Mikel Arteta reaction — Gunners boss speaks after beating Real Madrid to reach Champions League semifinals
Arsenal are through to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions after a hugely impressive 5-1 aggregate victory over reigning European champions Real Madrid, sealed by a 2-1 victory in the Spanish capital on Wednesday.
REAL MADRID 1-2 (1-5 AGG.) ARSENAL - Highlights & recap
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The Gunners rode the biggest and best performance of Mikel Arteta's tenure (in the first leg) to the club's first Champions League semifinal appearance since 2009 as they took the next step forward in Arteta's project. Bukayo Saka rebounded from a first-half penalty miss to score the goal that (briefly) made it 4-0 before Vinicius Junior stole one back, but that's as close as Carlo Ancelotti's side would get on the night or in the tie. Second-best from start to finish.
Mikel Arteta reaction — What did Gunners boss say after beating Real Madrid to reach Champions League semifinals?
We'll have Areta's post-match interviews and press conference as soon as they start, here.
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USA Today
30 minutes ago
- USA Today
FIFA Club World Cup 2025: Group stage schedule, odds, TV and live streaming options
FIFA Club World Cup 2025: Group stage schedule, odds, TV and live streaming options Show Caption Hide Caption Inter Miami and Messi took alternate route to FIFA Club World Cup Safid Deen explains that while Inter Miami may have qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup differently than others, we should be happy they'e in period. Sports Seriously It took until the 115th minute of a play-in game created on the fly ahead of the Club World Cup, but the group stage is finally set for this 2005 international soccer event that's attempting to blend the format of the World Cup with a global field of professional teams reminiscent of the Champions League. The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup officially began on Saturday, May 31 when an extra-time goal by Denis Bouanga gave LAFC of Major League Soccer the final spot in the 32-team tournament taking place in venues around the United States for the first time beginning June 14. There are 64 matches on the docket to decide the tournament winner, with the champion crowned after the finals at MetLife Stadium outside New York on July 13. Some of the sport's biggest stars and tradition-rich clubs are slated to participate, including Real Madrid, Paris-St. Germain, Manchester City, Inter Milan, and Lionel Messi and Inter Miami. There's potential for some dream matchups on American soil. The new 2025 group stage and bracket has 12 clubs from Europe, seven from South America, four from Africa, three from the United States, two from Mexico, two from the Middle East, two from Asia and one from Oceania. The Seattle Sounders of MLS also qualified for this year's tournament. Here's more information on the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, including the teams participating, a full tournament schedule for the group stage, and the favorites to win this reformatted international soccer event: When is the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup? Group Stage : June 14-June 26 : June 14-June 26 Round of 16 : June 28-July 1 : June 28-July 1 Quarterfinals : July 4-5 : July 4-5 Semifinals : July 8-9 : July 8-9 Finals: July 13 What teams are in FIFA Club World Cup? There are 32 teams in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup that have been separated into eight groups of four for the round-robin group stage in June. Here's how the field breaks down Group A Al Ahly FC (Egypt) FC Porto (Portugal) SE Palmeiras (Brazil) Inter Miami (United States) Group B Paris Saint-Germain (France) Atlético de Madrid (Spain) Botafogo (Brazil) Seattle Sounders FC (United States) Group C FC Bayern München (Germany) Auckland City FC (New Zealand) CA Boca Juniors (Argentina) SL Benfica (Portugal) Group D Espérance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia) CR Flamengo (Brazil) Chelsea FC (England) LAFC (United States) Group E CA River Plate (Argentina) Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan) CF Monterrey (Mexico) Inter Milan (Italy) Group F Fluminense FC (Brazil) Borussia Dortmund (Germany) Ulsan HD (South Korea) Mamelodi Sundowns FC (South Africa) Group G Manchester City (England) Wydad AC (Morocco) Al Ain FC (United Arab Emirates) Juventus FC (Italy) Group H Real Madrid (Spain) Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) CF Pachuca (Mexico) FC Salzburg (Austria) Watch