MLS, players' union reach deal, avert strike



Five days before the season opener, MLS and the players' union have struck a deal on a new, five-year collective bargaining agreement. The players had threatened to strike if a new pact couldn't be reached this weekend. With approximately 25 players participating, the sides met all day and night Thursday and Friday at the offices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, and announced the deal this afternoon.

The players' primary issue was free agency, and although they were not granted full rights to move between clubs in the league, they did agree to a "re-entry draft" for those out of contract at the end of the season.

"Going forward, we are going to have a real relationship with the league as opposed to being combative at times, and that's crucial for any league to do well," Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan said. "We have been extremely unified and united throughout this process. It's been a very productive few weeks. We are all mainly excited to play soccer this year and proud of what we accomplished. This is not a one-day celebration; this is the start of many good things to come for many years for our players and our league."

According to union chief Bob Foose:

*For the first time, a majority of players will have guaranteed contracts.

*The players' ability to move freely within the league will be greatly improved.

*Player compensation will be increased substantially.

Further details were not immediately revealed. The sides said it will take a while to finalize specifics and make them available to the public. Rest assured, it's a done deal.

"This has been a major victory for the process of collective bargaining," federal mediator George Cohen said.

"It was not fun, it was tiring, but it was productive," Commissioner Don Garber said. "I look forward to not having to do it quite like this in five more years."

For more info.....



Free agency was not adopted, as the players had hoped, but the sides did compromise.

Said Garber: "MLS was founded on the principle that our owners would not be keeping against each other for player services. When we think of free agency, it is that concept of internal bidding, and there will not be internal bidding for player services. Players whose options are not exercised, players who are terminated and players at a certain age - and just respect the fact that we have got to get this out to our own people before we get it to the public - will have the opportunity with a certain mechanism of also going into this re-entry draft. That process addresses, to a large extent but not to the total extent, the players' wishes and desires. At the same time, it provides the league with something that is crucial to us and will remain crucial to us. In our view, there is no actual free agency."

Added Foose: "We made progress on this area. Not necessarily as much as we would have chosen, but that is collective bargaining agreement. We made a lot of progress in other areas as well, and there is real progress on correcting certain situations that were vitally important to our players involving movement within the league, including teams retaining rights to players. There are changes there, significant changes."