TORONTO -- Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber announced that the MLS Cup playoffs will expand from eight to 10 teams starting in 2011, with possibly more changes to follow.

The expansion of the playoffs will take place next October with an additional play-in round for the bottom four qualifiers in a 10-team system. The commissioner said those teams would face off in a knockout format for the right to qualify for the eight-team main field in the playoff bracket.

It has yet to be determined if teams ranked four and five in each conference would face off or whether it was teams ranked seventh through 10th in an overall standings format, while the league's Competition Committee has also not decided whether those play-in series would be single-game or home-and-away.

Another topic up for discussion in the future according to Garber is whether the league will go to an international calendar, which would align MLS with most European leagues' fall-to-spring calendar and would break during FIFA dates for international games.