Major League Soccer announced a change to its opposition in pursuing Solidarity Payments and Training Compensation on Thursday, and the decision will likely reverberate through soccer in the United States for quite some time.

The Seattle Sounders could feel those ripples more than most.

For those who haven’t been following, Solidarity Payments and Training Compensation are a FIFA-inspired mandate (Statutes 19 and 20) designed to reward youth academies who help develop young players into professionals. In 1995, “free agency” came to world soccer, which meant that teams could no longer extract transfer fees for players when they were out of contract. This significantly impacted smaller teams, who had developed players only to see them leave for greener pastures.

At the time, those teams successfully persuaded FIFA that if this continued, it would be impossible to operate academies if their best players left without seeing any return on those investments. So in 2003, FIFA implemented Solidarity Payments and Training Compensation (or, “RSTP”), which essentially funnels back a set amount of money when a player signs their first professional deal with a foreign team (training compensation) and when they are sold for a fee (solidarity contribution).

However, MLS never participated in the system. In discussions with league sources, the reasoning provided was that 1) MLS did not have youth academies when the FIFA statutes were enacted, 2) There were legal concerns about the league’s participation, and 3) US Soccer argued they were handcuffed by virtue of a legal document (called the “Fraser Consent Decree”) which tied their ability to enforce the FIFA mandate.

Most of those reasons have fallen by the wayside over the years. Or at least, MLS feels they’re not major problems anymore. So starting on April 18, 2019, the league will make those claims on players who sign abroad or are later transferred, in accordance with the FIFA statutes. And yes, they will pay them, too.

The reasons that MLS has done an about face are pretty simple: They’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in youth academies over the past five years, and those investments are starting to pay off in players who are highly sought after by foreign teams. Look no further than the Seattle Sounders.

Starting in 2015, when Sounders General Manager and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey assumed control, he convinced the organization into a total rethink on its approach to youth development.

“Three years ago, we started investing in youth development,’’ Lagerwey said in an 2018 interview. “We said, ‘This is going to be the cornerstone of our franchise. It’s going to be a foundation of what we’re going to do.’ And we did it.’’

Lagerwey has previously quoted that investment at over eight figures over the course of his time here, and that investment has begun to pay off in spades.

The team just signed 15-year-old Danny Leyva to a first-team contract, and has 10 academy players currently signed to the Tacoma Defiance directly. The 2018 U-17 academy team won the USSDA championship, and the 2019 version of that team is set to play for the GA Cup championship against Valencia’s U-17 team, having demolished West Ham United’s U-17 team 4-0 on Thursday. Forward Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez (a Defiance signee) notched a hat trick in the game, and has 6 goals in the tournament. And the Sounders U-15 Academy crop may be nearly as highly regarded.

With that number of players performing at a high level, it is inevitable that some will catch the eye of foreign clubs looking to sign talented young players. And the Sounders won’t be able to keep all of them from leaving.

As the league’s investment has increased, and talent produced is commensurate to that investment, MLS has started to see high-profile academy talent take off for greener pastures. The most celebrated example is Weston McKennie, who left the FC Dallas academy to sign with Schalke 04 of the German Bundesliga. As MLS did not authorize pursuit of RSTP at that time, FC Dallas got nothing for him, whereas they previously would have been entitled to $40,000 for each year he was in the Academy (training compensation), as well as up to 5% of any fee in the event McKennie was sold (solidarity payment).

Under the new policy, FC Dallas will still miss out on the training compensation, but they’ll be able to recoup the solidarity payment.

The Sounders had a near-miss on this front, when former academy player Jordan Morris went on trial with and was offered a contract by Bundesliga side Werder Bremen. Morris ended up turning down the offer and signing with the Sounders, but had Morris signed the deal with Werder Bremen, MLS’s stance would have meant the Sounders received nothing for their efforts in developing him.

The Morris issue aside, it’s unknown if the Sounders have lost out on any player to foreign teams that would have entitled them to those payments in the past, but going forward, they will be entitled to pursue RSTP from academy players who sign overseas.

The change in policy may or may not tie up one loose end: DeAndre Yedlin. The former Sounders Academy and Crossfire player, who was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League in 2014, has been the subject of a contentious fight between Crossfire, Spurs and (indirectly) MLS and the Sounders. Crossfire has been attempting to obtain the solidarity payment they think they are owed since 2015, having filed a claim with FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber. A decision on the matter could come at any time, and in theory, MLS and the Sounders could be on the hook for the payment, if Tottenham loses and is successful in forcing MLS and the Sounders to pay. The league maintains that the Yedlin case is unique in the context of “foreign transfers” and doesn’t qualify for a solidarity payment.

As to whether the league (and by extension its teams) will be paying RSTP, the simple answer is, they will comply with all FIFA statutes and requirements. So if the Sounders bring in a high-profile transfer from abroad, solidarity payments will be part of that equation. If they sign a player from abroad to their first professional deal, training compensation would be due. As the league notes, these numbers are subject to negotiation between the parties, and frequently, those payments are waived or reduced, depending on the player and situation.

There are still some limitations going forward. First, MLS will require any team wanting to pursue claims to fully fund their academy. That does not impact the Sounders right now, but there are two MLS clubs who require their players to pay for their soccer education (D.C. United and Minnesota United). Also, the Sounders (or any MLS team) are required to make a bona fide offer to the player, to prove they are actually interested in signing them to a professional contract. Thus, any player for whom the Sounders don’t see a potential future with the club can sign overseas, and Seattle cannot later pursue a claim for fees.

That means simply being in the Sounders’ academy does not automatically trigger the right to seek fees in the future without a contract offer. This limitation is designed to distinguish MLS academies from independent youth academies in the United States, who for the most part do not have professional components to their operations (it should be noted that it isn’t clear that there is a requirement to offer an academy player a professional contract, though MLS argues that there is).

Finally, all players who will sign (or have signed) with MLS academies are now required to acknowledge that, as part of their participation with a MLS academy, MLS will pursue RSTP in the event the player rejects a league offer and signs overseas. Additionally, the player must inform the team if they are going to trial with a foreign team or they receive a contract offer.

According to league sources, players taking off to trial with foreign teams is an increasing problem, which explains why MLS is requiring that players inform them of such activities. Further, the league explained that a the reason they are requesting a player inform the team of any offers to sign a contract is to allow MLS the chance to make a similar offer. The acknowledgment document, obtained by Sounder At Heart, is not a contract and does not obligate a Sounders academy player to accept an offer from the team, so they are free to sign with the foreign club. It’s also unclear what the consequence would be for a player who leaves for a trial with another team without informing their MLS academy. The league will strongly encourage, if not mandate, all teams to have their academy players sign the document.

The Sounders have done impressive work in increasing their commitment to youth development and the results speak for themselves. Because it is inevitable that talented Sounders academy players will at some point decide to sign abroad instead of with their home team, the Sounders now have a way to recoup at least some of that investment.