Don Garber wants to expand Leagues Cup: which international teams could play?

MLS clubs have been hugely successful in the 2023 edition of Leagues Cup, a tournament in which they have asserted their dominance over their Liga MX counterparts. The North American sides have demolished the Mexican opposition and left only two standing, with Monterrey and Querétaro the last remaining sides representing the country.

Perhaps as a result of the obviously superior quality, the possibility of expanding Leagues Cup has not been discounted by MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, who spoke about the potential change to Felipe Cárdenas of The Athletic. “Who’s to say that more international teams can’t play in the tournament?” said Cárdenas, quoting Garber as he highlighted his enthusiasm for expansion.

How would it work?

The way Leagues Cup works is that both MLS and Liga MX have stopped for a significant period of time mid-season in order to play the tournament. The logistics behind it are helped by season structure: both teams play yearly seasons that run from the start to the end of the year. In Europe, the season begins in early/mid-August and runs until around the middle/end of May.

This could be seen as an advantage if European teams are to be involved in Leagues Cup in the future, as a summer tournament would not affect a league season. Scheduling and match numbers may be an issue, but the calendar issue of playing games in June/July/August would certainly be avoidable.

But which teams could enter Leagues Cup?

While we have no information on which teams could potentially be a part of an expanded Leagues Cup, we can definitely speculate as the interest is certainly there from the fans. Both the Premier League and LaLiga have spoken about the possibility of playing a game in the USA, and the Chief Executive of the former said that “it was really reaffirming being in the U.S. this summer for the Premier League summer series, when we sold 270,000 tickets across the games and three of them were sold out. It felt really very different.” However, the Premier League executive did pour cold water over the possibility of playing a Premier League game stateside, saying “I don’t think we’re really any nearer a game abroad. It’s not part of current plans.”

Could Real Madrid and Barcelona join Leagues Cup?

LaLiga have, in the past, also proposed the possibility of playing a game in the USA, with the Barcelona vs Girona fixture sounded out as a potential game that could be moved to Miami. LaLiga teams also regularly take part in a USA pre-season tour, like has happened this year, with both Barcelona and Real Madrid touring the country ahead of their league season.

Nothing is confirmed and nothing has been said in public except for a few standalone statements, but if football keeps going the way that it is, there will no doubt be more talk of ‘International’ Leagues Cup in the future.