Major League Soccer is considering eliminating homegrown academy territories, according to multiple team technical directors, a move some believe could significantly improve the country’s domestic player pool. The technical directors cautioned there is still plenty left to decide regarding how such a change would occur—most believe there would still be some sort of protections in place for MLS teams within their markets—but they are confident that the change will occur in the near future.



“It will happen,” one technical director said.



Under current rules, MLS teams are prohibited from looking for youth players in territories that belong to other MLS teams. The change would likely not be introduced until at least the latter half of 2019, when the 2019-20 development academy season begins, or perhaps not until the start of the 2020 MLS season. Any new regulations still have to go through multiple layers of approval, from the meetings of the...