“Not elite!” Phil Neville slams MLS for new playoffs uncertainty

A new Major League Soccer season will start on Saturday 25 February, where Inter Miami will begin their challenge against CF Montreal. However, with little notice about a possible new playoff format for the season the team’s coach, Phil Neville, has strongly criticized the league.

During an interview with The Athletic, Neville attacked the organizers due to the changes that could be introduced for this season, as he puts the finishing touches to his campaign preparations.

“That’s not elite!” - Neville on MLS

“We’re six days, seven days out from the first game of the season, we don’t know the playoff format. I think that’s poor,” said Neville.

“When you’re talking about professionalism, and ‘elite,’ I think when you’re seven days out from the start of the season -- we’ve had talks here, and one of our players asked one of the MLS guys the other day ‘what’s the playoff system’ and they were like, ‘We don’t know.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s not elite.’

You’re talking about differences between the U.K. and the U.S.? We talked about the intensity of the fans. (This is another) big difference.”

Neville has critical form with MLS

This is not the first time the English coach has criticized the American league. Previously he questioned the resolution of the racism case involving Greek Taxiarchis Fountas of DC United, and another time against refereeing.

The coach of the Florida team was fined an undisclosed amount for his comments on refereeing after the game against the New York Red Bulls on 9 October 2021. These comments violated the league’s public criticism policy.

In January, it was reported that the playoffs could change in the 2023 season. The MLS could bring a best-of-three series for the first round of playoffs and then single-elimination matches for the semifinals, but nothing has been confirmed yet. And the clock keeps ticking...