What would make the MLS Better?

Last week I illustrated that FIFA's international competitions are top notch, awhile nothing is perfect, FIFA is years ahead of any of sport.

Transitioning into another topic of conversation is FIFA's club competitions. There is a lot of them if your wondering. Every country has their own cup tournament and every content has their own cup as. The exception is Europe and South America which have two continental cups.

Yesterday, the 2018 UEFA Champions League got under way and my guess is you hadn't heard. That's because, none of the big teams like Barcelona or Real Madrid were playing. Theses games yesterday were the opening round games where unheard of teams like Víkingur Gøta from Faroe Islands and FC Santa Coloma from Moldova started their Champions League campaigns.

To say these teams are small teams would be a under statement. In fact, an MLS side would likely have an easy time defeating them. As a semi fan of the MLS, I know there are a few problems.  First of which is the MLS Cup. This shouldn't be a league run like the NBA or NHL where there is playoffs at the end of the season.

MLS needs to get it right. Fans refuse to watch the American product because its operated like anything else in North American which takes away from why soccer is unique. The result is that fans will continue to watching the EPL on NBCSN and the Budisliga on FS1 instead.

For the sake of having more interest in the MLS, how about the winner of the entire MLS goes into the first round of the UEFA Champions League Draw. If this was the case, my fandom for the Vancouver Whitecaps would go through the roof in the hope that the Whitecaps could progress through the stages of the Champions League.

No fans dream about winning the MLS Cup or even the CONCACAF Cup for that matter based on the attendance with some teams. Therefore, both of those teams should be abolished with spots given to the UCL MLS clubs and spots given to the Copa Libertadores for the Central American and Caribbean teams.

I'm not the first person to come up with this idea. Or the last. It's not that much of a stretch of an idea either. Mexican teams already compete in the Copa Libertadores and more than hold their own.
People shoot down the idea quickly usually with the amount of travel MLS clubs have. However, flying from New York to Buenos Aires, Argentina is about the same time it takes to fly to Western Europe.

To me it's worth a try, if they can't compete in the Champions League, they will definitely hold their own in the Europa League.

A soccer website, https://www.transfermarkt.com demonstrates how much each team in the world's players are worth. While it is truly clear why the teams that dominate Europe dominate, it also points out that the MLS is equal in level to the bottom half of Europe.

Toronto FC holds the highest worth team at 25 Million where FC Astana from Kazakhstan competed in the Champions League Group stage two years ago has a team value of 17 Million.

The Champions League is in need of a cinderella story which hasn't seen much since APOEL which resides in Cyprus made the quarterfinals in 2012.

The dream is probably years away from coming to reality but the move would benefit MLS with the potential to provide storylines in the Uefa Champions League.