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A 2025 research article from World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews titled "Eradicating the pay-to-play system in American youth soccer: Economic, social, and athletic implications for grassroots development"

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A 2025 research article from World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews titled "Eradicating the pay-to-play system in American youth soccer: Economic, social, and athletic implications for grassroots development"

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A 2021 journal articles from Journal of Sports Economics titled "Financial Returns in Major League Soccer"

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A 2021 journal articles from Journal of Sports Economics titled "Financial Returns in Major League Soccer"

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A 2018 law review article from Marquette Sports Law Review titled "Is MLS Inherently Anticompetitive? The Strange Single-Entity Structure of Major League Soccer in Order to Legitimize American Professional Soccer"

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A 2018 law review article from Marquette Sports Law Review titled "Is MLS Inherently Anticompetitive? The Strange Single-Entity Structure of Major League Soccer in Order to Legitimize American Professional Soccer"

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A 2024 news article from The Guardian titled "‘You can’t have barriers’: is pay-to-play having a corrosive effect on US soccer?"

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A 2024 news article from The Guardian titled "‘You can’t have barriers’: is pay-to-play having a corrosive effect on US soccer?"

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‘You can’t have barriers’: is pay-to-play having a corrosive effect on US soccer?

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Another tournament failure has seen the dismissal of a coach and criticism of the current USMNT squad. But the problems start at the youth levels

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A 2024 news article from The Guardian titled "Salary caps to shootouts: how US soccer could transform the game"

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A 2024 news article from The Guardian titled "Salary caps to shootouts: how US soccer could transform the game"

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Soccer in the US has continually experimented over the years, trying to find a balance between the game experienced around the world and serving up a uniquely Americanized product to its domestic audience, with rules echoing those found in the nation's major sports leagues.

Some changes were revolutionary and stuck around - a rudimentary form of the backpass rule was an innovation of the North American Soccer League in the 1980s, for example, long before it was adopted throughout the game in 1992; likewise the use of substitutes, which was pioneered by the American Soccer League in the 1920s more than three decades before the idea was written into the laws of the game internationally.

Others are better forgotten. There was the two-point goal. There were ejections for persistent fouling. There was even an effort (who came up with this doozy?) to use corner kicks to decide tied games.

But there are a handful of innovations instituted Stateside, that have either faded away or remained confined to US soccer. While we're not saying that any of the following should be instituted in the Premier League tomorrow, they could work in modified form in some places outside the US.

"American" penalties

Introduced in 1981 in an attempt to revitalize the flagging NASL, hockey-style penalties were deemed a more entertaining method for settling tied games and a greater test of a player's skill than a traditional spot kick.

The shootouts alone couldn't save the NASL. The league that once glittered with stars such as Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Pelé was defunct three years later. But when MLS was founded in 1996, this unique approach to deciding games was retained and used to settle every match that ended all square - no ties allowed.

Although, to the non-American eye, this alternative to penalty shootouts was unusual the rules were simple: starting 35 yards from goal, the attacking player had five seconds to beat the goalkeeper in a one-on-one showdown. The attacker could elect to shoot from distance, carry the ball closer to goal before striking or attempt to dribble around the keeper, and if the goalie fouled them in the process, a regular penalty kick would be awarded.

It was fun, it was different and it was, inarguably, a greater test of skill than an unimpeded shot from the spot. Settling tied games in league play is a non-starter. But could the one-on-one shootout work better than penalties in knockout games? Some believe it would.

"I thought the shootout was fun," former USMNT coach Bruce Arena told Goal in 2020. "And, you know, it took a lot of talent, the shootout, and there were some remarkable goals and exciting times during the shootout so I thought that was fantastic.

"I would prefer, actually, in all competitions around the world, if games went into overtime and teams played out the 30 minutes of overtime and it's still tied, I'd love to see a shootout rather than penalty kicks."

Christian Pulisic agrees. "I think instead of penalty kicks, they should do the old dribble from 30 yards or whatever and go at the goalie one-on-one," Pulisic said last year on Tim Ream's Indirect podcast.

It's not just Americans that back the system though. In 2017, legendary Dutch striker Marco van Basten advocated for MLS-style shootouts to be adopted across the globe in knockout play, one of a handful of rule changes - including abolishing offsides - he pitched to Fifa when he took up the role of technical director.

