MLS executives reportedly believe Inter Miami’s 6-0 pre-season loss to Al-Nassr this winter could be the catalyst for changes to salary spending in the league.
The Herons were demolished in Saudi Arabia having lost 4-3 to Al-Hilal earlier in the tour, with Inter Miami and American soccer slated by the world media due to the gulf in quality between MLS and Saudi Pro League.
And speaking on Offside, the Athletic’s Paul Tenorio has detailed how MLS executives now thinks Inter Miami’s results this winter could lead to wholesale salary changes later this year that will allow teams to spend more on players.
Inter Miami’s 6-0 Al-Nassr loss could lead to major MLS salary changes
Tenorio said: “Executives more than ready, a lot of front office executives are talking about what changes are coming and what they’d like to see, and most just want to see more freedom and for teams to form their own identity and how they want to spend and where they want to put the money.
“They also want more money to spend across the entire roster. There was one good quote from a front office executive who said ‘we need to raise the mean salary of the roster’, the more you raise the overall quality from 1 to 20, the better the teams are going to be.
“We learned that from facing Mexican teams, and it was an important measuring stick when Inter Miami went to Saudi Arabia and lost 6-0 to Al-Nassr in the way that they did. That was an important moment for MLS because the Club World Cup is coming up.
“The number one metric fans use to rate MLS’s quality is how they compete to other teams outside of the league. Let Inter Miami be Inter Miami, but let other teams have the freedom to spend.”
MLS should have made dramatic changes last year
MLS has had a salary problem for quite a while, with the unique rules the league imposes on themselves making the division a minefield to navigate for fans and executives in the game.
And last year’s arrival of Lionel Messi to Inter Miami should have forced MLS’s hand to streamline the rules for good and to expand the salary cap for every team in the division.
MLS and soccer in the United States is in the midst of a popularity explosion that will only increase with the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup and FIFA World Cup, and the division has to evolve if it’s to survive.