The American Professional Football League is known as a retirement home for football legends after experiencing heroic years of their careers. We will help you better understand what is the MLS American Professional Football League?
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What is the MLS American Professional Football League?
Major League Soccer (MLS) is an American professional football league. This is the highest level football tournament of the United States and Canada and is managed by the American Football Federation (USSF). MLS has 23 American teams and 3 Canadian teams participating. In the future, the MLS will increase the total number of teams to 30 when a number of teams have registered to establish and recruit players. The headquarters of MLS is located in New York City.
MLS was founded in 1993 during the period when the country was preparing to host the 1994 World Cup. However, in 1996, the first season of MLS officially took place. The league had to go through a difficult period financially when in the first season lost $ 1 million, many teams had to play on an empty rugby field, by 2002 2 teams were dissolved. .
Since then, the number of teams has been expanded to 26 teams, and specialized football fields have become more and more popular. Even the average viewership surpasses both the US professional hockey league (NHL) and the US professional basketball league (NBA). The Designated Player Law allows teams to sign superstars like David Beckham, the league already profitable with national television rights.
Instead of acting as associations of independently owned football teams. The MLS is the only entity where each team is owned by the league's investors. Investors will run the team like the owners of other league teams and they are usually considered the owners of that club. MLS is also one of the few leagues in the world that does not apply the rules of promotion and relegation.
History of formation and development of MLS.
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In 1988, after being awarded the right to host the 1994 World Cup by FIFA, American football promised to establish a leading professional football tournament. In 1993, the USSF decided to choose Major League Professional Soccer (the predecessor of MLS) as the first division professional football league. MLS was officially established in February 2015 in the form of a limited company.
The first season of the MLS began in 1996 with the participation of 10 teams. By 1998, the number of teams was increased to 12 when the Miami Fusion and Chicago Fire registered for the tournament. In the first few seasons, MLS faced many difficulties due to the small number of fans coming to the field, only 8 of the first 10 teams attending MLS were able to compete in major US stadiums. Another part makes MLS less attractive because of miscalculations in popularizing this sport in the US.
MLS applies the penalty kick to solve the match fate when the main kick time has a draw result. The tournament also uses a countdown timer and each half ends when the clock reaches 0:00. However, after the 1999 season, the penalty shootout and countdown timer were cancelled. The quality of MLS was questioned when the US team finished at the bottom of the table at the 1998 World Cup.
In the first 5 seasons, MLS lost $250 million and in 2004 lost another $350 million. In 2002, Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion withdrew from the MLS and announced its dissolution, returning the league to 10 teams as it was at its inception.
In 1999, Columbus Crew was the first MLS team to own a football stadium. This created a wave of building their own stadiums in the MLS instead of renting an American football field. After the success of the US team at the 2002 World Cup with the achievement of reaching the quarterfinals, American football and MLS revived again and attracted 61,316 to Gillette Stadium in the 2002 MLS Cup.
The tournament began to lose some prominent stars when they went to Europe to play. For example, Tim Howard moved to Man Utd for $ 4 million and became the most profitable MLS contract. Since then, many stars have made an impact on the league.
From 2003 to 2008, MLS oversaw the construction of 6 new football stadiums and now most of the teams in MLS own a stadium dedicated to football.
In 2007, MLS expanded to Canada and Toronto FC was the first team to attend. MLS has taken a huge step forward with the application of the Designated Player Rule to bring famous stars to the league. David Beckham was the first name to launch MLS, most of the players who joined MLS under the Designated Players Law made a significant contribution to the team.
In 2013, MLS became the 3rd most watched sports league in the US after the NFL and the US Major League Baseball (MLB) and the 7th most followed football league in the world.
By 2015, MLS attracted media attention when there were many stars from Europe playing including Giovanni dos Santos, Kaká, Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Didier Drogba, David Villa and Sebastian Giovinco.
In the 2020 season, MLS has 26 participating teams. By 2022, the MLS will have a total of 30 teams in attendance with Austin FC, Charlotte entering in 2021 and Sacramento, St. Louis in 2022.
MLS . Competition Format.
The official MLS season usually takes place from March to October. Teams are divided into 2 regions East and West according to geographical location. Each team will play 34 matches according to an unbalanced schedule. In 2020 with the participation of 26 teams, each team will play in the first leg and return format with the same region teams and 10 matches with the other League teams. The MLS 2020 season is the first season where a team will not face the other 3 teams of the League.
In the middle of the season, teams will take a break for the All-Star Game, a friendly match between the MLS All-Stars team against another league team. At the end of the official season, the teams with the highest scores will compete for the title of Supporters' Shield.
Unlike other football tournaments in the world, but similar to the format of American football tournaments, after the main season of MLS will be the knockout round after the season. Fourteen teams will compete in the MLS Cup Playoffs in October, culminating in the MLS Cup final in early November.
The spring-to-fall schedule coincides with the FIFA calendar and summer international tournaments such as the World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup, causing some players to miss some games in the MLS. As MLS considers changing the schedule from fall to spring but there is no official announcement yet. But if the schedule changes, there will certainly be a long winter break due to inclement weather. At the same time, MLS will also have to compete with the NFL, NHL and NBA also taking place in the fall - spring format.
MLS representatives attending the CONCACAF Champions League will include 4 American teams and 1 Canadian team. 2 American teams topped the 2 regions, MLS Cup and US Open Cup winners and 1 Canadian team entered the Champions League as Canadian champions. Since MLS changed its format in 2008, no MLS team has won the CONCACAF Champions League.
Teams that have won MLS
LA Galaxy (5): 2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014
DC United (4): 1996, 1997, 1999, 2004
San Jose Earthquakes (2): 2001, 2003
Sporting Kansas City (2): 2000, 2013
Seattle Sounders FC (2): 2016, 2019
Houston Dynamo (2): 2006, 2007
Teams have won 1 time: Columbus Crew (2008), Chicago Fire (1998), Toronto FC (2017), Real Salt Lake (2009), Colorado Rapids (2010), Portland Timbers (2015), Atlanta United (2018)
Above is the information about the American Professional Football League MLS. Website will send readers information about other tournaments through the next articles.
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