Article is 1 month old but I don’t recall seeing it posted. I’m still very new to the game. My 9 year old twins have played for last 4 years, playing now myself for the first time in my life at 36, and only been watching European soccer the last year.

But I follow this board everyday and interact occasionally and I feel like this article contains every complaint I’ve ever seen here. It’s somewhat long and has way too many points to quote here so I’ll just add a few but I’m very interested to hear y’alls opinions.

These Football Times

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Dissecting and analysing American football is an exercise in madness. Conversations and debates range from franchise models versus fan-owned clubs, playoffs versus single table league standings, promotion-relegation versus a closed system, and the type of athletes that play football to name a few. As relevant or idiotic as those arguments may or may not be, one element continues to be ignored: culture. Culture dictates everything when it comes to a sport like football.

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A lack of accountability and journalistic integrity has helped dictate the tone of a fanbase that is either conditioned to default to a just-be-grateful-football-exists-here stance, thus diverting and convoluting necessary elucidation of the system, national team programs, domestic leagues as outright attacks. It’s this misconception that has driven a pike into American’s fan base and history.

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American football is plagued by many things. Revisionist history, protectionist practices, relying on the next youngster to save the American game, depending on a system that makes it possible for predominately affluent families to excel in, are but a few of the myriad of systemic issues. The most egregious issue, however, may be allowing the game to remain in total control by monopolists asserting that the current closed system is the best way. Perhaps two decades ago, that may have been the case – but the times have changed. The football world has grown more intertwined with business, and a generation of Americans are waiting for and wanting for a new system.

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Many who grew up supporting MLS and football on every level – before the glitz and glamour, television deals, Eurocentric rebrands and a slew of other marketing strategies – have morphed into a subculture demanding change.

Today’s fan, player and coach has access to the global game and a higher standard of play. Where a generation or two ago young players could only dream of watching the best players and teams every weekend, today’s audience sees at a molecular level. The effect places pressure on the domestic leagues, especially MLS, to raise the quality of the product on the pitch

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In the US, people have mistaken participation in football for quality. The truth is that the current system isn’t constructed to produce the requisite talent to dominate on the global or regional stage frequently enough. Of course, there are outliers, but it can be argued that those players and coaches developed despite the system, not because of it.

American football is still too off-the-pace with the global standard and mired in false equivalencies to such an extent that its reality is skewed and full of misnomers. The term “academy” and the flippant use of labels creates a false sense of quality. Major League Soccer is not a major league. It’s not nearly competitive enough on the field with top club sides residing in CONCACAF let alone compared to top European and South American teams.

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The American game has been found out. It needs less marketing and more implementation to correct the false sense of entitlement throughout the system. Results-wise, the American standard of play and player is falling behind at the senior level. At the youth levels, be it with the national team or at clubs, American players remain competitive until around the age of 17 or 18. Here, yet another imposed ceiling in the form of a restrictive collegiate system where little-to-no development can occur only hampers coaches and players. Without a cohesive nine-month college system, the 18 to 22 age range continues to be shanghaied.

The most obvious element is the scarcity of professional teams and a professional system that should have no fewer than four or five tiers covering the American landmass; it’s no surprise the American game is at risk of falling further behind.