FIFA Club World Cup FREE with DAZN How to watch FIFA World Cup 2025: TV, streaming options Every match during the 2025 FIFA World Cup will be live streamed for free on which is the exclusive global broadcaster of the event. TNT will also air 24 matches in the United States. FIFA Club World Cup odds: Favorites to win Real Madrid is currently a slight favorite over Paris-St. Germain and Manchester City to win the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. BetMGM odds are as of 11 a.m. ET on Monday, June 9. Real Madrid (+400) Paris-St. Germain (+450) Manchester City (+500) Bayern Munich (+700) Chelsea (+1000) Inter Milan (+1400) Atletico Madrid (+1600) FIFA Club World Cup 2025 match schedule GROUP STAGE Saturday, June 14 Group A: Al Ahly vs. Inter Miami, 8 p.m. ET (Miami) Sunday, June 15 Group C: Bayern Munich vs. Auckland City, 12 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Bayern Munich vs. Auckland City, 12 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Group B: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atlético Madrid, 3 p.m. ET (Pasadena, California) Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atlético Madrid, 3 p.m. ET (Pasadena, California) Group A: SE Palmeiras vs. FC Porto, 6 p.m. ET (East Rutherford, New Jersey) SE Palmeiras vs. FC Porto, 6 p.m. ET (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Group B: Botafogo vs. Seattle Sounders, 10 p.m. ET (Seattle) Monday, June 16 Group D: Chelsea vs. LAFC, 3 p.m. ET (Atlanta) Chelsea vs. LAFC, 3 p.m. ET (Atlanta) Group C: Boca Juniors vs. Benfica, 6 p.m. ET (Miami) Boca Juniors vs. Benfica, 6 p.m. ET (Miami) Group D: Flamengo vs. Espérance de Tunis, 9 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Tuesday, June 17 Group F: Fluminense vs. Borussia Dortmund, 12 p.m. ET (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Fluminense vs. Borussia Dortmund, 12 p.m. ET (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Group E: River Plate vs. Urawa Red Diamonds, 3 p.m. ET (Seattle) River Plate vs. Urawa Red Diamonds, 3 p.m. ET (Seattle) Group F: Ulsan HD vs. Mamelodi Sundowns, 6 p.m. ET (Orlando, Florida) Ulsan HD vs. Mamelodi Sundowns, 6 p.m. ET (Orlando, Florida) Group E: Monterrey vs. Inter Milan, 9 p.m. ET (Pasadena, California) Wednesday, June 18 Group G: Manchester City vs. Wydad AC, 12 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Manchester City vs. Wydad AC, 12 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Group H: Real Madrid vs. Al Hilal, 3 p.m. ET (Miami) Real Madrid vs. Al Hilal, 3 p.m. ET (Miami) Group H: Pachuca vs. FC Salzburg, 6 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Pachuca vs. FC Salzburg, 6 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Group G: Al Ain vs. Juventus, 9 p.m. (Washington, D.C.) Thursday, June 19 Group A: Palmeiras vs. Al Ahly, 12 p.m. ET, (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Palmeiras vs. Al Ahly, 12 p.m. ET, (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Group A: Inter Miami vs. Porto, 3 p.m. ET, (Atlanta) Inter Miami vs. Porto, 3 p.m. ET, (Atlanta) Group B: Seattle Sounders vs. Atlético Madrid, 6 p.m. ET (Seattle) Seattle Sounders vs. Atlético Madrid, 6 p.m. ET (Seattle) Group B: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Botafogo, 9 p.m. ET (Pasadena, California) Friday, June 20 Group C: Benfica vs. Auckland City, 12 p.m. ET (Orlando, Florida) Benfica vs. Auckland City, 12 p.m. ET (Orlando, Florida) Group D: Flamengo vs. Chelsea, 2 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Flamengo vs. Chelsea, 2 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Group D : LAFC vs. Espérance de Tunis, 6 p.m. ET (Nashville, Tennessee) : LAFC vs. Espérance de Tunis, 6 p.m. ET (Nashville, Tennessee) Group C: Bayern Munich vs. Boca Juniors, 9 p.m. ET (Miami) Saturday, June 21 Group F: Mamelodi Sundowns vs. Borussia Dortmund, 12 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Mamelodi Sundowns vs. Borussia Dortmund, 12 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Group E: Inter Milan vs. Urawa Red Diamonds, 3 p.m. ET (Seattle) Inter Milan vs. Urawa Red Diamonds, 3 p.m. ET (Seattle) Group F: Fluminense vs. Ulsan HD, 6 p.m. ET (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Fluminense vs. Ulsan HD, 6 p.m. ET (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Group E: River Plate vs. Monterrey, 9 p.m. ET (Pasadena, California) Sunday, June 22 Group G: Juventus vs. Wydad AC, 12 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Juventus vs. Wydad AC, 12 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Group H: Real Madrid vs. Pachuca, 3 p.m. ET (Charlotte, North Carolina) Real Madrid vs. Pachuca, 3 p.m. ET (Charlotte, North Carolina) Group H: FC Salzburg vs. Al Hilal, 6 p.m. ET (Washington, D.C.) FC Salzburg vs. Al Hilal, 6 p.m. ET (Washington, D.C.) Group G: Manchester City vs. Al Ain, 9 p.m. ET (Atlanta) Monday, June 23 Group B: Atlético Madrid vs. Botafogo, 3 p.m. ET (Pasadena, California) Atlético Madrid vs. Botafogo, 3 p.m. ET (Pasadena, California) Group B : Seattle Sounders vs. Paris Saint-Germain, 3 p.m. ET (Seattle) : Seattle Sounders vs. Paris Saint-Germain, 3 p.m. ET (Seattle) Group A: Inter Miami vs. Palmeiras, 9 p.m. ET (Miami) Inter Miami vs. Palmeiras, 9 p.m. ET (Miami) Group A: Porto vs. Al Ahly, 9 p.m. ET (East Rutherford, New Jersey) Tuesday, June 24 Group C: Benfica vs. Bayern Munich, 3 p.m. ET (Charlotte) Benfica vs. Bayern Munich, 3 p.m. ET (Charlotte) Group C: Auckland City vs. Boca Juniors, 3 p.m. ET (Nashville) Auckland City vs. Boca Juniors, 3 p.m. ET (Nashville) Group D: Espérance de Tunis vs. Chelsea, 9 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Espérance de Tunis vs. Chelsea, 9 p.m. ET (Philadelphia) Group D: LAFC vs. Flamengo, 9 p.m. ET (Orlando) Wednesday, June 25 Group F: Borussia Dortmund vs. Ulsan HD, 3 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Borussia Dortmund vs. Ulsan HD, 3 p.m. ET (Cincinnati) Group F: Mamelodi Sundowns vs. Fluminense, 3 p.m. ET (Miami) Mamelodi Sundowns vs. Fluminense, 3 p.m. ET (Miami) Group E: Inter Milan vs. River Plate, 9 p.m. ET (Seattle) Inter Milan vs. River Plate, 9 p.m. ET (Seattle) Group E: Urawa Red Diamonds vs. Monterrey, 9 p.m. ET (Pasadena) Thursday, June 26
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
With FIFA World Cup one year away, fans and politicians still aren't sure what to expect
Soccer fans watch a friendly match between Manchester United and Arsenal at SoFi Stadium in July 2024. SoFi Stadium is scheduled to host eight matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images) Think of the World Cup as a big dinner party. Only instead of asking over family, neighbors and some folks from the office, the whole planet has been invited. Many of those people will be coming to Southern California, and with Wednesday marking the one-year countdown to the tournament's kickoff, Larry Freedman, co-chair of the Los Angeles World Cup host committee, acknowledges there's still a lot of tidying up that has to be done before the guests arrive. Advertisement 'As with any event of this magnitude, there are a tremendous number of moving pieces,' he said. 'Nobody is ready, 100%, a year out. When we signed up for this, we knew we would be working to the end to get ready.' The 2026 World Cup will be the largest and most complex sporting event in history, with 48 national teams playing 104 games in 16 cities spread across the U.S., Mexico and Canada over 39 days. Eight games will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Read more: Visa approval crisis threatens to cost 2026 World Cup and L.A. Olympics millions With more than 6 million fans expected to attend matches and another 6 billion engaging globally, FIFA, the World Cup's organizer, says the economic impact to the three countries could top $40 billion. But the number of obstacles host cities will have to negotiate are almost as large and complex as the tournament itself. Advertisement 'Transportation, communications, ticketing, security, the fan fest,' Freedman said. 'You name it.' Hovering over it all like a black cloud are uncertainties over visas, which about half the fans coming to the U.S. for the tournament will need in order to enter the country. Last week, the Trump administration reneged on a pledge to host an open World Cup by issuing a travel ban on people from 12 countries, including Iran, which has already qualified for the World Cup. Citizens of seven other countries face severe restrictions in obtaining visas. Before that, the State Department, which is charge of visa issuance, announced plans to close 10 embassies and 17 consulates and reduce its work force by 3,400 at a time when the average wait for a visa application appointment in some countries is more than a year. Advertisement And Southern California, which will host the U.S. national team's first game, has experienced days of civil unrest sparked by widespread immigration raids. After protesters shut down freeways, burned cars and vandalized businesses, the national guard was deployed. The turmoil could threaten the success of an event that Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive of the L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission, considers both a unique opportunity and a major responsibility. 