This week, FIFA announced which cities will host matches for the 2026 World Cup. In total, it’s 16:11 in the United States, three in Mexico, and two in Canada. With the spotlight on the region, the US is experiencing a special moment in football. MLS (Major League Soccer) joined the list of the four main professional leagues in the country, which also dreams of its clubs participating in a turbocharged Libertadores.
No podcast Football Without Borders #54 (Listen in full in the episode above), columnist Julio Gomes and international correspondent Jamil Chade spoke with journalist Sérgio Patrick, who has lived in the United States for eight years. They talked about the soccer landscape and its development, both on and off the pitch.
“Ever since we were kids, we’ve heard this phrase: ‘Where will football end up in the US?’ Almost 50 years ago, Pelé arrived there to play in the New York Cosmos. The speech was that the Americans would ‘take’ football and no one would ever win anything again. Fifty years later, it finally seems that, speeches aside, it is turning into something even bigger. We have the World Cup in 2026, American investors buying clubs everywhere and women’s football has been a reality for a long time”, commented Julio.
Jamil highlighted the growing involvement of US businesspeople in the soccer market. Several of them acquired clubs around the world – in the case of Brazil, John Textor became the owner of SAF do Botafogo. In Europe, he became Lyon’s majority shareholder this week – earlier, he had already bought Belgian second division RWD Molenbeek and owns England’s Crystal Palace. The international correspondent and columnist for UOL explained whether UEFA would feel threatened in any way by this expansion of US influence.
“For now, Europeans are looking at it with interest, but it wouldn’t give them much to start looking at it with concern. Eventually, that same businessman will have two teams in the same competition. What if there is an invasion of American businessmen?”, asked Jamil.
Super Libertadores
The idea of the growth and development of football in the US is an increasingly common debate there: greater integration with South America. The idea of creating a turbocharged Libertadores, with the presence of MLS clubs, appears as a business opportunity to confront UEFA and its profitable competitions.
“Combining South American and North American football would, in my opinion, be the only possible way for any club here to compete with the Europeans one day. This sporting competition has always existed since the last century. It ceased to exist when the financial abyss was opening and, today, it seems irrecoverable. The chance would be this: to take the management skills, organization and money of the Americans and combine it with the talent, passion and mobilization that football has here in South America” , pointed out Julius.
Patrick pointed out that this is an old conversation in the US. “That’s a question often asked around here to top football officials in the United States. So far, in recent years, the answer has been, ‘It’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t fit on the calendar.’ , however, this becomes a justification for anything in the country”, he analyzed.
For the journalist, the fear of direct competition with a ‘Super Libertadores’ makes the MLS act with caution. “My impression is that the MLS doesn’t want a competition that is above it. The Concacaf Champions Cup is not superior to the MLS. The life of football here in the US is the MLS. There is this difficulty. The MLS is not an entity like the CBF; it’s a league structured along the lines of American sport. They know what the Champions League has done to the European leagues. It may make financial sense, but there’s this very strong lock. MLS doesn’t want a competition that overshadows the size it it wants to have. In the coming years, it aims to be a competition as relevant as major European leagues”, added Patrick.
listen to the podcast Football without Borders and also check out the debate about the controversy surrounding the naming rights of the US stadiums that will host the 2026 World Cup games and the problems in the country’s air transport system, which can make it difficult for teams to travel during the World Cup.
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