MLS teams to get another foreign-player slot

[nolando]

Deserves its own thread:

MLS teams to get another foreign-player slot, could field non-American team

By BRIAN TRUSDELL, Associated Press Writer

December 18, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Soccer teams each will be granted one more roster spot to acquire another foreign player next season.

A corresponding rule change will allow them to trade those slots, enabling a club to field an entire roster of non-Americans.

The rules announced Tuesday will allow Chivas USA to mimic its Mexican namesake in Guadalajara, which boasts never having fielded a non-Mexican. It also could result in an MLS team appearing like London club Arsenal, which can generate an entire starting side without a native Englishman.

Foreigners without nonresident alien status will be limited to 112 of the 392 players in the league, or just under 30 percent.

MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said it was unlikely any team would employ an entirely non-American roster, but said the changes were made for flexibility and to accommodate the addition of the San Jose Earthquakes expansion team next season.

"We believe we need to dip into the international market in the short term," said Gazidis, who added that MLS's recently created youth development program will provide players in the medium-to-long term. "Americans are and will be the backbone of league. But I don't think I'm saying anything controversial when I say we don't believe the domestic talent pool is limitless."

"Every expansion is going to dilute talent, and that's not desirable for anybody."

Besides the Earthquakes, Seattle will join MLS in 2009, with another team possibly in Philadelphia or St. Louis that would bring the league to 16 teams.

Clubs had been limited to four "senior internationals" and three "youth internationals" -- non-Americans under the age of 25. The league is abolishing the distinction between the two and increasing the number to eight on the 28-man rosters -- with the option to trade for more.

The league's board of governors decided to increase their foreign-player limits just before the MLS Cup championship on Nov. 18 in Washington.

It also agreed to not count for at least two more years three players whose salary exceeded the $400,000 individual maximum under the "designated players rule" -- an exemption that allowed teams to acquire a player outside the approximate $2.2 million salary cap.

The designated player rule adopted last year allowed teams to acquire high-profile foreigners such as David Beckham by the Los Angeles Galaxy and Cuauhtemoc Blanco by the Chicago Fire. Each team was granted one designated player allocation, but could have traded for a second.

The exception will allow Landon Donovan to remain at the Galaxy, Carlos Ruiz at Dallas and Eddie Johnson at Kansas City without penalty, although teams will have to pay for any salary above the individual maximum.

[RS]

Steven Goff of the Washington Post has posted an interview he had with Gazidis after the rule changes were announced:

quote:WHY DID THE LEAGUE FEEL IT WAS NECESSARY TO GIVE TORONTO TWO EXTRA FOREIGN SLOTS?

They have a theoretical competitive advantage in that they have better access to the Canadian player pool than the other MLS teams. How big that competitive advantage is depends on how deep the Canadian player pool is at the kind of salary levels that MLS pays. On the other side of that is, they have a competitive disadvantage because they don't have as much access to the U.S. player pool. When we looked at expansion in 2007, we tried to, in the abstract, come up with the right balance and that was a little bit speculative. No one knew how it would play out in practice. Having had a year of experience with it, it's clear, at least for the time being, that at our salary levels, they don't have the depth of Canadian players yet that would really give them a competitive advantage. So the pendulum was swung a little bit too much away from them, so what we are doing is swinging it back toward them by giving them a little bit more access to the U.S. player pool. Again, this is something we will re-evaluate as we go forward. If, in fact, more Canadian players, as we expect, begin to develop, then that side of the equation becomes a little bit stronger and maybe we need to tilt the pendulum back a little bit.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2007/12/mls_changes_unveiled.html

[nolando]

quote:Originally posted by Rudi

Steven Goff of the Washington Post has posted an interview he had with Gazidis after the rule changes were announced:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2007/12/mls_changes_unveiled.html

"it's clear, at least for the time being, that at our salary levels, they don't have the depth of Canadian players yet that would really give them a competitive advantage."

I like the wording here - its nice that the League realises that there are Canadians who could help, but just not at MLS salaries, a fact lost on many on the U-sector site who seem to have written off Canadians altogether after the mediocre showing of that lot this past season.

[jpg75]

I agree, and it also insinuates that this is a temporary move that will be re-evaluated at a later date once the impact of expansion and player development efforts at TFC can be better gauged.

[Andrew W]

The interesting thing is with the change in senior and youth internationals to one designation, Andrew Boyens may yet be in TFC's plans.

Conversely, in LA, the removal of the YI designtion puts Kevin Harmse's spot in jeopardy.

[BearcatSA]

quote:Originally posted by Andrew W

Conversely, in LA, the removal of the YI designation puts Kevin Harmse's spot in jeopardy.

We'll have to see how that pans out for him. Though he was on this recent Galaxy Down Under tour, I still wondered if he was in the new regime's 2008 plans regardless of the SYI/YI designations.