"This is spectacular for the viewers and interesting for the player," Van Basten said in an interview with Bild. "With this idea, [the player] has more possibilities: he can dribble, shoot, wait, and the goalkeeper responds. This is more like a typical playing situation."

Discontinuous clock

In the interregnum between the 1994 World Cup and the inauguration of MLS two years later, the United States International Soccer League (USISL) - a sprawling, interregional league - was used as a live test case for a swath of proposed rule changes.

Bigger goals to encourage higher-scoring games and penalty shots for cumulative team fouls were among the more left-field adjustments to the laws of the game trialed in the USISL. One that made more sense was the use of a discontinuous game clock.

The league's rule makers noted that the average time the ball was in play during games at the 1990 World Cup in Italy was 58 minutes. They determined that, rather than have the referee stop his watch every time the ball went out of play and tot up the time to be added at the end of each match, a 60-minute discontinuous game clock would be used. With games split into 30-minute halves, the clock would stop every time play halted, eliminating time wasting, easing the referee's load and creating uniformity throughout the league.

Although this idea was never adopted in MLS, the upstart professional league did utilize a 45-minute countdown clock for each half until 1999.

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Arsène Wenger, Fifa's chief of global development, has advocated for similar changes since taking up his role with the sport's governing body. He pushed forward rules that have increased the volume of added time at the end of halves in an effort to crack down on time-wasting. But back when he was first looking to overhaul the game, Wenger mulled the idea of introducing the USISL's countdown clock to ensure the ball was in play for a full 60 minutes. The countdown clock was tested at the Future of Football Cup in 2021, although it was not a Fifa trial.

A match between Manchester United and Nottingham Forest featured 11 minutes of added time to end a half. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Salary cap

Within non-US sports, the notion of a salary cap is anathema and, as is almost certainly the case in European soccer, unworkable - player salaries have been unrestricted and expanding exponentially for so long that implementing restrictive measures now would be as messy and as worthwhile as trying to stuff toothpaste back into a tube.

And over its nearly two decades of existence, the MLS salary cap has been adapted and loosened to allow for star players to be imported on higher salaries, an effort to increase the league's appeal and global footprint.

But, in general, the salary cap works as an equalizer, leveling the playing field and ensuring success is not simply a result of spending. The same cannot be said of the major European leagues. In the past 10 seasons, there have been eight different MLS Cup winners. Over the same period in the Premier League, there have been just four different champions, with Manchester City winners six times overall and in five of the last six seasons.

Playoff system

There are reasonable arguments for and against a playoff system in any sport. It does, to an extent, devalue regular-season play, with the majority of a campaign an exercise in determining who plays whom when the real action begins in the post-season.

But as any fan of the NFL or the NBA will attest, nothing compares to the drama of the playoffs. An integral part of the US sports landscape, playoff brackets are, of course, not unique to America. The Football League playoffs consistently produce some of the most dramatic and consequential matches in the English football calendar every year, while the knockout rounds of the World Cup and the Champions League are essentially a playoff bracket for soccer's greatest prizes.

Indoor soccer

There have been various iterations of indoor leagues throughout US soccer history - most notably the Major Indoor Soccer League, which ran from 1978 to 1992.

Indoor soccer used to be hugely popular in Britain, too. The Daily Express National Five-a-Sides was a yearly tournament held at Wembley Arena between 1968 and 1986. Professional teams from England and Scotland were invited and crowds in excess of 8,000 fans would fill the stands, with matches broadcast to a national audience. Such events would be unthinkable in the modern era due to the injury risk presented by hyper-competitive pre-season games on hard surfaces.

With the infrastructure already in place due to the proliferation and standard of ice hockey and basketball arenas across the country, indoor soccer naturally attained a sturdier foothold in America. In US Soccer's doldrum period between the NASL's demise and the birth of MLS, indoor play was often the most viable route to a career in the game for college soccer standouts unable to secure a move overseas.

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Salary caps to shootouts: how US soccer could transform the game

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The US was the first country to introduce substitutions and the backpass law. Here are five other innovations worthy of consideration for a wider rollout

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A 2025 new article from The Guardian titled "For the USMNT, a successful summer is harder than ever to define"

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A 2025 new article from The Guardian titled "For the USMNT, a successful summer is harder than ever to define"

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For the USMNT, a successful summer is harder than ever to define

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A raft of absences and the nature of the Gold Cup means that, aside from a trophy, the US’s goals are largely intangible.