'The thing that keeps me awake at night is how quickly this has been,' she said. 'We started in 2017 on this bid and it just always seemed like it was a long way away. Then, all of sudden, poof, we're at one year out.' 'I want to make a positive impact on people and their memories,' she continued. 'That, to me, is the biggest responsibility here because we're not going to have this event here again in my lifetime. So this is the one opportunity of the world's biggest event to really do some good in L.A.' Advertisement This is already the second World Cup played in the U.S. in Schloessman's lifetime. The first, in 1994, was the most successful in history, setting records for average and overall attendance and returning a record $50-million profit to its organizing committee, headed by Alan Rothenberg. Read more: SoFi Stadium's hybrid soccer pitch exceeds expectations during Nations League A year out from that tournament, Rothenberg had far different concerns. The U.S. didn't have a first-division soccer league then and its national team had played in just one World Cup since 1950. As a result, soccer was so foreign to most Americans, many of the nine stadiums selected to host games didn't have fields wide enough to meet FIFA standards. 'We had a keen sense of confidence and yet, at the same time, total apprehension. Because nobody had ever done it before,' Rothenberg said. Advertisement 'We were reasonably confident about how ticket sales were going to go. A lot was riding on the success of the [U.S.] team. If the team was an embarrassment it would be a real downcast over the entire operation.' Instead, the U.S. drew Switzerland, beat Colombia and advanced to the knockout round, where it played eventual champion Brazil even for 70 minutes. That World Cup also introduced a number of features that have since become common, such as fan fests and group-play victories counting for three points instead of two. It was also the first World Cup in which a temporary grass carpet was laid over an artificial-turf field; next summer eight of the 16 stadiums will do that. Rothenberg even planned a halftime show for the final at the Rose Bowl, signing Whitney Houston to perform. FIFA nixed the idea then but has revived it for 2026. Advertisement 'Everything we did was like a first, other than the actual playing of the matches,' Rothenberg said. 'I think it really took '94 to let the rest of the soccer world accept the fact that 'OK, the U.S. can be part of our club.' We were doing some unusual things. We were using celebrities and doing all kinds of entertainment events to build public interest. We had our legacy tour where we were going to city after city, basically traveling the country to get people interested.' Fans pack the Rose Bowl during a World Cup match between Brazil and Italy on July 17, 1994. (Lois Bernstein / Associated Press) And Rothenberg could do that because, as president of U.S. Soccer and chairman of the World Cup organizing committee, he was in charge of the entire tournament. That has changed. FIFA now runs the show, overseeing each of the 16 World Cup cities, who are acting independently of one another. Advertisement The financial agreements between FIFA and the World Cup hosts have also changed, which is why it's highly unlikely any future tournament will be as profitable for the host country as Rothenberg's was for the U.S. In 1994, FIFA shared some of its earnings with local organizers, who were also allowed to cut their own sponsorship deals. That led to a $50 million surplus that funded the U.S. Soccer Foundation. This time around FIFA is taking virtually all tournament-related revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships and broadcasting, even at the local level, while leaving host cities on the hook for public services, security and stadium operations. The relationship is so one-sided that Chicago, where the World Cup opened in 1994, backed out of the 2026 tournament citing the costs to the public. Los Angeles threatened to pass on the tournament as well until a privately funded host committee made up of nearly a dozen local sports and civic organizations agreed to cover much of the risks to taxpayers. In return, a report by Micronomics Economic Research and Consulting estimates Southern California will receive $594 million in economic impact from the tournament, including $343 million in direct spending on hotels, meals, transportation and other services from the estimated 180,000 out-of-town World Cup visitors. Advertisement But that's assuming those visitors show up. According to the State Department website, wait times for a non-immigrant B1/B2 visa — the one World Cup visitors who do not qualify for a visa waiver will need to enter the U.S. — topped a year in Colombia, Honduras and several cities in Mexico. And things may be getting worse. 