MLS restructures sporting department leadership, adds Nelson ...

Major League Soccer has created a new sport and competition group that will be co-led by Nelson Rodriguez and Todd Durbin, the league said on Thursday.

The group will be charged with “ensuring the integrity of competition and continuing our focus on elevating the league’s quality of play.” Rodriguez, most recently chief of staff to commissioner Don Garber, but also a former president and general manager of the Chicago Fire, will be Executive Vice President of Sporting Product & Competition. Durbin is the EVP of Strategy & Relations. Rodriguez previously held roles with U.S. Soccer, Chivas USA, MLS, Soccer United Marketing and the NY/NJ Metrostars.

The entire player development pipeline including MLS, MLS NEXT Pro, MLS NEXT and MLS GO will be centralized in this group. MLS NEXT Pro is the league’s reserve league that competes at the third tier of the U.S. Soccer pyramid. MLS NEXT is the league’s youth development competition, while MLS GO is the league’s recreational youth soccer program.

The player and competition department typically has led the way in setting MLS roster rules and managing the sporting departments across the league. Rodriguez will have oversight of on-field components of the department, including match day operations, officiating, security and health and medical for MLS, MLS Next Pro and MLS GO. He will also play a role in developing the competition schedule.

Durbin will continue to lead overall player strategy, including investment framework, player acquisition strategies, roster and budget guidelines, trade procedures and negotiations and administration of player contracts. He will also manage relations with international governing bodies and will work with MLS EVP and general counsel Anastasia Danias to manage the relationship with the MLS Players Association. Rodriguez will also work with Durbin on sporting product and player development strategies, and will lead MLS’s efforts in international soccer relations. 

Rodriguez is one of the most experienced sporting executives in MLS, and he is also a key voice in that he has worked in leadership at the club level. Rodriguez will help fill the shoes of former deputy commissioner Mark Abbott, who stepped away from MLS last year. Durbin, meanwhile, remains a hugely influential figure in the make-up of MLS’s on-field product and roster rules.

Putting all sporting employees under one department at the league office should help to streamline decision-making to some degree, though it will be interesting to see how MLS integrates club decision-makers into this set-up.

MLS has also expanded the roles of Charles Altchek and Nina Tinari.

Altchek, president of MLS Next Pro and EVP of MLS, will lead MLS NEXT Pro along with MLS matchday operations and expansion strategy while now overseeing MLS NEXT and MLS GO.

Tinari, who joined MLS earlier this year after serving as vice president of external affairs and chief of staff for the Kansas City Current of the NWSL, has been named chief of staff to Garber. 

(Top photo: Bilgin S. Sasmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)