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A 2023 news article from ESPN titled "Gio Reyna recalled by Berhalter for U.S. after family feud"

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A 2023 news article from ESPN titled "Gio Reyna recalled by Berhalter for U.S. after family feud"

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Jeff CarlisleOct 5, 2023, 02:56 PM ET

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Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC.

The return of Borussia Dortmund attacker Gio Reyna under U.S. men's national team manager Gregg Berhalter highlights the 23-player roster that will prepare for friendlies against Germany in Hartford, Connecticut, on Oct. 14, and Ghana in Nashville, Tennessee, three days later.

The camp will mark the first time that Reyna and Berhalter have worked together since a feud between the Reyna and Berhalter families burst into public view in January.
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Berhalter confirmed Thursday the first step in rebuilding the relationship took place "weeks ago," with the two conversing over a Zoom call.

"I think it will take time," Berhalter said on a conference call with reporters. "It is a difference between a Zoom call and being in person. But I think that both intentions are positive, and the idea is that we work together for the team to be successful, and I think we're both prepared to do that."

The incident first centered on Reyna's lack of playing time at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and his subsequent poor behavior on how he was used. Berhalter disclosed at a leadership conference that he almost sent an unnamed player -- later identified as Reyna -- home because of a poor attitude.

In response, Reyna's mother, Danielle, disclosed to U.S. Soccer's then-sporting director Earnie Stewart a decades-old domestic violence incident between Berhalter and his now wife, Rosalind. U.S. Soccer initiated an investigation, which concluded that the Berhalters didn't try to hide the incident, clearing the way for the manager to be rehired in June.

The USMNT was managed by a pair of interim managers, first Anthony Hudson and later B.J. Callaghan, through July's Concacaf Gold Cup. A subsequent leg injury Reyna sustained at the Concacaf Nations League final in June prevented Reyna and Berhalter from working together since the latter returned to his post.

According to U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker, it was only recently that Reyna and Berhalter discussed what happened in the weeks after the World Cup, but the pair are now prepared to "move forward."

Reyna hasn't played for club or country since the injury, though he has been an unused substitute in recent matches for Dortmund.

"We're going to be creative with the minutes," Berhalter said in relation to Reyna. "We want to certainly get him on the field and work through both the Germany game, and seeing what position he plays.

"And then in the Ghana game, same thing, seeing how we can get him in different positions throughout the camp on the field."

The rest of the roster contains plenty of familiar faces, including 15 who took part in the Concacaf Nations League final in June. The roster includes the AC Milan duo of Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah as well as Juventus pair Weston McKennie and Tim Weah.

"In line with our long-term strategic approach toward 2026, we have a great opportunity to play against two world-class opponents and continue to progress our group of players," Berhalter said. "We are focused on selecting strong rosters and maintaining continuity as much as possible, and this is another important building block."

Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams will miss the camp following a recurrence of a hamstring injury that has sidelined him since March. Internacional's Johnny Cardoso and Celta Vigo's Luca de la Torre will look to take Adams' spot in midfield. Fulham defender Antonee Robinson also wasn't called in. Kristoffer Lund of Palermo, who made his U.S. debut during the September window, will look to fill in, as will Borussia Mönchengladbach's Joe Scally.

"So we're thinking about Tyler. He means a tremendous amount to this team both on and off the field. That's the first thing," Berhalter said.

"And the second thing, it gives us an opportunity to have a Plan B when and if Tyler isn't available and we'll work through this, whether that's with Yunus and Weston planted a little deeper and then with an attacking midfielder or whether it's with a traditional single pivot and two attacking midfielders.

"So either way it's going to give us a lot of information, and really testing it against high-level opponents is going to be fun."

Should Musah appear in either match during the October window, he would be just the fourth USMNT player to reach 30 caps before his 21st birthday. Only Jozy Altidore, Christian Pulisic and Landon Donovan have previously hit 30 caps before age 21.

Heidenheim's Lennard Maloney is the lone first-time call-up. A dual national with German and U.S. citizenship, Maloney has appeared in all six Bundesliga matches for Heidenheim this season. Maloney made two appearances for the U.S. U20 national team in 2018 and has also previously played for Germany's U18 and U19 sides.

Center-back Cameron Carter-Vickers will take part in his first camp since the 2022 World Cup.

The U.S. is 4-7-0 against Germany, though it has won two of the past three against the four-time World Cup champions, including a 2-1 win in Cologne in 2015 thanks to a late winner from Bobby Wood.

