The tradition’s of the sport in Europe mean teams have firm geographical ties backed by centuries of history. It would take some pretty unusual circumstances for a British team to just up sticks and relocate within the UK, let alone to foreign shores. That said it has happened, Wimbledon became the MK Dons moving from South London to the new town of Milton Keynes 60 miles north of London, and in Scotland Meadowbank Thistle relocated from Edinburgh’s West End to again a new town, this time Livingston 20 miles to the West, and apparently funded by Edinburgh’s gangland from their earnings on the heroin trade (see the movie Trainspotting to see just how big that market was).

I do think the idea of a league system across North America is good though, and the addition of promotion and relegation is an essential element to a succesful league structure – you can only dream of the highs and lows of your team getting relegated or promoted unless you’ve been there. I think it shoud go further and have links into the Mexican, American and Canadian feeder leagues, perhaps a play-off system. All extra games, all good for the media, and gives the teams in the NASL and its equivalents a target to aim for much like clubs like Wigan in the UK that rose from the depths of the football league to become an established Premier League team.