The Soccer Journal Podcast

A guilty verdict is now confirmed for Manchester City FC in the 115-charge case brought against it by the English Premier League over violations of the league's financial rules.

In this episode of The Blueprint, hosts John Baney and Trey Fillmore try to get to the bottom of how this massive development for City Football Group's biggest club will impact its sister team in the United States, New York City FC.

The 115 charges have hung over Manchester City since 2023, but there's finally a ruling. Before getting into the "what it means for NYCFC" portion of the issue, there's a need to run through the long-running case itself, as well as other financial rules-related scandals that have swirled around Manchester City going back years even before the 115 charges.

Then it's on to the ruling. The Premier League's case found that the club created "sham" sponsorship arrangements that disguised injections of cash from CFG's United Arab Emirates-backed ownership as sponsor revenue, while generally being in breach of both the Premier League's and UEFA's spending limits. Manchester City and its leaders publicly remain defiant and claim innocence, but the club's window to appeal the ruling is short, and that appeal can only address legal or procedural errors made in the case — so the next big question becomes, how will Manchester City be punished?

The punishment, whether it be stripped titles, forced relegations, gigantic financial fines, or some mix of that or more, remains unclear, and your hosts doubt any penalty will be proportionate to the size of the violations, though they also don't think Man City will ever be the same once the dust settles.

Part of the settling of the dust is how all this trickles down to the other teams inside Man City's shared City Football Group ecosystem. John and Trey think there are multiple possible points of complication for New York City FC, like the MLS club not turning a profit and relying entirely on CFG's funding, the multi-club group's global influence in the realms of scouting and player recruitment, and the ubiquity of Etihad Airways, UAE state-owned airline, as a NYCFC sponsor, on a club and now stadium-naming-rights level.

There are also people inside the MLS and NYCFC spheres of orbit wrapped up in the Manchester City situation, like NYCFC's current Chief Financial Officer, who was Man City's finance director during the period covered in the Premier League's case.

There are a significant number of unanswered questions still swirling around in the wake of the ruling, but this episode covers as many of the possible points of connection between the scandal and NYCFC as it can, with plenty more still to come in future episodes or in future developments that occur as a result of the case.

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Hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh are officially no worse for wear after hunkering down for the nor'easter, but they've got lots of ground to cover when discussing the latest setback in this New York City FC season of setbacks.

The 2-2 draw against less-than-stellar, less-than-full-strength Atlanta United FC was more of the same, though not in a good way, for NYCFC and for coach Pascal Jansen. Players inexplicably switching off at bad times, individual errors resulting in match-deciding goals, and valuable points dropped from a winning position: These were all there in the Atlanta draw, and they're issues that have cost New York City all season.

The draw talk leads into a bigger-picture discussion about the playoff race in the MLS Eastern Conference. You get the lay of the land around the final few playoff spots, a look at how NYCFC's closest rivals for those spots are faring at this late-season stage, and talk of what it will take from NYCFC's remaining matches for the club to actually get to the playoffs again.

Then it's over to England to touch on the big scandal engulfing NYCFC's sister team Manchester City FC, with the club reported last week by The Athletic's David Ornstein to have been found guilty on nearly all of the 115 charges the club faced over breaking Premier League financial rules. The big takeaway: It's impossible to say, as of now, how any of this will impact the other City Football Group clubs that join Man City in the shared multi-club universe, and what any of this could mean for New York City FC and its soccer business over here in the United States.

Speaking of the United States, it's still an international break for a few more weeks, and the United States men's national team is back playing for the first time since this summer's World Cup, and NYCFC's Matt Freese was still the starting goalkeeper, at least for the first half of the first friendly vs Peru.

While Freese is a World Cup holdover and now the most experienced goalkeeper in this very-young camp, everyone on the pod agrees that the current moment is all about experience and exposure for the next generation of potential USMNT starters and contributors, including those competing to start between the sticks. Highly-touted young goalkeeper Diego Kochen was one of 11 players handed a USMNT debut by Mauricio Pochettino in the first friendly of this new 2030 World Cup cycle, and the initial returns were promising for the next class of USMNT players, with two debutants scoring goals and with none of the youngsters looking out of place.

