March 6 – Despite losing its recent court battle with the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) and Major League Soccer (MLS), the North American Soccer League (NASL) is requesting a new trial.
Last month a jury in New York ruled unanimously in favour of USSF and MLS, after NASL claimed that both bodies had conspired against it by denying the league Division I and Division II certification, thus preventing it from competing with MLS and leading to its failure.
The lawsuit also said that USSF had a vested interest in MLS because MLS’s commercial arm, Soccer United Marketing, partnered with USSF.
NASL asked for $500million in damages, but the judge later reduced that figure to $375m at the request of the defence.
Arguing for a new trial, the NASL said in its filing that the jury instructions “improperly required the jury to reject NASL’s claims” and that the original trial allowed for “the admission of a substantial amount of inflammatory and prejudicial evidence.”
“The North American Soccer League respects the jury process and appreciates the time and effort of those who served,” NASL wrote. “However, we believe that fundamental legal errors prevented the jury from considering key evidence and applying the correct legal standards.”
USSF and MLS have not yet commented on the request for a new trial.
After the trial in February, both MLS and USSF had nothing but praise for the jury’s decision and said in a statement: “The jury’s verdict confirms that this case was nothing more than an attempt by NASL to deflect blame for its own failures. Since our inception in 1996, MLS has been dedicated to making the necessary investments to elevate the sport of soccer and provide an exceptional experience for players and fans.”
One can have sympathy with both organisations.
For the MLS and USSF, it has been a hard slog to get the sport to this point, where the MLS is a fixture on the world stage, so that damages awarded in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars would significantly hurt the sport.
Meanwhile, NASL can legitimately point out that it was the catalyst for a top professional league in the US, has name recognition and rightly feels excluded from the top table.
Unfortunately, the only winners to this point are the lawyers, who seemingly would love nothing more than for this case to drag on for decades.
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