Inter Miami, MLS set to start training camp in late February
2021 season gets underway in early April
Major League Soccer has set the schedule for the 2021 season, which will see Inter Miami CF try to make its sophomore season more successful than the inaugural one.
The league announced Monday that teams will start their six-week preseason training camps Feb. 22, with the regular season kicking off April 3.
Inter Miami and the rest of MLS will be scheduled to play a standard 34-game regular season after the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the 2020 regular season to 23 games or fewer for teams that had games canceled due to the coronavirus.
The MLS Cup playoffs are set to start Nov. 19 and the Cup Final is scheduled for Dec. 11. The league said it’ll announce the complete 2021 regular-season schedule “in the coming weeks.”
Inter Miami, which went 7-13-3 last year before falling to Nashville SC in the playoff’s opening round, will look to have a bounceback season emphasizing youth development under new coach Phil Neville and sporting director Chris Henderson.
In accordance with MLS’ health and safety policies, players will be required to quarantine and conduct individual training sessions once they return to their clubs for the start of preseason. All players, technical staff and essential club staff members will be tested for COVID-19 every other day, including the day before each match during the regular season.
The league’s announcement came during a time when MLS and the MLS Players Association are in the midst of negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement. MLS invoked the force majeure in the CBA in late December, bringing both parties back to the negotiation table over the CBA for the third time in a year.
The two sides agreed to a CBA last February ahead of the 2020 season, but it wasn’t ratified, setting the stage for the CBA to be renegotiated last summer ahead of the 2020 season restart in July with the MLS is Back tournament.
The league submitted an offer to the MLSPA stating players would be paid 100% of their salaries for 2021 after taking a pay cut in 2020 in exchange for a two-year extension of the current CBA.
MLS cited revenue loss due to the pandemic as its reasoning for enacting the force majeure clause in the CBA, with MLS Commissioner Don Garber previously saying clubs lost around $1 billion last year.
The force majeure clause opened a 30-day window to negotiate the CBA, with that window ending Friday. If an agreement isn’t reached, the CBA could be terminated. Both the league and MLSPA have said they’re looking to avoid a lockout or labor strike.
The league released a statement Monday evening saying: “Major League Soccer met [Monday] with the MLSPA and players to work toward finalizing a Collective Bargaining Agreement that addressed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. After receiving the MLSPA’s counteroffer on Jan. 22, we provided a counterproposal during [Monday’s] meeting. We are committed to paying players 100% of their salaries this year, in return for a two-year extension of the MLS CBA.
“We are prepared for around-the-clock negotiations by any means necessary to get a deal done by the deadline the parties agreed to last spring. This is not a unique situation, as MLS and the players have negotiated more complicated issues in prior CBAs and managed to meet the deadline. It is crucial we meet again as soon as possible as the Jan. 29 deadline approaches.”
Even though MLSPA director Bob Foose has previously said there isn’t a legally binding deadline for the renegotiation period, it’s imperative the league and MLSPA come to an agreement before the preseason is scheduled to maintain MLS’ plans for the 2021 season.