'Based on our experience, the approval rate for B1/B2 tourist and/or temporary business visas in Colombia has changed,' said Pamela Monroy, a paralegal who helps prospective U.S. visitors through the immigration process. 'There has been a considerable increase in the denial rate for this visa category. We believe this is a result of the ongoing policies and changes in immigration matters being implemented by the Donald Trump administration.' Those kinds of stories worry Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose district borders SoFi Stadium. Last month Kamlager-Dove sent a letter, signed by a bipartisan group of more than 50 congressional representatives, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to 'ensure expeditious and secure visa processing' for the World Cup. Advertisement In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Kamlager-Dove is a member, Rubio promised he would. But the congresswoman has yet to see proof. 'Show me what that looks like,' she said Monday. 'We're not going to wait too long. We're all unified, Republicans and Democrats. We want these games to be successful, want them to get their act together and are willing to work with one another to push the State Department to follow through on their commitment.' The White House, meanwhile, has sent mixed messages. Last month, President Trump opened the first meeting of a task force on the World Cup by saying that 'everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun and to celebrate the game will be able to do that.' A month later he signed the travel ban, effectively limiting the definition of 'everyone.' President Trump signs a soccer ball as Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, right, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino look on at Lusail Palace in Doha, Qatar, on May 14. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) At that same White House meeting in May, Vice President JD Vance, the co-chair of the task force, warned World Cup visitors that they would have to leave immediately after the tournament. 'Otherwise,' he said 'they will have to talk to Secretary Noem,' referring to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has detained and interrogated people with approved immigration documents at U.S. points of entry. Advertisement The last two World Cup hosts — Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022 — allowed visitors to enter their countries with a game ticket essentially doubling as their visa. Both governments also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the tournament. Trump's travel ban, which took effect Monday, bars travel to the U.S. for people in 12 countries and severely limits access to people from seven others. In addition to Iran, which has already assured itself a place in the 2026 tournament, those 19 countries include Sudan, Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela, whose teams still have a chance to earn World Cup bids via regional qualifying tournaments. An exception to the travel ban will allow athletes, coaches and support staff into the U.S. but not fans, directly contradicting FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who told delegates at last month's FIFA Congress that 'the world is welcome in America ... but definitely also all the fans.' Infantino has built a relationship with Trump, attending the president's inauguration in January. If the administration's seemingly contradictory actions caught the FIFA leader by surprise, it also might have convinced some foreign soccer fans to not attend games in the U.S. Advertisement Read more: L.A. Olympic organizers confident they will cover estimated $7.1 billion cost of Games Marcel Ott, a 30-year-old software consultant from Leipzig, Germany, has long been saving for a trip to the World Cup but reports of German tourists being detained, some for weeks, at U.S. airports has led him to reconsider. 'Now I'm not so sure because of the political developments in the U.S.,' he said in German. 'I don't know if it's worth the risk of getting stopped and detained at the airport and risk being deporting back to Germany.' Germany is one of 42 countries whose citizens are eligible for the visa waiver program, which generally allows them to enter the U.S. for visits of up to 90 days without a visa. However, they must obtain Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel and can be turned away at any point of entry by Customs and Border Protection officers. Advertisement Ott, who has attended two World Cups, said he may fly to Canada and try to enter the U.S. from there. 