By David Gold
November 22 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter (pictured) believes that the American Major League Soccer (MLS) calendar should be aligned with the main European leagues, so that the domestic season is played from autumn to spring.
The current MLS calendar runs from March and continues until November, with the 2011 season drawing to a close this weekend, when David Beckham played what looks to be his last game for LA Galaxy as they won the MLS Cup 1-0 against Houston Dynamo.
Currently Russia is going through the tricky process of changing its calendar to align itself with Europe, and is effectively playing an extended season lasting for 18 months in order to make the change.
Blatter wants United States football moving towards this schedule as well, and was confident it would do so, telling Fox Soccer: “If [US Soccer has] the courage to change, they will do it, they told me.”
He added: “They need some time to change that – to adapt to the international calendar.
“It would be better for US Soccer, and specifically also for the national team, and the popularity inside the country.
“[The move] was one of the key points we have discussed with the leadership of MLS and US Soccer the other day; they are working on that.”
Blatter also said that the number of American players currently playing in Europe was in part due to the current calendar, and also pointed to the fact that many clubs in MLS share stadia owned by American football teams.
American teams currently have the obstacle of trying to fit in prestigious friendlies with major European teams who have visited the US, with increasing regularity in recent years during what is the middle of the MLS season.
This year, Real Madrid played a friendly with LA Galaxy in July, whilst in the same month New York Red Bulls went to London to play in the Emirates Cup against Arsenal, Boca Juniors and Paris St Germain.
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