Domestic football
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top division of football in the United States and Canada. Contested by 30 clubs split across Eastern and Western Conferences, it uses a regular-season-plus-playoffs format that differs from most other major world leagues. The MLS Cup playoffs end with a single-match final each December, while the Supporters' Shield goes to the club with the best regular-season record.
What MLS is
MLS is the top-flight football league in the United States and Canada.
Major League Soccer is contested by 30 clubs — 27 from the United States and three from Canada (Toronto FC, CF Montréal, and Vancouver Whitecaps). The league is split geographically into Eastern and Western Conferences, with 15 clubs in each. Every club plays a 34-game regular season from late February to mid-October, followed by an end-of-season playoff competition called the MLS Cup playoffs. The regular season and playoffs award two separate trophies — the Supporters' Shield for the regular season and the MLS Cup for the playoff winner.
MLS began play in 1996, partly as a legacy commitment from the United States hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The competition is run by Major League Soccer LLC, a single-entity structure in which the league itself centrally controls key commercial and player-contract arrangements, while the clubs operate as franchises rather than fully independent companies. This single-entity model is one of the most distinctive features of MLS and differentiates it from most other professional football leagues worldwide.
How the regular season works
MLS uses a 34-game regular season with conference and cross-conference matches.
Each club plays 34 regular-season matches, 17 at home and 17 away. Clubs play each of their 14 conference opponents twice, once at home and once away, making 28 conference matches. The remaining six matches are against clubs from the opposite conference. Three points are awarded for a win and one for a draw, with no points for a defeat.
The Supporters' Shield is awarded to the club with the best regular-season record across both conferences, regardless of which conference they play in. The Shield carries a guaranteed Concacaf Champions Cup place for the following season. Tiebreakers for clubs level on points begin with total wins, then goal difference and goals scored. The regular season is widely considered the more accurate measure of a club's season-long quality, while the MLS Cup playoffs are the higher-profile championship.
The MLS Cup playoffs
An 18-team postseason tournament decides the MLS Cup champion each December.
The MLS Cup playoffs follow the regular season and feature 18 clubs — the top nine finishers from each conference. The bracket is divided into two halves, one for each conference. Seeds one to seven in each conference qualify directly for Round One, while seeds eight and nine play a single-match Wild Card game. The Wild Card winner then faces the number one seed in a Round One best-of-three series.
Round One is played as a best-of-three series, with the higher seed hosting the first match and, if needed, the third match. The conference semi-finals, conference finals and MLS Cup final are then single-match knockout ties, hosted by the higher seed. This means the MLS Cup final is hosted rather than played at a neutral venue, one of the most distinctive features of MLS and a reflection of the wider North American sports model.
The MLS Cup winner takes the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, named after the league's co-founder, and qualifies for the next Concacaf Champions Cup alongside the Supporters' Shield winner and other qualified clubs.
How clubs qualify for continental competition
MLS clubs qualify for the Concacaf Champions Cup through league, cup and regional routes.
The Concacaf Champions Cup is the top continental club competition in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. MLS clubs can qualify through several routes, including winning MLS Cup, winning the Supporters' Shield, finishing highly in the regular-season standings, winning the U.S. Open Cup, winning the Canadian Championship or qualifying through the Leagues Cup.
The exact list of qualifiers can change from season to season because places are also awarded through national cups and regional competitions. For the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup, the MLS-specific places include the 2025 MLS Cup winner, the 2025 Supporters' Shield winner, the opposite-conference regular-season winner and the next-best clubs in the Supporters' Shield standings. Additional MLS clubs can qualify through the U.S. Open Cup, the Canadian Championship and the Leagues Cup.
MLS also participates in the Leagues Cup, a summer competition played jointly with Liga MX from Mexico. Since 2025, the tournament has used a 36-club format featuring all 18 Liga MX clubs and 18 qualified MLS clubs. The top three Leagues Cup finishers qualify for the Concacaf Champions Cup, with the Leagues Cup winner advancing directly to the Round of 16.