'If I get sent back at the border crossing to Canada, I won't have to fly back to Germany right away,' he said. 'I'm thinking the guards at the border to Canada might be a little more relaxed. And there are World Cup games in Canada, too, so it wouldn't be so bad if I get sent back at the Canadian border. 'To be honest, I am still not sure what to do next year.' Marlene, 33, who declined to give her last name, is also uncertain. A city government employee in Berlin, she attended the last two World Cups in Russia and Qatar and planned to travel to the U.S. next summer 'but the general events and U.S. politics put me off. I think it would be better for me not to travel to the USA.' Advertisement But Volker Heun, who worked as a bank executive in the U.S. and once golfed with Trump, said those fears are misplaced, citing the nearly two million Germans who visited America without issue last year. 'This whole issue is being totally overblown in the German media,' said Heun, who plans to enter a World Cup lottery for tickets to multiple games. 'The atmosphere is going to be great.' In South Korea, Jo Ho-tae, who helps manage the Red Devils, a supporter group that recently followed the country's national team to a qualifying match in Jordan, said he will rely on government officials to warn of potential problems. 'I haven't thought too much about Trump's immigration policy yet,' he said. 'But who even knows if our matches will be held in the U.S. and not in Canada or Mexico?' Advertisement The White House could always reverse its immigration policy, as it has done repeatedly with tariffs, and prioritize visa requests for World Cup travelers. That's the solution Freedman, L.A. organizing committee co-chair, is betting on. 'They are looking at this as a showcase event for the country and the host cities. And they understand, it seems, how important it is to welcome the world,' he said. 'I am hopeful that it all gets sorted out in a good way.' Read more: News Analysis: Why are big-name U.S. players passing on World Cup tuneup? Many close observers of World Cup preparations share Freedman's optimism. Advertisement Whether that cautious optimism is justified may soon be known. Tickets for the tournament are expected to go on sale this summer and the draw to determine matchups and venues for the group-play stage of the tournament will be held this winter. Those two events could go a long way toward determining how the World Cup plays out, said Travis Murphy, a former U.S. diplomat who is founder and chief executive of Jetr Global Sports + Entertainment, a Washington-based firm that works to solve visa and immigrant issues for athletes and sports franchises. 'There's kind of this stopwatch that begins the moment the draw is complete to figure out [training] camps and logistics and visas and travel arrangements,' he said. 'I do think they'll make it happen. Is that to say there won't be any issues? Of course not. There was never going to be a scenario where there's not significant challenges to get all these people into the country. 'There are times when the rhetoric seems to run contrary to what's happening on the ground. But it does, at least for the moment, seem like they're implementing changes that are ultimately going to be helpful.' Advertisement Baxter reported from Los Angeles, special correspondent Kirschbaum from Berlin and staff writer Max Kim from Seoul. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Does US soccer really need four first divisions? The answer isn't necessarily ‘no'
Between this summer's Club World Cup, next year's World Cup, the enduring stature of the US women's national team, and MLS's steadily growing stable of teams and star attractions, soccer finally appears to be realizing its vast promise on US soil. Is there a limit to how much soccer America can handle? Several organizations are betting that the answer to that question is 'no'. In late April, the National Women's Soccer League – the oldest and biggest first division professional women's league operating in the US today – announced plans to launch a second division, despite concerns over the first division's financial sustainability and the NWSL's slipping status in a women's club game increasingly dominated by Europe. That announcement came on the heels of news that the Women's Premier Soccer League, the longest-running active women's soccer league