Sports
Reports: MLS down to 3 finalists to succeed Don Garber
Mar 3, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Chicago Fire’s new stadium at The 78 in Chicago’s South Loop Mandatory Credit: Talia Sprague-Imagn Images Major League Soccer is down to three finalists to succeed commissioner Don Garber, multiple outlets reported Friday.
The candidates are Los Angeles FC co-owner Larry Berg, 49ers Enterprises president Paraag Marathe and David Nathanson, a former Fox executive, the outlets said, citing multiple sources.
“Major League Soccer’s Board of Governors has been engaged in a comprehensive succession planning process,” a representative for MLS said in a statement to Sportico. “As part of that effort, a number of highly qualified individuals have been considered. The MLS succession committee is working with the commissioner and the Board on this ongoing process.”
Garber, 68, is nearing the end of his third decade as commissioner, holding the job since August 1999. Only NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has served longer among the major U.S. leagues, assuming office in February 1993.
Garber is under contract through the end of the 2027 season, but the shift in the league calendar to follow the international calendar could alter the expiration date.
In 2025, the league formed a succession committee, led by LAFC co-owner Bennett Rosenthal and Columbus Crew owner Jimmy Haslam, to determine a plan to succeed Garber. Consultant Korn Ferry was brought in to lead the search for candidates.
Each of the three reported finalists would bring a different skillset to the job.
Berg has held his ownership stake in LAFC since 2018, giving him inside knowledge of the MLS operations. He comes from the world of finance, holding an MBA from Harvard Business School and 30 years of experience at Apollo Global Management.
Marathe is the chairman of Leeds United of the English Premier League, and the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers owns that club. He has been with the 49ers organization for 25 years and formerly served as president of the NFL team.
Nathanson’s experience in media would be beneficial with in negotiating the next round of television and streaming rights. At Fox, he led the effort as the network gained the rights to the 2018, 2022 and 2026 World Cup. He is a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders and a director of the U.S. Soccer Foundation.
The commissioner-elect is expected to work with Garber, who has overseen the expansion of MLS from 12 to 30 teams, during the transition.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Mauricio Pochettino to decide future with USMNT in coming weeks
July 6, 2026; Seattle, Washington, U.S.; U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino gives instructions to Alex Freeman. Mandatory Credit: Albert Gea-Reuters via Imagn Images Argentina’s Mauricio Pochettino is weighing whether to coach the United States Men’s National Team for the next four years, which would include the 2030 World Cup hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
Pochettino has been engaged in contract talks to stay with the USMNT side that reached the round of 16 in this World Cup. His current deal expires when the World Cup final is played Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Pochettino provided a general timetable for his decision on Thursday during a Zoom interview with Spanish outlet Cadena Cope.
“Look, we’re there. We’re watching. We’re analyzing,” Pochettino said in Spanish. “I received an offer for continuity and we’ll see. … In the coming weeks, we’ll make a decision.”
Pochettino, who will be in Barcelona when Argentina and Spain meet in Sunday’s final, suggested the final is a “50/50” proposition.
“Perhaps Spain’s organization and possession game might control the position and the match a little more in the spaces,” Pochettino said. “But I believe Argentina is a team that handles the timing very well, has a lot of patience throughout the match and has that aura that (Lionel) Messi gives off.
“Even at almost 40 years old, he continues to have and continues to impose that charisma, that respect that his opponents have for him, and I think that makes them a fearsome team.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Air quality alerts not yet threat to World Cup final
MetLife Stadium is shown, Thursday, July 16, 2026 during an air quality alert. Whether the air quality will play a part in the World Cup Final on Sunday remains to be seen. Hazy skies and negative air quality drifting from wildfires burning in Canada and the Boundary Waters region into Minnesota do not currently represent a threat to the World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday afternoon, FIFA confirmed on Friday.
The upper Midwest and parts of the Northeast are being impacted by segments of thick smoke, and air quality was enough of a concern on Thursday night that MLS postponed the Chicago Fire-Vancouver Whitecaps match scheduled to be played at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The World Cup final is set for Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The air quality was deemed “unhealthy for everyone” on Thursday by the New York Office of Emergency Management.
