Major League Soccer will struggle to persuade more star players to follow David Beckham to the United States unless it switches its season to match that in Europe, according to FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Blatter said that the current March-October season was the overwhelming reason that the MLS cannot compete with Europe's top leagues.

"There is one big problem there and they know, the organizers know, that as long as you don't have your own stadia in the MLS, you have to use stadia from another sport, which is American football," Blatter said. "With the season played from March to October, you are not in the so-called good international season.

"The result is that you will not attract star players from Europe to play for only six or seven months, with the exceptional case of Beckham -- but this is another case."