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TORONTO — There will be no games in Spain's La Liga this weekend. Ligue 1 in France also is closed until next weekend.
It's the same in Germany with Bundesliga 1 and 2, and with the Scottish Premier League. The English Premier League has no games scheduled as well and the next notch down, the League Championship, also has a blank schedule.
In Mexico, the Primera Division is shut for the weekend. Anyway, you get the idea.
It is World Cup qualifying time, of course, with a batch of these important international fixtures scheduled in certain parts of the world this weekend.
But Major League Soccer plays on. MLS, citing as always, scheduling problems with a late March to early November season, does not stop for Fédération Internationale de Football Association dates, even if they are in place well in advance of its own schedule. Another problem often mentioned is that not all MLS clubs have control over dates for their stadiums, so rescheduling can be a problem.
As a result of the league policy, we have the spectacle of Toronto FC playing at home today against Chivas USA with nine players missing to international call-ups. The nine include goalkeeper Greg Sutton, who was released from international duty to be with his wife who is giving birth.
The call-ups affect all teams in the league. Chivas USA, which defeated TFC 2-1 last week in Carson, Calif., has two players missing because of international duty — midfielder Sacha Kljestan, who is with the U.S. team, and defender Shavar Thomas, who has been called up by Jamaica. In all, 32 MLS players have been called up for international games.
Toronto tried to have its game rescheduled, but at a time when a little common sense might have been useful, the league refused.
Another problem created by the scheduling overlap is that there are many fans who must choose between staying in Toronto to watch the match at BMO Field or travelling to Montreal to catch Canada play Honduras in an important World Cup qualifier.
All this week, undermanned TFC has trained with 13 players and will have a couple of borrowed players today, including defender Diaz Kambere, 22, of the United Soccer Leagues' Vancouver Whitecaps and Canada's under-23 team. Also possible is Toronto chief scout Tim Regan, 27, who until this year was a defender in MLS with Chivas USA and the New York MetroStars and Red Bulls.
The league knows it has a problem. In his offering on Aug. 29 to the MLS website, league commissioner Don Garber said. "Our options include reducing the number of tournaments in which our teams participate and/or starting the season in the beginning of March, when weather and low attendance create issues in many markets.
"During the next few months leading up to our November board of governors meeting during the MLS Cup weekend, we will be looking at our ongoing scheduling challenges.
"While it is not practical to reposition our entire schedule, we will be focused not just on the FIFA dates, but also the number of tournaments played by our teams.
"Unless we make some changes, we will face even more challenges in 2009, with an uneven number of teams (the addition of Seattle brings us to a total of 15) and with the FIFA Confederations Cup and CONCACAF Gold Cup taking place in the middle of our season."
After Toronto's nine, the Los Angeles Galaxy (who lose David Beckham to England) and the Columbus Crew are next with four international call-ups each and the Chicago Fire and Houston Dynamo with three each.
The Toronto players called up to their national teams are: Sutton and defender Jim Brennan (Canada), midfielder Amado Guevara (Honduras), forward Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala), defender Tyrone Marshall (Jamaica), midfielder Carl Robinson (Wales), defender Marvell Wynne (United States), midfielder Jarrod Smith (New Zealand) and defender Julius James (Trinidad and Tobago).