in the country, plans to launch WPSL Pro as a second-tier league late next year. Meanwhile the USL Super League, a first division rival to the more established NWSL, launched with eight teams in 2024; Sporting Club Jacksonville will become the league's ninth team when the second season starts this fall. There is nothing in the US Soccer Federation's rules to prevent multiple leagues from occupying the same division. From a single Division I competition two years ago, professional US women's soccer is now facing a future where it could very soon have two rival leagues at both first and second division level. Should all the proposed leagues launch as planned, there could be 50 women's professional soccer teams in the US by 2030. In 2023 there were just 12. Advertisement Related: The reckless fantasy of austerity as a panacea is coming for European football | Aaron Timms The emerging patchwork of leagues, officiating bodies, and teams in US women's soccer can be bewildering to contemplate; keeping track of the growing family of acronyms alone – NWSL, WPSL, WPSL Pro, USL, and how they all relate to each other – is enough to induce a headache. But it's not only in the women's game that this kind of divisional competition is flourishing. In February the United Soccer League – the same USL behind the women's USL Super League – announced plans to launch a Division I men's league to rival MLS by 2027. This announcement came just a few days after a jury dismissed a civil anti-trust action brought by a former Division I rival, the now defunct North American Soccer League, against US Soccer and MLS over what it alleged was an unlawful scheme to curb competition in top tier men's professional soccer. Right when MLS imagined it might finally be clear of the threat posed by former and would-be rivals, USL – which already operates second and third division men's professional leagues – popped up to spoil the party. With its vast media market, love of sports, cultural heft, and unquenchable thirst for consumption, America has long loomed as global soccer's white whale. But how much growth is too much? Excitement, innovation, expanding access to the sport, and giving fans choice: these are all, of course, the regular platitudes that accompany the announcement of new leagues, and this latest flurry of divisional growth in US soccer has been no different. 'By uniting people through soccer and bringing Division One to more cities, we're not just growing the sport – we're creating lasting opportunities while building a more sustainable and vibrant soccer ecosystem in the US,' argued CEO Alec Papadakis in announcing USL's plans for the first division league. Unquestionably the US market presents a massive opportunity for soccer, even with all the obvious progress made over the past few decades, and in principle, assuming the startups meet all the customary financing criteria, there's nothing to hold the expansion in leagues and teams back. US Soccer's professional league standards – the requirements that leagues must meet in order to be officially sanctioned – spell things out clearly. All Division I men's competitions, for instance, must have at least 12 teams to apply (and 14 by year three); every stadium should have a minimum capacity of 15,000; and at least 75% of the league's teams have to play in metropolitan markets of at least one million people. Compare those metrics to America's raw demographic data and it seems obvious that the US market can support way more than the 30 men's Division I teams currently competing in MLS: there are more than 50 metropolitan statistical areas in America with more than one million inhabitants, and at least 11 of them pass the five million mark. This suggests a vast consumer reservoir just waiting to be tapped. Advertisement The history of America's sporting experience points in a slightly less bullish direction: across the NFL, NBA, and MLS, leagues that have been around for much longer than MLS and are far more mature in their segmentation and capturing of distinct fandoms and consumer markets, it's rare for cities to have more than one team, and even the country's biggest agglomerations like LA and New York have no more than two home franchises in a single sport. Both MLS and NBA have 30 teams, while the NFL has 32; however confident commissioner Don Garber might sound in the league's prospects, MLS on its own may already be approaching the ceiling of its development and expansion in this country, and that's before we even consider the impact that new entrants like the USL will have on the incumbent's vitals. Yes, there is room for soccer to grow in