Historic: MLS lowers the blinds for the World Cup

For the first time in its history, the MLS pauses its season for a World played in the summer: an unprecedented seven-week break that coincides with a tournament held in its two countries and five of its stadiums. Major League Soccer – with 27 clubs from the United States and three from Canada – lowered the blinds this Sunday with a scare included: Argentine Leo Messi was replaced at Inter Miami due to a hamstring injury.

Since its founding in 1996, the MLS, which is played in a calendar year, has not been fond of stopping: neither FIFA windows nor summer national team tournaments, not even the World Cup every four years.

In 2022, it brought forward its end of the season to avoid coinciding with the World Cup in Qatar, while in the 2018 editions in Russia, 2014 in Brazil and 2010 in South Africa it only stopped for about two weeks coinciding with the group stage. In 2006 in Germany, 2002 in South Korea and Japan and 1998 in France, the MLS continued as if nothing had happened.

Forced stoppage

This 2026, the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico has practically forced the MLS to lower the blinds, with a record number of players called up and five of its stadiums converted into tournament venues.

Atlanta United, New England Revolution, Seattle Sounders, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps are left without their stadiums, which, as required by FIFA, will lose the commercial names of their sponsors and will have their symbols covered or removed.

Between its five stadiums, they will host 34 matches of the tournament, including a semifinal at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where the giant logos of the German automobile company, embedded in the façade and roof, have become a headache.

Calendar change

This unprecedented break also coincides with the MLS’s decision to change its calendar to align it with that of the major European leagues starting in 2027, which will also facilitate its integration into the transfer market and FIFA windows.

When the current 2026 campaign concludes and after a transition season in the first half of 2027, MLS will definitively adopt the new calendar from the end of July to the end of May.

“If we want to be a major player on the global stage, we have to play the same game that the rest of the world plays, even if that is a little more difficult for us,” league commissioner Don Garber said when announcing the decision.

In 2030, with the new calendar, the MLS will leave behind the dilemma of whether or not to stop with the start of the World Cup to be organized by Spain, Portugal and Morocco and which will feature the opening matches of Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay in their respective countries as a tribute to the first World Cup in history, played entirely in Montevideo in 1930.