The Americans' record against the Black Stars stands at 2-2-0, with the last meeting taking place in 2017, a 2-1 win for the U.S. thanks to goals from Kellyn Acosta and Dom Dwyer.
DETAILED ROSTER BY POSITION (club/country; caps/goals)
GOALKEEPERS (2): Ethan Horvath ( Nottingham Forest/ENG; 9/0), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 33/0)

DEFENDERS (8): Cameron Carter-Vickers ( Celtic/SCO; 12/0), Sergiño Dest ( PSV Eindhoven/ NED; 28/2), DeJuan Jones ( New England Revolution; 7/0), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo/ITA; 2/0), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 52/1), Chris Richards ( Crystal Palace/ENG; 12/1), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United; 26/3), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach/GER; 6/0)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Johnny Cardoso (Internacional/BRA; 7/0), Luca de la Torre ( Celta Vigo/ESP; 17/0), Lennard Maloney (Heidenheim/GER; 0/0), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 46/11), Yunus Musah (AC Milan/ITA; 29/0), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 20/4), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven/NED;64/0)

FORWARDS (6): Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin/GER; 34/8), Folarin Balogun (Monaco/FRA; 4/2), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg/GER; 1/0), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 18/9), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan/ITA; 62/26), Tim Weah (Juventus/ITA; 33/5)

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USMNT recalls Gio Reyna after Berhalter feud

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Gio Reyna returns to the U.S. men's national team squad under Gregg Berhalter for the first time since a feud stemming from the World Cup.

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A 2021 academic article from Informa UK Limited titled "American soccer at a crossroad: MLS’s struggle between the exigencies of traditional American sports culture and the expectations of the global soccer community"

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A 2021 academic article from Informa UK Limited titled "American soccer at a crossroad: MLS’s struggle between the exigencies of traditional American sports culture and the expectations of the global soccer community"

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A 2025 news article from The Mirror titled "Andrea Pirlo makes urgent demand to MLS to keep David Beckham's dream alive"

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A 2025 news article from The Mirror titled "Andrea Pirlo makes urgent demand to MLS to keep David Beckham's dream alive"

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Andrea Pirlo makes urgent demand to MLS to keep David Beckham’s dream alive

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Soccer icon Andrea Pirlo has made it clear that he believes wholesale changes are needed to the structure of Major League Soccer to challenge the world’s top leagues

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A 2025 news article from The Athletic titled "Where MLS truly stands after its Club World Cup awakening"

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A 2025 news article from The Athletic titled "Where MLS truly stands after its Club World Cup awakening"

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Good source for talking about MLS standing against other leagues

Also good source for counterargument.

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Where MLS truly stands after its Club World Cup awakening

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The performances of Inter Miami, LAFC and the Seattle Sounders shed some insight into where MLS stands on the global stage.

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A 2021 news article from the Premier League titled "Football's boost to tourism in the UK on the rise"

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A 2021 news article from the Premier League titled "Football's boost to tourism in the UK on the rise"

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Football’s boost to tourism in the UK on the rise

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VisitBritain research shows that 1.5m visits to the UK in 2019 included watching a live match

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A 2022 government report from Legal Services Corporation titled "The Justice Gap"

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A 2022 government report from Legal Services Corporation titled "The Justice Gap"

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Section 2: Today’s Low-income America | The Justice Gap Report

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Typically, legal aid organizations can use LSC funds only to serve the legal needs of people with household incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty leve

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A 2023 data table from the Child Stats titled "POP1 Child population: Number of children (in millions) ages 0–17 in the United States by age, 1950–2022 and projected 2023–2050"

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A 2023 data table from the Child Stats titled "POP1 Child population: Number of children (in millions) ages 0–17 in the United States by age, 1950–2022 and projected 2023–2050"

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SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, Estimates of the population of the United States by single years of age, color, and sex: 1900 to 1959 (Series P-25, No. 311); Estimates of the population of the United States, by age, sex, and race: April 1, 1960, to July 1, 1973 (Series P-25, No. 519); Preliminary estimates of the population of the United States by age, sex, and race: 1970 to 1981 (Series P-25, No. 917); and Intercensal estimates for 1980-1989, 1990-1999, and 2000-2009. The data for 2010 to 2020 are based on the population estimates released for July 1, 2020. Data beyond 2020 are derived from the national population projections released in September 2018. Some estimates have been revised since previous publication in America's Children.

