year, the match which will be organized by the highest seed to get out of the two conferences.