Orlando (AP) - Major League Soccer wants to continue the regular season one day after the finale of its comeback tournament in Florida and it is foreseeable that spectators will enter the stadiums.
In these games with fans there should be a national anthem before kick-off, to which players are allowed to kneel in solidarity with the anti-racism protests in the USA. "We will continue to support this," emphasized MLS boss Garber and, with a view to the continuation plans and the corona risk, said in a press conference with mostly critical US journalists: "If it doesn't work, we won't continue."
On August 11th, the Portland Timbers will play against Orlando City SC on the Disney World grounds in Orlando to win the "MLS is back" tournament, 24 hours later the FC Dallas and Nashville SC in Texas are due continue the main round in the MLS, which was interrupted after two match days. Both teams could not take part in the tournament in Florida because of too many corona cases. Garber denied that spectators were allowed to attend the game, as was initially heard. The application has been made, a decision is still pending.
After the schedule was published, Garber pointed out that the league had to maintain a lot of flexibility. "We know we have a few challenges. We know that it won't be easy and that there can be problems that can even force us to postpone matches. We understand the need to be flexible."
Whether spectators are allowed in the stadiums should be decided taking into account the applicable rules of the US states. Garber did not want to allow comparisons with Major League Baseball, which, like the Bundesliga, does not allow spectators to enter the stadiums, but has massive problems with corona cases in the teams. The concept of the MLB is already months old.
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