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POP1 Child population: Number of children (in millions) ages 0-17 in the United States by age, 1950-2020 and projected 2021-2050

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SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, Estimates of the population of the United States by single years of age, color, and sex: 1900 to 1959 (Series P-25, No. 311); Estimates of the population of the United States, by age, sex, and race: April 1, 1960, to July 1, 1973 (Series P-25, No.

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A 2024 news article from Gulf News titled "Three key factors behind the Premier League’s global dominance"

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A 2024 news article from Gulf News titled "Three key factors behind the Premier League’s global dominance"

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Gulf News: Latest UAE news, Dubai news, Business, travel news, Dubai Gold rate, prayer time, cinema

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Three key factors behind the Premier League's global dominance

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No football league in the world captures the imagination quite like the Premier League

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A 2025 news article from FIFA titled "FIFA World Cup 26: Host countries, cities, dates, teams, tickets, qualifying and more"

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A 2025 news article from FIFA titled "FIFA World Cup 26: Host countries, cities, dates, teams, tickets, qualifying and more"

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The world's premier international football competition will return in 2026, for the first time in three countries and, for the first time, with 48 teams.

Next edition of the World Cup will be the first with 48 participating teams

Hosting of the tournament will be divided between Canada, Mexico and USA

Final will be played on 19 July, 2026

After the thrilling drama of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, thoughts have already turned to the next edition of the most prestigious football tournament on the planet.

The good news for fans is that this time the wait for the FIFA World Cup 26™ will be a little shorter.

In the northern hemisphere summer of 2026 there will be a new World Cup, which will have an increase in the number of participants and promises to be the biggest edition in history.

FIFA has prepared a summary of the key information around the next instalment of the tournament.

The next World Cup will return to being played in the traditional period, between the months of June and July. The World Cup final date has been set as Sunday, 19 July, with the opening match due to take place on Thursday, 11 June.

The full match schedule was announced on Sunday, 4 February 2024, with New York New Jersey picked to host the final, and Mexico City's fabled Azteca chosen to stage the tournament's opening match.

The FIFA Council also unanimously made the decision to approve the proposed amendment to the World Cup 2026 group stage format from 16 groups of three, to 12 groups of four.

The top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams from the groups will now progress to the round of 32. Hopefuls will now have to play eight games from group stage through to the final, rather than seven.

For the first time in history, the organisation of the biggest football tournament on the planet will be divided among three countries. In total, 16 cities will host matches. Most of them (11) are located in the USA: Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Boston and New York New Jersey.

The Mexican headquarters will be in Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Finally, the Canadian venues are Vancouver and Toronto. Read more about the host nations and cities for the 2026 World Cup.

FIFA World Cup 26 participating teams FIFA World Cup 26 participating teams

Also for the first time, the 2026 World Cup will see the participation of 48 teams, 16 more than the last seven editions of the tournament since 1998. The division of places by continental confederations has already been defined:

AFC (Asia): Eight direct spots + one inter-confederation play-off place CAF (Africa): Nine direct spots + one inter-confederation play-off place Concacaf (North and Central America, plus the Caribbean): Six direct spots + two inter-confederation play-off places CONMEBOL (South America): Six direct spots + one inter-confederation play-off place OFC (Oceania): One direct spot + one inter-confederation play-off place UEFA (Europe): 16 direct spots
The three host countries will automatically qualify for the tournament, thus occupying three of the Concacaf slots.
Each continental confederation has the autonomy to define the competition model and the period of their qualifying tournaments. Hosts Canada, Mexico and USA are already confirmed as qualifiers for FIFA World Cup 26.

A total of 16 stadiums have been chosen to host the games, the most since Korea/Japan 2002, ﻿with some truly spectacular venues set to showcase the best in the beautiful game.

To receive information on how to apply for FIFA World Cup 26™ tickets, you can register your interest here. We will keep you up to date with the latest news and information regarding FIFA World Cup 26™ tickets straight to your mailbox.

The FIFA World Cup™ Trophy, the most widely recognised and prized sporting asset globally, was unveiled at the forefront of the FIFA World Cup 26™ Official Brand on Wednesday, 17 May 2023.

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FIFA World Cup 2026™ | Host Cities, Dates, Teams & more

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Discover the 48 teams taking part in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Canada, Mexico, USA™, including host cities, game dates and qualifiers. Learn more with FIFA.