Sporting Kansas City announced on Friday that the club has sent an international roster spot to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for general allocation money. The international roster spot will remain with Colorado until Dec. 31, 2015 and then returns to Sporting Kansas City for the 2016 season.

Per MLS roster rules and regulations, general allocation money is money that is available to a club in addition to its salary budget.

“Allocation money can be used to buy-down a player’s salary budget charge as part of managing a team’s roster, including buying a salary budget charge below the League maximum of $436,250. For example, a team may buy down a player earning $450,000 to a budget charge of $250,000 by using $200,000 of allocation money.”

General allocation money can also be applied in the following circumstances:

To sign players new to MLS (that is, a player who did not play in MLS during the previous season).

To re-sign an existing MLS player.

In connection with the exercise of an option to purchase a player’s rights or the extension of a player’s contract for the second year provided the player was new to MLS in the immediately prior year.

Following the trade, Sporting Kansas City has seven remaining international roster spots in 2015. Five of the team’s seven international roster spots are currently filled by the following players: