MLS commissioner Don Garber addresses Messi, Jordi Alba missing All-Star Game

AUSTIN, Texas – On Wednesday night, MLS staged its annual All-Star Game here against Liga MX’s finest — without its biggest star involved.

On the morning of the exhibition, MLS revealed that Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammate, Jordi Alba, would not participate in the spectacle. Rather than directly framing the absence of one of the game’s modern icons, or of two teammates who were among the 12 players selected to the squad, it was a cold “squad update” press release without any mention of the two players. Liga MX also dealt with a late scratch from its squad, Colombian midfielder James Rodríguez. But while there’s no potential discipline for Liga MX players who beg out of the match, MLS’s rules stipulate that players who are fit and yet opt to sit out the All-Star Game are subject to a one-match suspension.

Two hours before kickoff, MLS commissioner Don Garber fielded questions after delivering a midseason address. At last, it was time to acknowledge the 5-foot-7 elephant missing from the room.

“We’re managing through that process as we speak, but I want to say something that we as a league need to deal with,” Garber said. “We have an All-Star Game that we think is a real priority. You are sports journalists; you know that All-Star Games have a uniqueness to them. Where do you fit it in the schedule? How do you make that a priority for all your stakeholders — not just your players, but your fans, your partners, taking a break and all the meetings that we’ve had? It’s the first time we’ve had all of our [chief soccer officers] here, all of our [chief business officers] here, all of our owners here. It is an important midseason break for us.”

Garber did sympathize with the recent gauntlet that Miami has run, playing four Club World Cup games and five MLS matches in the span of 35 days. Messi played all 90 minutes in each of those matches. In a time when fixture congestion is among the hottest topics in this sport, with the brunt borne most directly by the players, it was a compelling justification.

But rules are rules, and there is precedent for MLS holding its star players accountable if they miss the summer showcase. In 2018, MLS suspended Zlatan Ibrahimović forhis next LA Galaxy match after he skipped the All-Star Game. The Swedish striker clapped back a day later: “They do whatever they want. I come from a different world, I come from the real world.”

While that 2018 verdict came swiftly, Garber cited a process regarding Messi and Alba and that decisions about who could and couldn’t play over the weekend could wait until after the All-Star Game. Miami’s match against first-place FC Cincinnati on Saturday is no small matter, either.

“We do have rules, and we have to manage through that as well,” Garber said. “We would have loved to have Leo here. We’d love to have every player that was selected for the All-Star team here. After this All-Star Game, we’ll figure out what needs to happen. I was told this morning that neither Jordi nor Messi practiced today. Jordi came off with an injury in last game, and we’ll have to manage through what Miami is going to say about that.”

When asked about the timing of the revelation, and why the league wasn’t informed sooner so the uncertainty about the stars’ playing status didn’t linger for days, the commissioner admitted with curtness that it should have been handled differently.

“We should have known earlier,” Garber said. “We should have addressed it earlier. No doubt about that.”

As for other key points from Garber’s wide-ranging discussion with the media:

MLS 3.0?

Next year marks the 30th anniversary of MLS’s launch, coinciding with the 2026 World Cup coming to the United States, Canada and Mexico. It’s a natural point for reflection, both on where the league has come from and how it should further evolve. It’s a process that requires input from several key league stakeholders, including broadcast partner Apple.

For the first time, MLS gave a ballpark estimate of how many people watch its games — and it’s a more encouraging figure than the old broadcast ratings when the league had one or two national broadcasts and the rest of its games on regional airwaves.

“The Apple deal has grown,” Garber said. “We’re averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match. That’s an increase of almost 50% compared to last year. Distribution has helped drive a lot of that. Now you can get MLS Season Pass on Comcast, on Direct TV, for the first time of any sports league, providing access to fans through EA FC Mobile.”

With that increase in viewership comes a responsibility to keep driving the league forward. It’s a process that will likely transpire on several fronts.

“It’s clearly one of the most transformational times in the history of our sport, and obviously, we think Major League Soccer is one of the drivers of the growth of the sport here in this country,” Garber said. “But it’s all kind of leading up to the World Cup in 2026. It’s an opportunity for us to take a look: what have the last 30 years been like, and what’s the 30 years going to look like going forward? We have focused on what we’re calling MLS 3.0: MLS in the next 30 years, a comprehensive strategy to drive our next area, era of growth, of innovation, global competitiveness, which we think is very important.”

