If competition formats are different, thats a-okay.

But the problem is when different countries adopt different rules. Itll overcomplicate things.

The seasons which MLS is being played, the no promotion / no relegation issue, the golden goal overtime replaced by full extra time, etc. – those are all “competition formattings” and they differ from tournament to tournament around the world. Changing that, or sticking to the one America currently uses, is alright by all means.

But the problem begins when Americans, or any other country, decide to play by their own rules of the game. This is different.. this concerns timing, countdown clocks, stupid 35-yard penalty shootouts, etc. When people change formats, its natural. When people change rules, it ruins the homogenous medium of the world game. Whats played in England should be played the same elsewhere.

The fact that Major League Soccer was not recognized by FIFA before 2003 is what made it almost fail and decide to implement standardized world soccer rules. It was a clown show back then, where 204/205 countries belonging to FIFA, as well as FIFA itself, had no recognition or support to the league. And only America actually spoke about it. And with that, it failed to attract any American. Why should an American be bothered following up with a league that is only recognized within his four walls. That was the problem…

And MLS today is totally different. Part of its success is that it “standardized” itself to accomodate the world criterea. It decided to follow what the rest of the world was doing for well over a hundred yrs. And this is behind their success story. I am very ecstatic about it, and I hope people dont come with these devilish ideas of “Americazning” their league, because itll ruin so much that they built for in the past six years.

All in all simplicity is the key. Football is successful because its simple, and effective. It offers players more freedom than any other game in the world. No shot clocks, no backcourt violations, the freedom to truly express yourself, defensively or offensively, albeit its this fluidity and freedom which defines it a sport. Otherwise itll be another carbon copy of scripted wrestling entertainment. Its a beautiful simple game, and the fact its currently homogenous worldwide is attributed to its purity. Fact is, we should encourage standardizations, rather than “Americanization”, “Anglicization”, “Hellenization” or whatever othet term different countries wanna use for themselves.

Part of the success of the Women’s team in the US has been that when it won the World Cup in the US we could feel part of the world. The MLS as well as the USMNT need to still capture that feeling for the public at large.

Americanizing Major League Soccer is gonna take you 10 steps back to how the league was during the mid-90s.

Apparently whoever wrote that article didnt know MLS had its OWN sets of rules before 2003 season. The Americanized version of soccer isolated American soccer fans from the rest of the world. Every other country in the world follows FIFA’s standardized rule system, the most simplistic and beautiful system of football so far. America, on the other hand, was experimenting with its own rules for far too long, and it proved to be unsuccessful. Finally in 2003, MLS board decided to adopt the FIFA universal laws of the game, and since then the league has kicked off, attracting more and more people into its doorsteps.

If MLS goes back to its Americanized, pre-2003, rule system, it will destroy everything that they have built for the past six-seven years. Do you honestly want that to happen?

Forget about basketball or other sports. In soccer, the simpler the better. Changing rules every single year, or isolating yourself from 5.7 billion people out there is complete nonsense.

Why do you think the english premier league and spanish leagues are popular? its because everyone can pick them up and enjoy the matches without having to learn about the “new rules”.

In Asia, football is played the same way as Europe. In Europe, football is played the same way as Africa. And in Africa, football is played the same way as south america. This makes things homogenous and easier to follow-up. It links the world together, and nobody feels isolated.

But in America, the sole reason why soccer has failed in the past was because many traditonal soccer fans didnt bother reading about America’s soccer league. They didnt care about an egotistical league with its own “version” of the game. And American soccer fans didnt wanna follow up with a local league which wasnt recognized or given a toss about from the outside world. So it made them more isolated, and it discouraged even the Americans from liking it. The Americans wanna feel theyre part of something bigger than them, they wanna feel they are part of the world. Having your own Americanized version of soccer is rediculous. And a true testament to that is how NCAA Soccer is failing. If NCAA decides to follow FIFA rules one day, itll gain more recognition from the world, and people would enjoy watching it more.

Soccer was dying until MLS started following the international standard. Now it’s finally starting to take off.

Appeal to soccer fans. They’re the ones who stay and are loyal.

Their NBA is the undisputed no. 1 of its kind, their NHL is also the elite tournament (even if Canadians are actually the best at it!), there is only one NFL so obviously it is the best and their baseball was a “World Series” even when there were nothing but American teams in it. Get the pattern here?

If their football League was recognised by all as the best on earth, they would not only attract the best players, but the fans would flock to it. Why do you think Pele, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Moore, Muller, Best, Eusebio and countless others went to the US of A in the '70's? It was to give star quality to the young NASL. Much the same with Beckham today.

Now if they could only do it while the greats of the game are at their peak instead of retired from internationals, they would be on to something.

The fans of foreign leagues are the ones that MLS should view as their potential viewers. Converting other sports fans would be harder. Of course MLS TRIES so hard to alienate those with knowledge of the game (see CONCSCAF CL games).

Improve and develop our style of football in this country by letting our players play and paying our best very well when they deserve it. From this will come incentive, and inspiration and excitement. This will take time.

Basketball in the US has been around for 100+ years and American Football for about 80. They are our games and they've had time to blossom into something amazing on their own. I've seen some old BBall games from the the 60's and 70's. Yuck! Please…they were soooo slow and boring. No tricks, no jams, no dunks, no 3's for petes sake! Look what we have now! Incredible. PointyBall was more like rugby when it started out. Who knows how or why they chose the name Football when they could've called it Cricket or Tennis. I'm getting away from my point here. When 'football' started there was no forward pass. The concept of the forward pass came about after something like 20 years.
These elements add excitement to these games but they are our games. However, Football, the Beautiful Game, the World Game,is not for us to alter. But maybe one day, in my lifetime, the world will want to play the game the way the US plays.

While the other major sports in the U.S. boasts the world's best players, MLS (or any league in Europe for that matter) can make that claim. It's important however to try to hold on to good players in MLS, rather than creating a perception that MLS is a developmental league for the rest of the world..