Why it's time to end the MLS & Liga MX Leagues Cup monopoly
With over $40 million in prizes, the 2024 Leagues Cup is the most lucrative club competition sanctioned by Concacaf, one of the six continental governing bodies for association football under the FIFA banner. Part of the Leagues Cup’s allure is its three qualification spots for Concacaf Champions Cup and the further opportunity to earn a spot in FIFA’s lucrative Club World Cup.
Every club associated with Concacaf in all three countries —the USA, Canada, and Mexico—should be able to aspire equally to qualify for the Concacaf Champions Cup based on sporting merit, but they can’t. Concacaf has endorsed Liga MX and MLS’ closed Leagues Cup tournament in a manner that directly contradicts FIFA and Concacaf’s declared “universal principles” of the game.
The Flaws of the Leagues Cup
In 2021, the President of CONCACAF, Victor Montagliani, eloquently expressed the principles of fair competition when he stated, along with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the presidents of five other continental confederations, “Participation in global and continental competitions should always be won on the pitch.”
So why does Concacaf continue to reward a closed monopolistic competition like the Leagues Cup with qualification spots in the Concacaf Champions Cup instead of granting spots to open competitions available to all association members?
The Leagues Cup exclusivity is fundamentally flawed and betrays the bedrock principles of association soccer endorsed by Concacaf’s Montagliani. Not to mention, the tournament is only played in the United States and Canada, putting Mexican teams at a blatant disadvantage in earning prize money or one of three qualification spots for the Concacaf Champions Cup.
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MLS & Liga MX: The Leagues Cup Hypocrisy
Concacaf has forgotten it is an association-based governing body designed to benefit the whole of soccer. Instead, Concacaf seems more interested in coddling a few ultra-wealthy league owners who have designed monopolistic competitions to exclude all other association members purposefully.
St. Louis City SC, an MLS expansion team, was awarded a spot for the 2023 Leagues Cup before playing a single match. In 2019, before the revamp of the Leagues Cup, City SC paid other MLS owners a $200M franchise fee.
Meanwhile, USL Championship club Sacramento Republic FC – denied an opportunity to purchase a franchise in MLS – beat six teams in the 2022 U.S. Open Cup. Three of the wins were against MLS franchises before losing in the final to Orlando City SC. It is inconceivable that the U.S. Open Cup runner-up Sacramento Republic wasn’t a more deserving club to play in the Leagues Cup than a franchise that had never played a single game.
Other clubs to beat MLS franchises in the last two Open Cups include Indy Eleven, Detroit City FC, Monterey Bay FC, Memphis 901 FC, Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, Union Omaha, Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC, and San Antonio FC. These are just some of the clubs victimized by Concacaf’s policies, which reward closed monopolies.
MLS and Liga MX violate FIFA’s Article 9 on the principle of promotion and relegation
MLS and Liga MX are closed competitions without promotion and relegation, so franchises in these competitions do not fairly earn their spots in continental competitions like clubs in the rest of the world. But, here again, Concacaf has granted MLS and Liga MX an additional 11 spots in the Concacaf Champions Cup—5 for MLS and 6 for Liga MX, based on closed league play in a manner inconsistent with their stated values.
MLS franchise fees have skyrocketed, partly due to the consolidation of power and monopolistic access to Concacaf-sanctioned competitions. In 2023, the MLS franchise fee for San Diego FC has ballooned to a reported $500 million. San Diego will begin MLS play in 2025 and “earn” a qualification spot into Leagues Cup without having played a single match.
Concacaf continually tramples on FIFA’s principles of sporting merit, preferring to create and sanction tournaments to benefit powerful monopolies. The rich get richer, and everyone else gets excluded with the help of Concacaf’s hypocritical leadership.
With Concacaf’s sanctioning and support for the Leagues Cup, MLS and Liga MX have used it to justify withdrawing from open competitions benefitting all association members. Since the 2019 creation of Leagues Cup, MLS has controversially removed most of its franchises from the U.S. Open Cup, Liga MX ended promotion and relegation, and suspended Copa MX.
Soccer is under attack by the people and organizations charged with protecting it.
Concacaf is stunting the growth of soccer in North America
Concacaf is sabotaging itself and its members by being upside-down on the universal principles of sporting merit, solidarity, promotion, and relegation—policies that its President says are largely responsible for growing soccer to be the top global sport. By coddling monopolies and curtailing competition, Concacaf is stunting the game’s growth in North America.
Association soccer shouldn’t be sold to the highest bidder. Every club in the FIFA and Concacaf pyramid deserves an equal opportunity to participate in sanctioned competitions, which lead to the Concacaf Champions Cup. If a competition isn’t open, it shouldn’t be sanctioned, and it shouldn’t be rewarded.
The Leagues Cup is a soulless money grab, completely antithetical to the core principles of our sport. Soccer needs to be run for the benefit of all its members equally, not controlled for the benefit of a wealthy few members who have bludgeoned national associations and Concacaf into a state of regulatory capture.
It is time to end the MLS and Liga MX monopoly on Concacaf-sanctioned competitions – like the Leagues Cup—and ensure all spots in Concacaf’s Champions Cup are earned through open competitions such as the U.S. Open Cup, Canadian Championship, and a revived Copa MX.
Brian Costin is President of United Soccer America, a nonprofit whose mission is to unite and grow American soccer into the nation’s preeminent sport by championing the beautiful game’s universal principles of sporting merit, solidarity, promotion and relegation, and subsidiarity across all 50 states.
Photo: Imago.