Opinion: Implications of Relevant Sports and FIFA settling, while lawsuit against USSF continues
Relevant-USSF suit could have hugely negative implications
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross as one of the co-owners of Relevant Sports made a deal with FIFA to end its litigation against them but will continue to challenge US Soccer, and Major League Soccer on their failed attempts to bring over European based clubs to play official league matches at the Hard Rock Stadium, or anywhere in the United States.
FIFA is no longer a part of the lawsuit due to considering altering a clause forbidding regulation matches in the Premier League or any league; around the world and allowing it to be played in a different country to allow the points to matter. Altering, that clause or removing it to accommodate Relevent Sports to schedule these games anywhere in the United States. The original issue was back in the summer of 2018 when they made a deal with Spain's La Liga to bring over FC Barcelona and their opponents in Girona to play at the Hard Rock Stadium, FIFA quickly ended it, and US Soccer the governing body of the sport in the USA, also joined in to end this situation.
Editors Note: Relevant is the marketing agency of record for La Liga in North America and also manages La Liga’s North American venture
Now that FIFA has bowed down to Mr. Ross, why is this idea a terrible one? Well, the answer is simple. It means you will have a full stadium for two teams who don't play in MLS, USL in the Championship, League One, League Two, NISA, NPSL, or any amateur league sanctioned by US Soccer. You will have two teams who come over from a different league to fight for the three points and not these pre-season friendly matches every summer.
Some of you will be saying, that the NFL always plays regular season games at Wembley Stadium, Tottenham's stadium in London, Bayern Munich's Stadium in Germany, the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, and 2024 they will play in Brazil for the first time. It's completely different because the NFL doesn't have a sanctioned American Football League anywhere in the world, and there is no official international governing body for the sport across the globe. That's why there's rugby in other parts of the world, and Australia has its own Aussie Rules Football.
This nation doesn't need to have other clubs from around the globe, especially from Europe and South America come over here to make money and fill up our NFL Stadiums and College Football stadiums because our leagues are still growing, and that will put a damper toward the game on our soil. Are we saying that having a Regulation La Liga match at MetLife Stadium and a Regulation Premier League match at Lincoln Financial Field will benefit the game in the United States? In reality, it won't. It will just incentivize the negatives that Americans will only watch these famous clubs play and will threaten the growth of our game.
With all the negatives that MLS and US Soccer have been receiving on how they have governed and grown the game, this interference from Relevant Sports is something they can't have on their plate. Honestly, it is a distraction from Stephen Ross that we all don't need right now. We have the Open Cup debacle, we finally closed the CBA MLS Referees debacle, and now there is turmoil at the U-17 Generations Adidas tournament with bouts of racist verbal attacks against the New York Red Bulls players and other clubs as well. I don't mind the international friendly visits from these clubs, but honesty, having a regulation match from the top four European leagues playing here is not what's supposed to happen.
The NFL can do whatever it wants, and Major League Baseball has played regular-season games in Japan, and now in England is fine as well. Our game is global and is loved by everyone, but we need to make sure only North American leagues like MLS, USL, NISA, and NPSL play in the USA and share it with Canada, should only have access here where the points truly matter.
https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/us-soccer-continues-relevent-battle-despite-recent-fifa-deal/
Has La Liga played regular season games in any other country other than Italy before? It's interesting that Japan allowed to MLB regular season opener to be held in Japan, since by the same logic that might suffocate the Japanese pro baseball league?. Was there no opposition by the Japanese domestic baseball authorities?