Garber broke this down into a few different categories, adding a caveat that he would “not be making any announcements today” while saying they’re listening to their fans, their business partners, their sporting executives and their clubs to inform these decisions. Among the topics was an ongoing exploration of inverting the league’s calendar to match the fall-to-spring custom in Europe’s major leagues; “a review of our entire roster strategy” (more on that below); an exploration of the competitive format and restructuring the regular season and postseason alike; and continuing to refine player development, saying that the league’s 30 clubs are nearing $1 billion of expenditure into youth academies.

“It is about moving forward, as we always do with energy, and with purpose, and with ambition. It is about the next era of growth for our league.”

Loosening roster restrictions

Among the key takeaways from the Club World Cup showings of Miami, Los Angeles FC and the Seattle Sounders was the limitations brought on by the roster restrictions in place — including setting a limit on individual players’ salaries, the designated player rule, the salary cap, and “discovery rights” on signings from outside of MLS. In light of the creativity necessary amid Miami’s ongoing pursuit of Argentina midfielder Rodrigo De Paul, Garber stressed that from the owners’ perspective, these limits aren’t designed to stifle competition.

“We don’t have these rules in place because somebody is sitting behind a green curtain and saying, ‘How can I make rules that are going to prevent the league from moving forward?’ That would be just madness,” Garber said. “We have rules because we’re looking at data. We’re evaluating where we fit and how our allocation of resources can help our league move forward. In the minds of fans — and I get it — fans don’t want to hear about roster rules, and they don’t want to hear about what can’t be done. All they want to hear about is what great players they have and how well they do on the field, both referentially, but also within the league competition.

“We have been very thoughtful, and I think history will judge us about how we have made decisions to ensure that we could manage steady growth over what has been a 30 year period: defying all odds, and doing it in a way where our clubs are becoming teams of choice for top players — and, as Miami was able to prove, be able to stand toe-to-toe with some tough clubs. Now, if the objective is to win the Club World Cup, which it is, we just have to figure out how do we manage that within the overall economic environment that exists today.”

Garber also suggested that the changes can’t force a one-size-fits-all model upon its teams, citing Philadelphia’s $140 million outlay on a development facility to enable its already-proven youth pathway. He also quietly drew attention to the ultimate determiners of any potential change: the 30 ownership groups that the commissioner represents.

“As we feel the opportunity exists for our clubs — I should say this differently — as our owners feel that more flexibility will drive more opportunity and more competitiveness, then we will move in that direction.”

Safety at MLS venues

Among the biggest fan stories of the 2025 season is the safety of Latino supporters in light of ICE’s increasing presence in American communities. One faction, Nashville SC supporters group La Brigada De Oro, stopped attending matches for multiple months in light of a series of raids in the Tennessean capital.

As La Brigada co-founder Abel Acosta told The Athletic in May: “Now that the community is reeling and suffering, this demographic that is very much a key contributor to your sporting events, we’re hurting. It’s disheartening that they’re not there or making some kind of statement.” After a few questions, Garber was asked about fan safety.

“It’s a complicated issue, for sure, and the question is, does the league have a role in protecting people — you’re talking about Latinos,” Garber said. “I don’t think the league has the ability to serve as an entity to protect anyone. That being said, we want our stadiums to be safe. We want to ensure that we’re having displays that are not going to incite anyone, and at the same time: not take care of one audience, and having to deal with another audience that might be on the other side of this issue. The best way to do that is to have the policy we have, which prohibits having political signage or anything to do with legislative acts on display in our stadiums.

“I understand and sympathize with those that are impacted by this. I grew up in a very diverse environment. We are a very diverse league, but we have to be very thoughtful about how we engage in this situation. If our teams, as LAFC has done, want to make a statement, they can. I don’t think any team should be required to; certainly the league has not and will not make a statement on this. We just want to continue to do whatever we can to ensure that our games are safe for all of our fans.”

Other items

Late last year, Vancouver Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot announced that he was opening a process to sell the club. While Garber had no update on how soon such a deal could transpire, he did say that the city of Vancouver has been “more engaged now” than ever to find space for a new stadium. And, in the face of concerns from fans of the Concacaf Champions Cup runners-up: “there is no plan to move the Vancouver Whitecaps.” … Garber revealed that MLS Cup will be held on December 6. … At this stage, there is no plan to expand MLS beyond its current stable of 30 teams. There have been previous hints that the league may grow to 32 teams, an identical size to the NFL and the NHL but unusual for a soccer league. … MLS is nearing a milestone of 160 million fans in attendance its games since the league kicked off in 1996.

(Top photo: Jeff Dean/Getty Images)