Beckham Circus Hurting MLS

Major League Soc­cer in many ways has got­ten what it asked for when it signed David Beck­ham to a ridicu­lous con­tract in Jan­u­ary. By mak­ing the league appear des­per­ate for a sav­ior when it need not have, rear­rang­ing the sched­ule to show­case Beck­ham and mak­ing one of its worst teams the sym­bol of the league abroad, MLS has appeared to this point to strike out on all three counts. That’s a pity because this sea­son from a qual­ity of play stand­point has been the best in the his­tory of the league. Con­trary to the spin that comes from the league, the level of play has NOT con­sis­tently improved through­out the twelve years of MLS’ exis­tence. In fact I would strongly argue the league’s play was of a much higher stan­dard in 2000 than in 2005. Not only do I believe that is the case, but results of MLS clubs in inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions and in friend­lies ver­sus clubs from big­ger and more pres­ti­gious leagues bears out that reality.

Despite its blus­ter about con­stant improve­ment in the league, I sus­pect Don Gar­ber and the brass of MLS real­ized that they had to make great strides in 2007, espe­cially fol­low­ing the fash­ion­able bash­ing of MLS in the press after the US bowed out of World Cup 2006 with just one draw and two losses. MLS made the moves it had to acquir­ing qual­ity inter­na­tion­als like Juan Toja, Pablo Richetti, Guillermo Baros Sch­e­lotto, Cuauhte­moc Blanco, Paulo Wan­chope, Luciano Emilio, Fred, Juan Pablo Angel, Car­los Marinelli and Abel Xavier this sea­son. These sign­ings are a big rea­son why MLS 2007 has been a plea­sure to watch, and the afore­men­tioned names rep­re­sent the best col­lec­tive group of inter­na­tional sign­ings by MLS since at least 2000, and per­haps ever in the league’s his­tory. This is in addi­tion to the Superliga Tour­na­ment which show­cased MLS’ clubs in an ultra com­pet­i­tive inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tion where the league’s clubs more than passed the test of demon­strat­ing the qual­ity of MLS in 2007. Addi­tion­ally, the league is in bet­ter finan­cial stand­ing than ever before, with a lucra­tive TV con­tract (nego­ti­ated before David Beck­ham signed) and more and more Soc­cer spe­cific sta­di­ums being erected around the league.

But in a major mar­ket­ing folly, based once again on win­ning accep­tance with the anti soc­cer sports estab­lish­ment rather than win­ning respect and accep­tance among Latino and Euro­pean soc­cer fans in the US, the MLS has put every­thing on Beck­ham. That’s too much for one player to bur­den, albeit a world class player of unmatched pro­fes­sion­al­ism and per­sonal char­ac­ter like David Beck­ham. Nor is it fair, con­sid­er­ing MLS has done what it had to do in order to improve its prod­uct with or with­out David Beck­ham. Now with Beck­ham injured and not play­ing in front of sold out sta­di­ums on the road, MLS has become a laugh­ing stock and has given addi­tional fod­der to the anti soc­cer sports media estab­lish­ment who bashed Beck­ham (with­out know­ing any­thing about the man him­self) and MLS with the pre­ci­sion of well planned air strike on a defense­less city. By mak­ing Beck­ham, and not the ulti­mate improve­ment of the league the issue, MLS has helped to dig its own grave with the US Sports snob establishment.

David Beck­ham ulti­mately will play and con­tribute to the con­tin­ued improve­ment in the league’s qual­ity. But the cir­cus atmos­phere that sur­rounded his arrival and the way his sign­ing way han­dled by Major League Soc­cer ulti­mately has been coun­ter­pro­duc­tive to the con­tin­ued growth of the league and the sport in the United States.