the US, but it seems unlikely the sport can grow this much this quickly. The sanctioning hurdles that have to be cleared for women's professional leagues, like the scale of the commercial ambitions attached to them, are smaller than they are for the men's game, which may lead some to conclude that women's soccer will stand a better chance of supporting the new profusion in leagues and teams. The NWSL is expanding healthily: the league will welcome its 15th and 16th teams, from Boston and Denver, next year, and a recently inked $240m, four-year media rights deal with ESPN represents a powerful boost in TV revenue. But these encouraging signs can't conceal the very real cultural troubles the league has had in recent years: most notably, a series of investigations in 2022 found that verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse was widespread and systematic throughout the NWSL, and a $5m restitution fund has now been established to compensate players affected. Meanwhile the competitive threat posed by the European leagues, which are coming to be seen as the pinnacle of the women's game at club level after years of lagging America, continues to grow, causing jitters at the top levels of a league used to setting the global benchmark. In a bid to stay competitive with Europe and the upstart USL Super League, where there's no player draft and free agency rules, the NWSL and its player association last year agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement to eliminate its draft, raise the salary cap, and free other restrictions on player movement. The question now is whether the league's new era of spending can be sustainable – especially in an environment where many franchises aren't profitable, salary creep outstrips income growth, and an exodus of top talent to Europe means teams are overpaying for a more mediocre on-field product. As one general manager put it to ESPN last year: 'I think this league is growing too fast.' How can a competition facing headwinds and challenges like these credibly claim to be ready to stand up a second division? Whether all of these leagues can survive together may ultimately be the wrong way of looking at things – and not just because they almost certainly can't. The story of professional sports over the last century or so is a tale of secession, insurrection, absorption, and consolidation, and the US, with its staunch tradition of anti-trust law and openness to commercial competition, has been a breeding ground for breakways and upstarts. The NFL, to take the most obvious example, matured through the competitive energies stoked by rival leagues like the AAFC of the postwar era and the AFL, which rose to become the NFL's primary competitor in the 1960s; eventually the AFL and the NFL merged, creating the NFL as we know it today. In the decades since, the NFL has faced periodic challenges to its supremacy, most infamously from the Donald Trump-aligned USFL in the 1980s, but it has seen off all competitors with relative ease; it's fair to speculate that the NFL might not be quite so hegemonic today had it not been hardened through battle. The real benefit of the upstart leagues may be to make the incumbents stronger. Advertisement Can they also make the incumbents better? The challenge posed by the European leagues and the USL has already pushed the NWSL to abandon the player draft, which has been one of American soccer's defining features in the era of professionalization. Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen – league parity, after all, is one of the great historic strengths of US sports – but it's possible that this latest blossoming of league rivals could push sometimes recalcitrant incumbents to embrace long-resisted changes. The USL Super League, for example, runs a fall-to-spring season calendar that makes it an outlier in the US but aligns it with Europe – and could eventually become an example to emulate for the NWSL. In the men's game, the USL's plans to launch a first division competition put it firmly in line to run a three-tier professional pyramid with relegation and promotion. Could this push MLS, traditionally a bastion of resistance to pro-rel, to embrace a multi-divisional future? Or will these threats, combined, push MLS and the NWSL to overreach, spending and growing beyond their means in a rush to stay at the top of the sport? Rebellion, secession, conquest, and expansion have long been central elements of the American experience. Now these themes are set to play out across US soccer, and the results promise to be every bit as unpredictable as the sputtering American experiment.