The most successful clubs
MLS has produced several repeat champions, but its playoff format has also created a relatively wide spread of winners.
LA Galaxy
Six MLS Cup titles, the most of any club. The Galaxy's wins came in 2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2024 — the 2024 win against the New York Red Bulls was their first MLS Cup in a decade. The Galaxy have also won four Supporters' Shields. The club was the home of David Beckham from 2007 to 2012 and remains one of MLS's most internationally recognised franchises.
D.C. United
Four MLS Cup titles, all won in the league's early years — 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2004. D.C. United won three of the first four MLS Cups in the league's history, establishing themselves as the dominant club in MLS's first era. The club has also won four Supporters' Shields, tied with LA Galaxy for the most in league history.
Columbus Crew
Three MLS Cup titles, won in 2008, 2020 and 2023. Columbus have been one of the league's most successful clubs across different eras, from the 2008 side led by Guillermo Barros Schelotto to the 2023 team coached by Wilfried Nancy.
Other two-time winners
Seattle Sounders, Houston Dynamo, Sporting Kansas City and San Jose Earthquakes have each won two MLS Cups. Houston won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007, Sporting Kansas City won as Kansas City Wizards in 2000 and again under their current name in 2013, San Jose won in 2001 and 2003, and Seattle won in 2016 and 2019.
One-time MLS Cup winners
Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake, Portland Timbers, Toronto FC, Atlanta United, LAFC, New York City FC and Inter Miami have each won MLS Cup once. Inter Miami's 2025 win over Vancouver Whitecaps was the club's first MLS Cup and the first of the Lionel Messi era.
A wide spread of champions
MLS Cup has been won by 16 different clubs across its first 30 editions from 1996 to 2025. That wider field of winners reflects the league's salary rules, conference structure and playoff format, which make it harder for one or two clubs to dominate in the way often seen in some European domestic leagues.
What makes MLS different
MLS has several features that make it different from most European and South American leagues.
Conferences and playoffs
MLS is divided into Eastern and Western Conferences and decides its champion through the MLS Cup playoffs. This structure is familiar in North American sport but differs from many football leagues where the regular-season table alone decides the champion.
No promotion and relegation
MLS is a closed league. Clubs do not get promoted from a lower division or relegated at the end of a poor season. New clubs normally join through expansion, subject to league approval and franchise arrangements.
Designated Players
The Designated Player rule, introduced in 2007 and known informally as the Beckham Rule, allows clubs to sign a limited number of high-earning players while only part of each salary counts against the league's salary budget. The rule helped LA Galaxy sign David Beckham and has since been used for players including Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Sebastian Giovinco and Lionel Messi.
Roster and salary rules
MLS uses central roster and salary-budget rules rather than a fully open transfer-market model. These rules are designed to control costs, encourage competitive balance and give clubs flexibility to sign star players without removing league-wide financial limits altogether.
A short history
MLS began play in 1996 and has grown steadily across three decades.
Major League Soccer launched its first season in 1996 with 10 founding clubs, partly as a legacy commitment from the United States hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup. D.C. United won the inaugural MLS Cup, beating LA Galaxy 3-2 in overtime. The league grew slowly in its early years, with several clubs folding and the league facing financial difficulties around the turn of the millennium. The 2002 contraction reduced the league from 12 to 10 clubs.
The league's modern growth era began in 2007, when David Beckham joined LA Galaxy on a contract negotiated through the new Designated Player rule. Beckham's arrival brought new commercial attention to the league, attracted further international stars across the following years and triggered a sustained expansion programme. The league has grown from 10 clubs in 2002 to 30 in the current era, with new clubs added regularly since 2017.
Lionel Messi's signing for Inter Miami in 2023 marked another major step in the league's commercial growth. Inter Miami then won their first MLS Cup in 2025, beating Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 in the final, with Messi named MLS Cup MVP.
What to read next
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