source: aspetto.com

There have been murmurs circulating about a union or merger between America's MLS and Italy's Serie A. I recently came across this article very much in favour of the idea.

It envisions a co-operation between the two leagues where a hypothetical Serie A player struggling to get a game for let's say Fiorentina moves to MLS and plays for let's say Kansas City Wizards. In return the best MLS players (this means you Landon Donovan) are fast-tracked into Serie A teams. The author of the above mentioned article believes this would work so well because the two leagues operate on different schedules; MLS goes from April to November, Serie A from August to May. Of course, this assumes that footballers never need a break and are happy to play all year round until their legs give out.

Even if these poor players developed superhuman stamina, there are other problems. There's the culture and language barrier, with our hypothetical Fiorentina reserve moving to the cornfields of Kansas without knowing a word of English and being expected to shine in MLS games.

While designed to increase audience attendance for MLS games, it's MLS that has the most to lose. Yes, more people would turn up to Kansas City Wizards games if Francesco Totti's name was on their teamsheet but the hypothetical Fiorentina reserve would not be Francesco Totti. He'd be either a young unknown or a fading veteran. This imported second-rate Italian would then keep young Americans out of the Kansas first team, denying them the opportunity to flourish.

MLS has everything to lose here. It's starting to produce some homegrown stars like freddy Adu, Eddie Johnson and others. Even better, MLS players are earning transfters to Europe without the proposed Serie A fast-tracking. New York Metrostars Michael Bradley for example, who just completed a move to Dutch side Heerenveen at the tender age of 18.

MLS has it's problems but it's moving in the right direction. It's only a decade old, and the worst thing that could happen now is a big dramatic gesture like this proposed merger. And let's not fool ourselves, with the best American players leaving for Italy and the worst Italian players replacing them in America, this wouldn't be a merger but a Serie A takeover of MLS.