While conditions were better Friday in the region, an air quality alert was issued by the National Weather Service along with warnings about “potentially worsening” warnings Saturday. The forecast Saturday was for a chance of thunderstorms, high of 80 degrees and winds at 10 to 15 mph.
Very light (5 mph to 8 mph) winds are forecast Sunday with a high of 81.
–Field Level Media
Sports
The Defending Champion Knicks Must Navigate a Delicate Offseason
Next season waits for no one, not even a team that’s waited 53 years to once again call itself a world champion.
Thus, even before the most boisterous parade in New York City history Thursday afternoon, the composition of the defending champion Knicks (it is going to take a while to get used to that three-word phrase) was called into question by none other than owner James Dolan.
“If we could bring back the whole team exactly as it is, why wouldn’t you?” Dolan said on WFAN last month. “But I don’t know if we’re going to be able to.
“We’re willing to stretch, but there’s certain things in the NBA that you have to be suicidal to do. And we’re not going to do those. One of those is called the second apron. Cannot go on to the second apron.”
On one hand, it was classic Dolan, raining on the parade before it even began and reminding us all every time he speaks publicly why he so rarely speaks publicly.
On the other, again, the calendar isn’t pausing for the Knicks even as they enjoy long-awaited and much-deserved victory laps. So Dolan may as well have said the quiet part out loud, because the reality of constructing next year’s team must be confronted at some point sooner than later.
If ever a team earned the opportunity to try and run it back, future costs be damned, it’s these Knicks, fresh off a generational championship. And they are as well-positioned as possible to become the NBA’s first repeat winner since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.
No matter what Vegas thinks, nobody should be betting against the team that authored two of the most incredible single-game comebacks in NBA playoff history on its way to the most dominant postseason run of all-time in terms of point differential.
All five starters are under contract through next year while Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart have player and team options, respectively, for 2027-28.
Things are far less clear when it comes to keeping together the rest of the Knicks’ rotation. Two of their top three reserves — guards Jose Alvarado and Landry Shamet — were free agents who opted to return. The one rotation piece that needed to be replaced after he left in free agency was center Mitchell Robinson.
It was asking a lot to bring all three back, even if team president Leon Rose can convince Dolan to forget about the second apron. (For the record, the lack of a mid-level exemption or the ability to include cash in trades are real impediments, but let’s all have a laugh at the idea of the “**** them picks” Knicks being put off by the idea they can’t trade a 2034 first-round pick at next year’s deadline)
Robinson helped. But he’s injury-prone and a liability at the free throw line while Alvarado and Shamet combined to average 15.9 points over 39.9 minutes per game — solid numbers for sure, but even they weren’t must-have returnees.
Rose, who saw a franchise-altering superstar in Jalen Brunson when everyone else saw a run-of-the-mill former second-round draft pick, has also earned the right to find Knicks-worthy supplemental players.
Contributions from all — Robinson, Alvarado and Shamet included — during the NBA Finals embodied the sum-is-better-than-the-parts nature of the Knicks.
Alvarado had eight points in the fourth quarter of Game 4, when the Knicks completed their historic comeback from a 29-point deficit. And of the 34 points Shamet scored in the Finals, 13 came in the fourth quarter.
Rose traded back twice, from picks 24 and 31 overall, and came away with players nobody had on the team needs list. But the Knicks look ready to give Jack Kayil a shot given his summer league showing and 47th overall pick Tyler Nickel could be an extra shooter off the bench.
The Knicks have spent most of the previous 52 offseasons trying to perform facelifts upon one of the league’s most downtrodden franchises. Trying to figure out a way to replicate championship success, even if it requites a slightly different formula, is a far better task — and, as Rose is surely getting to know, far more delicate and challenging.
Mauricio Pochettino to decide future with USMNT in coming weeks
Air quality alerts not yet threat to World Cup final
