Incredible! MLS tried to change football with these unusual rules!
In the United States, they used unusual rules that could have changed football forever!
Major League Soccer or better known as MLS, is one of the newest football leagues in the world. In this league, the most important teams from the USA and Canada compete, and it is made up of 28 teams in two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Currently, it is one of the leagues that invests the most resources in the world and in fact, more and more elite players choose the United States to play. The quality of life in the United States and Canada, the world-class stadiums, the high salaries, and the competitiveness of the league are the main reasons why many players choose to play there. But before becoming the current MLS, this league implemented some rules that tried to change football.
MLS is the most important league in the United States and Canada.
Football or soccer?
The first big difference is the name of this sport. In the United States the most popular sport is American football and to avoid having 2 sports with the same name, they decided to name football "soccer". This word was born in the United Kingdom and was a name that did not prosper in that country, but the United States.
Football is Soccer
Penalties 32 meters away
In current football, the penalty shooter must place the ball in the penalty spot, located 11 meters from the goal. But in the United States, they decided to experiment with this system. Instead of 11 meters, they decided to place the ball 32 meters away from the goalkeeper. This modality was an adaptation of a field hockey rule. The rule consisted of a penalty shootout with five shots for each team. Each "kicker" had five seconds to run 32 meters and beat the goalkeeper in any way. The player could shoot from afar, dribble past the goalkeeper, shoot it from above, or simply improvise. This idea was a very attractive spectacle because many times the players invented strange movements to score a goal.
Implement NBA rules in football
The National Basketball Association is one of the most successful and popular tournaments in the world. At the beginning of the 90s, football was not a popular sport and for this reason, they wanted to adapt some rules of the NBA to try to attract an audience and, above all, sponsors. The first idea was to divide MLS into Eastern and Western conferences, just like in the NBA. This rule persists today. The second rule was never implemented but the possibility existed. Football is played in 2 halves of 45 minutes. Between each half, the players have 15 minutes to rest. Meanwhile, television usually shows commercials. However, this "pause" is very long and many viewers prefer to do something else instead of watching the ads. To change this, it was proposed to divide the 90 minutes into 4 quarters, with shorter pause times, just as they happen in the NBA. If breaks were shorter, viewers would stay on TV and watch commercials, which would generate more money. Fortunately, this rule was never implemented.
The MLS uses the same format as the NBA, it divides the teams into 2 conferences
90 minutes with a net time
Before 2004, the current regulations dictated that the game did not end when 90 minutes had been played, but rather when the clock reached zero, the playing time worked in reverse. And also, every time a play was stopped, the timer stopped. It was impossible to "buy time" with that system.
Major League Soccer All-Star Game
This idea caught the attention of several countries in the world and several leagues are thinking of implementing it. It is about celebrate a match bringing together the best players in the MLS to play a friendly match. Currently, Liga MX (Mexican league) competes with MLS in this competition. This year for example, there was a competition about hitting the crossbar. It was the famous crossbar challenge!
Other ideas that came up but were never implemented
-Perform time-outs of a few seconds, so that the coaches give instructions to their players. -Band kicks with the foot and not with the hand. -Enlarge the goal.
Currently, the MLS is improving its level of competitiveness
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