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The mood is grim in the wake of the 1-0 loss to Red Bull New York in the Hudosn River Derby, with hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh wondering if New York City FC will even manage to make the MLS Cup Playoffs at this point.

Doubting is easier to do now that NYCFC is outside of the playoff places after a stretch with one win from nine MLS matches played. First, the conversation focuses on what went so wrong in the loss to the Red Bulls: The James Sands error, yes, but also the many missed chances, the stunning lack of resiliency, and some more questionable moves made by coach Pascal Jansen. There's a decent-sized discussion had about Jansen's handling of this year's New York City squad, with questions asked about recurring individual and mental lapses, and if they point to a deeper culture problem under his leadership.

After the derby autopsy, it's on to the rumored Matt Miazga signing. Is the 2026 version of the antagonistic Miazga actually an upgrade on what NYCFC has in-house? Complaints about his history with the Red Bulls and his abrasive style of play aside, the group does generally welcomes the bite and leadership he could add to a team lacking in the toughness department.

From Miazga it's on to a discussion about the newly-released roster profile of this New York City FC squad, highlighting NYCFC's under-delivering premium Designated Player and U22 Initiative roster slots, and the contract decisions looming around players like Thiago Martins, Keaton Parks, and others.

The show wraps with a rundown of the four NYCFC players heading off for national team duty during this FIFA international window, and the particular significance of Matt Freese getting called back up to the United States men's national team, now serving the role of "World Cup veteran" among an inexperienced, young goalkeeper group.

Freese won't be playing in NYCFC's next match, which is the final topic covered on this episode, as the guys preview the away match against Atlanta United FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It's not historically been a friendly place to visit for New York City, but given how bad Atlanta has been this year, and that Atlanta will also be shorthanded thanks to international call-ups, this feels like something close to a "must-win," or at minimum a "don't lose," for NYCFC.

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Finally, there's a new episode of this podcast that starts off with a discussion of a New York City FC win.

A winless streak reached its final stop in Utah thanks to a set-piece wonderstrike from Nico Fernández Mercau and another goal from striker loanee Luighi, who might be playing his way into must-buy territory.

Hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh also spend time on the important subplot from the 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake: the return of Alonso Martínez. There's reaction to the basics of his return, but there's also some speculation about what happens for NYCFC at center-forward once Martínez is 90-minutes fit, and as Luighi continues to impress.

Be warned, the show isn't all sunshine, as there's also a revisiting of the heartbreaker of a 2-1 loss at home to New England that immediately preceded the win over RSL. There are questions asked about some lineup choices made, the marking on Dániel Gazdag as he scored his 93rd-minute winner, and the team's consistent inability to get wins at home and to avoid conceding goals in stoppage time.

Before diving into a preview of the 35th Hudson River Derby, there's a brief New York City FC II interlude, given MLS Next Pro is hitting its Decision Day, and given that the IIs just won their own version of the Hudson River Derby and are pushing to clinch a playoff spot, while also signing new players — defender Gabriel Mendonça — and while seeing high-level executive appointments made for the next iteration of NYCFC II, with New Jersey MLS Next Pro naming its first club president ahead of NYCFC II's relocation to Middlesex County, New Jersey in July 2027.

Speaking of New Jersey, the episode rounds out with a nice Hudson River Derby preview before the Red Bulls from Harrison cross the river to play NYCFC at Yankee Stadium for the first time since 2023, and what might be the last time ever, pending location of any of these derby matches played during the 2027 MLS sprint season.

Red Bull was just stuck in a winless streak of its own, has conceded a ton of goals this season, but only two points separate RBNY from NYCFC, with a playoff spot and playoff positioning very much at stake in this latest rivalry match. All that means you should expect a hectic pace of play, a lively atmosphere, and multiple goals in a rare Friday night edition of the derby.

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This episode of The Soccer Journal Podcast kicks off with discussion of a positive result in what's still a negative moment for New York City FC, as host John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh weigh the mixed bag that was a 0-0 draw at home with league leaders Nashville SC.

