Premier League clubs reject early closure of the transfer window

Funny how you don't hear much anymore about the threat to Premier League dominance that the Chinese league once presented?

And now we have Donald and his Hillbillies hellbent on domination of the Western hemisphere, along with another World Cup upcoming in 2026, perhaps the mauch-vaunted MLS will finally reach critical mass?

(Mind you, that's exactly what they predicted after the 1994 World Cup was held in the USA.)

Speaking for Kansas City, they are really pushing this World Cup – specifically that Kansas City is hosting it. But there's no detail so a lot of people are under the impression the city is hosting the whole thing.

They're expecting to show up and see Brazil v Argentina or some such fare. In truth, with the expansion, and how they tend to put "big" teams in "major cities", the locals here might have to make do with Switzerland v Jordan, or New Zealand v Paraguay.

MLS didn't exist in 1994. It is now a success, with 30 clubs and increasing profitability year over year, and the standard of play rising rapidly. It is now ranked 9th in the world by Opta (up from 29th a few years ago), ahead of the Championship and the Eredivisie. I've actually seen a couple entertaining MLS games this year, which never happened before.

This World Cup has the potential to be a fiasco, with soccer-hating Trump taking Putinesque personal charge while declaring economic and border war on the other two nations hosting it. And of course we get to hear the Mexican fans scream an anti-gay slur on every goal kick, no doubt joined by the giggling Trumpies in attendance.

They have Forest's lethal front man in their team!

The other issue here aside from people thinking KC will be hosting ALL the games and top teams is pricing. Last summer Copa America turned up Peru v Canada that was hosted here. Between 11,000 and 15,000 (depending on whose numbers you believe) showed up leaving the Sporting KC stadium half empty as mildly interested neutrals (myself included) didn't want to pay over a hundred bucks or up to 300 to watch such a game. In the WC they plan to use a stadium 3 times larger and I don't imagine tickets will be cheaper. So it won't be a great advert for the sport if the massive stadium is empty and it likely will be unless they somehow get one of the major teams to play every game here -- something that seems as unlikely as there are 15 other venues mostly in larger population areas hosting games.

I'd forgotten about the geo-politics and potential relation to the World Cup. I think they have to be careful where they locate the fixtures.

Our American and Canadian followers on here will know better, but in my experience, football (soccer) is more popular in certain pockets around North America, especially the States. Texas, California and the east coast spring to mind.

They can do that now, the sporting directors just have to sign the players earlier and not leave it until the last minute.

Seems to me more likely that it's more likely to be the players and their agents holding out for the best possible offers.

It's only where buying clubs have no competition or can meet a valuation and wage package immediately that things are quicker.

Michael, the MLS teams are already moving into a new phase by signing up lots of young South American talent and for decent fees too. They are genuine competition in that respect.

Sales within the UK stop 14th August. Sales outside can continue.

If you are selling a Grealish to Saudi, you want to get rid of him anyway.

Bringing in from overseas, then that also stops and how many players have the choice of the unlimited riches of playing in the Premier League rather than Eredivisie so either they sign by the 14th or lose a shed full of money.

As for the MLS, it has grown fantastically since its debut in 1996.

Link

I understand the commercial and financial nature of the modern game. That's not to say owners and the football has always been focussed on making money, just look at the sleaze and corruption corruption surrounding FIFA and UEFA over the decades.

But it has steadily become an obsession, with decisions like the format and/or location of the World Cup, Euros and Champions League.

Looking at the list of participants, this could have been played in Europe, but we can presume the agenda is to make money. The presence of a Saudi team is almost laughable, but again, there will financial incentives behind that.

I think that's the total prize pot. The winners don't get all that

I wonder what the response would be if we asked to have a special window to trade players?

That had me scratching my head when I read it first in the useless Echo.

Seems there is a pretty innocuous explanation, if you are so disposed: the Club World Cup competition straddles the end of June and into July, which is when player contracts end, and it starts before the normal transfer window opens.

The short window in early June has been added in order for the clubs involved — and for other clubs trading players with the clubs involved — to sort things out so that players are not caught out of contract if they are participating.

So I think it goes well beyond just Man City and Chelsea seemingly getting preferential treatment.