by Sean Robinson

Here are the previous posts in the series for those who need to/ want to catch up.

My LAFC Problem: The Intro

My LAFC Problem 1: The Villain Among the Stars

My LAFC Problem 2: The Big Spending and Big Expectations

My final problem, the last hurdle I have to face before I can truly buy into being an MLS fan is coming to terms with the unique and rather insane league rules. Football fans from around the world are slowly realizing that the MLS functions almost as an alternate universe to other professional leagues. While domestic fans are amazed and almost disgusted by the aggressivity and ruthlessness of the transfer windows internationally.

I have always been a bit of a sports nerd,I read the NBA collective bargaining agreement as a college freshman, quickly realizing that I needed some traditional law schooling to understand much of what was going on. I constantly try to predict player salaries and toy with the art of team building both virtually by video game and in a much more real way by forecasting future trades on ESPN’s trade machine. There is a side of sports fandom to me that is understanding the nitty gritty of the business behind the teams I support. And this is what has made the MLS always a tough league for me to get into. Largely because the aforementioned video games are the best ways for me to play around and begin to understand the league rules, and the MLS does not have an video game that mimics its league rules outside of the constant loading screen is Football Manager. So here is my quick crash course on the MLS rules and what makes it different from other leagues.

First there is the playoff system, shared by many leagues around the world but looked down upon in europe and for good reason. A playoff system rewards those who peak at the right time not necessarily the team that has the most sustained success. In certain sports it is more acceptable such as the NBA’s seven game series or even the NFL since all teams don’t meet in the regular season. But in soccer most leagues around the world reward consistency and have supplemental tournaments to still get the excitement that elimination brings. Having said all this though, the playoff system is only a brief blip in comparison to the different economic and team building rules that the MLS employs versus other leagues.

The MLS tries to function like the other major North American professional sports leagues. The problem for them was that at their inception there wasn’t a lot of faith that a soccer league could flourish. So the priority was stability over growth. I can’t knock this stance as it has been very successful. The MLS is here to stay. But looking across the other pond (the Pacific one) you can see how China this transfer window has gone berserk buying near-world-class talent that MLS clubs wouldn’t have financial access to. (Good thing I didn’t have time to write this for two weeks so I could use that example.) I was talking about how North American professional leagues work to my cousin’s husband who is French, explaining the concepts of salary caps, max contracts, and in MLS’s case a central payment plan where the MLS owns every team and contract. He was astonished and amused, and said, “It is quite odd how socialist your sports leagues are for a country that supposedly rejects socialism.” And vice versa to you!

So let’s look at this socialistic MLS. First there is the obvious salary cap, for MLS teams I believe it is a hard cap at around 3.5 million. The max salary within that cap is $436,250 and minimum $50,000 for which you have to be 25 or younger to receive. Now with all North American sports salary caps and contracts are rising but this doesn’t mean they will ever go away or market value will ever be given. It is weird that, in the NBA for example, the most bargain contracts are either rookie contracts or max contracts. In between them a vast wasteland of properly paid average players. The way around this salary cap in the MLS are the Designated player slots each team started with two DP slots also the ability to purchase them using Allocation Funds (the other way around the salary cap). These slots basically act like the MLS has the same transfer rules as any European League and they buy and sell and negotiate contracts outside of the restraints of the salary cap. Alongside DP slots are IP or International Player slots, these still adhere to the salary cap restrictions but are players not of United States citizenship, or for Canadian teams Canadian or US citizenship. Many countries have foreign player rules so this isn’t that odd but the rules are just starting. Allocation Funds are handed out by the league to every team in equal amounts, then teams who did not make the playoffs get extra or teams who qualified for CONCACAF Champions League get extra. Also transfers of players to clubs outside the MLS comes back to teams in the form of Allocation Funds. Allocation Funds can be used to then buy players from outside the MLS, buy down contracts on your own team to fit within the salary cap, or resign your players. Again these rules are actually much more complicated and if you are super interested check out this section of the MLS website.

Perhaps the most socialistic of all the MLS rules is that of the central pay. Every contract is owned by the MLS along with every team. The MLS has shareholders that are currently assigned to individual teams. But at the time of its inception many shareholders owned multiple clubs. The MLS has moved away from that model as it has become more profitable but there doesn’t seem to be an easy out of the current revenue sharing system that would look like it inhibits growth. But as the MLS takes steps to become internationally recognized I would imagine they would need to move away from some of the practices that allowed them to survive in the early days.

The Draft system is something uniquely North American and is implemented very uniquely by the MLS. Because, like the salary cap, the best players seem to be exempt.

Through the Homegrown Player rule any player who has trained at a club’s academy for longer than a year can be signed without going through the draft process. Since these youth academies are funded by professional sports teams and can attract top talent it is no wonder that they seem to be producing very well. Current USMNT rising stars DeAndre Yedlin, Gyasi Zardes, and Jordan Morris were all acquired this way. Players who leave too early to have a year of youth soccer seem to be going to Europe and then can re enter MLS as signings either by Allocation or DP status. The youth academy setup mirrors what happens around the world while the “Superdraft” seems of less importance.

Like many countries new on the soccer/football landscape America’s professional league does not have relegation. Which I guess makes it an easier sell to ownership but it also doesn’t give the same excitement that foreign leagues have. When your team is terrible in MLS there is much less reason to watch than when you are supporting a team fighting to stay in the top flight. I don’t propose that MLS adopt a relegation system but with the NASL improving it would be fun to see if the Cosmos would rocket up to challenge the two other NYC clubs basically forming America’s answer to England’s London clubs or if a team like Puerto Rico FC could become the first team from Puerto Rico in a top flight USA pro league. And how guys would react to being able to sign for a team located on a tropical

island, I know they’d have me sold. It is understandable however that the NASL and MLS are two different entities with differing league rules, but one can dream.

The final differing thing about the MLS and European leagues is the dynamic nature of it. Teams are being added (LAFC is what started this whole thing), rules are constantly changing (Free Agency happened for the first time this year), and it has a highly growing domestic market. I am not sure if it will ever rival its top European counterparts or even try to mimic them. But the MLS will continue to grow and with that US Soccer.

I don’t know every in and out of how the league functions. I probably can’t even project correctly what will happen. But I have time and I can learn from the experiences of watching what does happen. I am sure I made some mistakes and know there were things I left out in this piece but at least understanding the different ways of acquiring players and how they work can let me formulate an opinion on how to run a team. I hope LAFC invests in its youth academy and uses the target list to find exciting talent to supplement the team. I hope the Designated Players can be role models and examples for the young players and will stay longer than a year to form an identity that LAFC can build off of. We are still a long way away from the first MLS kickoff and a long way away from knowing what that identity will be but I am excited to find out.

Next on My LAFC Problem: The Conclusion and the Real Problem