The good: It was a clean sheet, the first NYCFC kept in months, so there's praise for the defensive work and talk of the importance of Thiago Martins, who was healthy and out there for all 90 minutes against Nashville even after limping out of the previous match in Toronto.

The bad: Another match and another failure to get a win, now seven played without one. It's hard to see the positive side, NYCFC unbeaten in three straight, when it's been so long between wins, and when it was a hang-on-for-dear-life variety of a scoreless draw with Nashville.

There were, however, undeniable positives in the return to the squad of both Aiden O'Neill and Alonso Martínez, with O'Neill looking as smooth as ever in the midfield over the final 20 minutes of the Nashville draw in his first action since the summer's FIFA World Cup. There's also the symbolic return to the bench, with no intention of actually playing according to Pascal Jansen, for Alonso Martínez, who made the squad but still awaits his on-field return.

With the storylines coming out of the Nashville game put to bed, it's on to the close of the MLS transfer window, and the final moves made by NYCFC this summer: Loaning out Seymour Reid to Sporting Kansas City, and picking up a draft pick and some allocation money for an international slot. Most of the talk is focused on Seymour Reid reuniting with former sporting director of NYCFC, David Lee, out in the midwest, as we wonder how Reid will fare stepping into more minutes on a team in full rebuild mode. Transfer talk also includes some money supposedly coming New York City's way with Santi Rodríguez returning to MLS and joining Columbus Crew, though with the $6 million fee paid by the Crew diverted from Botafogo instead to the teams Botafogo owes money to in MLS, namely NYCFC and Atlanta United. It's complicated.

There's also an update on the state of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, which in 2027 will welcome back all 27 MLS clubs based in the United States, with the full slate of teams eligible set to return to the tournament for the first time since 2023, after MLS reduced the number of first teams to participate in the 2024, 2025, and 2026 editions. There's universal praise for the league's full return to the Open Cup, as well as for the tweaks to the schedule, though we continue to wonder how Leagues Cup and Open Cup will fit together in the new summer-to-spring MLS calendar, once it debuts next July.

The episode wraps up with a double-preview of the week's two crucial NYCFC matches, first the home meeting with Jack Harrison's New England Revolution, then the quick turnaround trip to the mountains in Utah to face Real Salt Lake on Saturday night. This kicks off an important stretch for NYCFC and the consensus is the club should be targeting a minimum of four points collected from these two games, but John and Andrew fill you in on what to expect from the Revs and RSL and make their own predictions for this week's points totals.

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There's a lengthy history of Major League Soccer changing its playoff formats, and a report from The Guardian indicates another significant change is coming when the league switches to a summer-to-spring calendar for the 2027/28 season.

In this episode of The Blueprint, hosts John Baney and Trey Fillmore talk through the many different ways MLS Cup has been handed out through the years, and weigh whether or not the Australian rules football-inspired approach on the table for 2027/28 is the right one, or the best version of a possible MLS Cup Playoffs.

Even going back to the league's earliest days, too many teams qualifying for the postseason has been a talking point, since eight of the 10 original teams qualified for the playoffs in the inaugural 1996 season.

Trey walks through the history of the league's big playoff format changes through the years, which included two-legged aggregates, single elimination setups, through to today's version that includes an early best-of-three round before shifting to all one-and-done knockouts. It's discussed in tandem with the way the size of the playoff field has changed, with the introduction of "wild cards" and a growing number of playoff participants, leading us to the current moment in which 18 of the 30 teams in the league play postseason soccer of some form.

The history is informative, and then it's on to trying to understand the hows and whys of the proposed new format. John is tasked with doing the explaining of this new format, and plenty of parts of that system sound appealing to your hosts, like rewarding the very top playoff seeds and creating more "games of consequence," something new MLS commissioner Larry Berg has stressed as a priority.

The episode wraps with John and Trey further discussing what they like and don't like about the proposed new playoffs, and what they'd do if they were MLS commissioner and it came time to create their ideal versions of the MLS Cup Playoffs.

It's a way more complicated and nuanced topic than a professional sports league's playoff system has any right to be, but this episode, and this infographic mentioned and referenced in the episode, should help you form a better understanding of the latest playoff approach.

