Inter Miami coach Phil Neville criticized Major League Soccer (MLS) for delays in announcing the playoff format for next season. It’s also not the first time we’ve seen Inter Miami criticize MLS.
Neville claims that the lack of information about the proposed playoff format a week before the start of the season is one of the reasons why the league is not considered among the best leagues in the world.
Proposed MLS changes
MLS’s proposed format change is intended to increase the total number of games in the league.
The proposed change will also accommodate more inventory for the MLS season pass on Apple TV and generate more game-related revenue for owners.
It’s also been reported that MLS wants to make sure every playoff entrant hosts at least one broadcast of a postseason game.
Additionally, a proposed change to a best-of-three round will see MLS expand the league to include nine teams from each conference. The eighth and ninth seeds will contest a play-in match if the new format is adopted.
The winner would advance and face their respective conference’s top seed in the best-of-three conference quarterfinals. This format would also see a minimum of 25 playoff games.
The regular season will begin next week, on February 25, marking the first season in a 10-year partnership with Apple.
The tech giant has paid a staggering $2.5 billion to acquire the rights to show every MLS game. The deal is believed to be one reason the league is considering expanding the playoffs.
INTER MIAMI CRITICIZES THE MLS
Neville, who is frustrated by the lack of information, said in an interview with The Athletic,
“We are six, seven days away from the first game of the season; we don’t know the format of the playoffs. I think that’s poor.
“When you talk about professionalism and ‘elite,’ I think when you’re seven days into the season, we had conversations here, and one of our players asked one of the MLS guys the other day ‘what is the system playoffs’ and they said,
We do not know. And I say, ‘That’s not elite.’ Are you talking about the differences between the UK and the US? We talk about the intensity of the fans. (This is another) big difference.”
The former Manchester United player continued,
“If we want to be the best and compare ourselves with the best leagues, this should have been decided two months ago. So that bothers me a little.”
“We have planned the whole season and we don’t really know when the season ends and how many games we have after the regular season.
So to me, seven days before the start of the regular season, that’s angry: we’ve got to be better at it… My question is, who’s finding out? Is it Apple? Who is moving the dog?
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Photo Credit: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