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The wait goes on for a New York City FC win, and it's a second straight episode that starts with talk of a 1-1 draw on the road.

Hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh react to the tie in Toronto, impressed by the Nico Fernández Mercau finish, but also questioning some of the personnel choices made by Pascal Jansen and wondering about yet another defensive lapse that cost the team points.

While there's not much positive coming out of the Toronto match and what's now a six-match winless streak across all competitions for NYCFC, there's unquestionably good news in Tayvon Gray signing a contract extension, with a nice discussion had about his development and his importance over the years and in the years to come.

Then it's on to injury talk, as player availability, or lack thereof, continues to prove costly for New York City FC. Two players who only recently returned from injury absences, Thiago Martins and Keaton Parks, seemed to exit the Toronto game with new or worsening injury complaints, and that's on top of an injured list that continues to contain some of the more important contributors to the 2026 team. Alonso Martínez is working on a comeback, but how much of the current winless struggles are related to all the players out injured, and is there enough depth to withstand the many and multiplying absences?

It's the close of the summer transfer window, too, and the crew weighs in on the moves made and not made by New York City and its sporting director Todd Dunivant. While a last-minute move doesn't seem likely, questions linger about new Designated Player Bénie Traoré, though there's hype for Luighi, and plenty of relief that Nico Fernández Mercau looks set to remain with NYCFC at least through season's end.

The episode wraps up with a preview of the Friday night meeting with MLS Supporters' Shield leaders Nashville SC set to be played under the Yankee Stadium lights. Nashville scores in bunches, has conceded the fewest in the league, and boasts a stacked roster, so how much optimism is there for a good New York City FC result?

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There's still no New York City FC wins to be discussed but there is a huge bit of transfer talk to start this episode, with the reports that New York City FC got offered up to $25 million by Sporting Kansas City for Nicolás Fernández Mercau.

There's so much to be said about the reported offer and the fact that NYCFC was willing to accept it. The intrigue is multiplied by the fact that this big offer came from another team in MLS, and specifically the team now run, on the soccer side, by former NYCFC sporting director David Lee.

Hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh wonder what this whole affair means for the relationship between Fernández Mercau and NYCFC, what it could mean for the rest of the 2026 season, and how both team and player move forward from here, even if Fernández Mercau stays put and doesn't move to Kansas City, which seems more possible by the day. It's a lot to unpack, given that it's among the wilder MLS transfer rumors to come along.

After The Nico Saga gets its due, it's back to on-field matters, and New York City FC's back-to-back away trips to Cincinnati and New England. Neither was a win, and one was a truly crushing loss, with NYCFC beaten by Evander in second-half stoppage time in Cincinnati. While that match ended in brutal fashion, it did include a promising, if imperfect, performance from new striker signing Luighi, who has integrated much more smoothly than the club's other new attacking reinforcement, Bénie Traoré — though, while concerns are raised about Traoré's slow start, no one is ready to write off the team's newest Designated Player just yet.

From Cincinnati it's on to the 1-1 draw with New England, a scrappy comeback result that required Pascal Jansen to make a double-substitution in the 40th minute after his team made a very rocky start at Gillette Stadium. The double-sub gets a lot of attention, as does the influence of James Sands and Matt Freese in grabbing at least one point to stop what was a four-game losing streak.

Next, it's time to break down the report from The Guardian that MLS will introduce a new playoff format for the 2027/28 season, and it seems quite complicated. We do our best to weigh some of the pros and cons of the new Australian rules football-inspired system that expands the playoff field to 20 teams, with a double-chance round for the league's top seeds. There's some appreciation for the single-table concept that isn't so hung up on Eastern or Western Conferences, but consensus is that the the whole new playoff system feels needlessly complex and like yet another unproductive change to the competition made by MLS.

The episode wraps up with a preview of NYCFC's weekend trip north to play Toronto away, a team suddenly in form and gaining in confidence, and gaining on NYCFC in the Eastern Conference standings.

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It was two losses for New York City FC in a span of four days, and it's now been three losses in a row, so hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh begin this episode by diving into the loss freshest in the collective conscience: The disastrous performance in the second half of the 3-2 loss to Philadelphia Union at Yankee Stadium.

Your hosts try to get to the root of the collapse against the Union, from costly individual errors to the bigger-picture problem of this New York City FC team being severely bitten by the injury bug. The squad is thinned out and also trying to integrate or re-integrate a number of players who are returning from injuries, or who are brand new to the team and the league.

The loss to Philadelphia was bad but it wasn't the only loss to cover, as NYCFC also completed its latest Leagues Cup three-and-out by falling 2-1 to Club Necaxa. Struggles in this new version of Leagues Cup continued, with Pascal Jansen's squad finishing near the bottom of the table of all 18 participating MLS teams for a second straight year. What is it about Leagues Cup that continues to trouble New York City FC, and what were our bigger-picture thoughts on the tournament, its format, and how it should change in 2027 and beyond?

From Leagues Cup to a special segment about the big story broken by New York Soccer Journal's Michael Battista: That New York City FC II of MLS Next Pro will be relocated to Edison, New Jersey, rebranded, and set up as a new club that's commercially controlled by Hometown Soccer Holdings, with home games to be played at a new 6,500-seat multi-purpose stadium at Middlesex College. Michael joins the show to discuss his story, the potential for a new pro soccer team to stand out in this part of New Jersey, and how the Hometown Soccer Holdings initiative to rebrand and relocate MLS reserve teams might ultimately play out.

From there it's onto a double-preview for another two matches to come for NYCFC later this week. First it's the dangerous-in-attack FC Cincinnati, who New York City visit at midweek and who have the MLS leader in goal contributions, Evander, who also happens to be a particularly lethal NYCFC opponent. From Ohio to Massachusetts as we also get you ready for New York City's Sunday afternoon trip to face Jack Harrison and the New England Revolution.

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An episode of The Blueprint spent questioning, speculating, and daydreaming about what comes next for Major League Soccer now that there's a new MLS commissioner in town and his name is Larry Berg.

Before the league's future under Larry Berg gets a thorough investigation from hosts John Baney and Trey Fillmore, they start by looking back over the Don Garber era and attempt to sum up his significance to MLS and how the league grew under his tenure, which ran from 1999 through to the end of 2026.

From taking over a fragile 12-team league in 1999 and growing it to 30 teams, 23 soccer-specific stadiums, and a $250 million-per-year Apple streaming deal, Garber can point to a lot of improvements over time for MLS and say "Mission Accomplished." It's not all positives for Garber, though, as the league under the departing commissioner dealt with some strained relationships with fanbases, the Columbus Crew relocation saga, and a reputation for being hesitant to change while wanting to protect the MLS owners and their sizable investments.

With Garber's reign contextualized, it's on to the new guy, and what the MLS world can expect from Larry Berg once he ascends to the commissioner role. While Garber came from the world of marketing and the National Football League, Berg is someone experienced in private equity and has first-hand soccer ownership experience thanks to his years with LAFC.

Early on, Berg as commissioner is focused on improving the on-field quality of MLS as his top priority, particularly when it comes to rewriting the league's roster and spending rules, which he sees as a "flywheel": Better talent draws more transfer and media revenue, which funds more talent.

Your hosts discuss the sense of urgency around the potential changes to MLS roster rules, given the looming 2027 schedule shift, the need for a new collective bargaining agreement with the players in 2028, and the Apple deal renegotiation happening in 2029.

Berg's opposition to promotion and relegation in MLS is noted, as is a wish that Berg build better relationships with the other non-MLS-exclusive parts of the American soccer pyramid (US Open Cup, USL, MLS Next Pro).

The episode wraps up with questions submitted by listeners, including how Berg's legacy might differ from Garber's. Chief among the things Larry Berg should aim to do, according to Trey Fillmore: "Legitimize" the league. Both internationally and within American sports culture, more legitimacy could arrive for MLS if the league's on-field quality, media strategy, and long-term ambitions are all addressed properly by Berg in his new role.

There's a lot to digest and consider as it pertains to the new MLS commissioner and his influence on the league, but John and Trey cover a lot of ground while discussing what lies ahead for Berg.

Listen to the full episode embedded at the top of this post, or find it by subscribing to The Soccer Journal Podcast feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

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