By Ben Nicholson
February 16 – The MLS is facing a player strike that could result in a delayed start to the season unless the league can appease the MLS Players Union in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the 2015 season. The issue circles around the MLS’ approach to free agency.
The MLS is under pressure to make swift progress. March 6 is the date of the opening game of the 2015 MLS season, and the league will not want to renege on the record $90 million TV deal they struck with FOX, ESPN, and Univision.
Particularly ominous for the MLS, and potentially game changing for the league, is the multiple MLS players’ public statements of a willingness to strike. Sam Cronin, who plays for the Colorado Rapids, said, “we’re not willing to play without some form of free agency.”
As it stands, all players are contracted to the MLS – players are not contracted to the team that they play for, but contracted to the league. The league then offers the negotiated contract to teams in the MLS and sees which is willing to take up the contract.
This method of contracting restricts a player’s choice about where to play. Since the MLS is the ultimate distributor of players, clubs and players lose their autonomy to contract directly.
The particular concern in the current CBA negotiations is what happens to players when their contract is not renewed at a club and they become free agents
Currently, with the inception of two sparkling new MLS teams in NYC FC and Orlando City FC, free agents have to wait for an Expansion Draft after their release to see if either of these two teams would like to fill their squad with the unemployed player.
Even if suffering the misfortune, or perhaps fortune, of not being picked by either, a player must then subject himself to a Re-Entry Draft.
Failing to be picked up here only shepherds a player to the MLS Supplemental Draft.
And only by failing to procure any affection here, does the player eventually become free to sign for whoever he wishes, providing that the former club, who still owns the player’s rights, can come to an agreement (and after negotiating a contract with the MLS first of course.)
As the above makes clear in its clear lack of clarity, the MLS does not adhere to a Bosman ruling like Europe.
The Bosman ruling preserves the free movement of workers and the freedom of association. This translates to allowing players, who are playing in Europe, to move within Europe for no transfer free when out of contract.
The lack of this allowance in the MLS is one factor, of potentially many, that makes it so unusual.
A Bosman ruling allows players to let their contracts run and then gravitate towards whomever they wish for whatever reason they might have (normally to the best club for the most money). This is an ideal apparently at odds with US sporting philosophy.
The US sporting system as a whole tends to operate on a leveling the playing field type of policy.
The team that performs the worst in one season is given the first pick in the draft for the next season. This is great for the underperforming team, but potentially terrible for the rising star that may go there.
This model is tolerated in the sports that America monopolises. However, as football has multiple competitive markets for a player to choose to ply his trade within, a player need not endure these antiquated labor restrictions.
Players, arguably, have more ability to find work elsewhere in the world than the MLS does in attracting players to their league (particularly in light of their salary caps).
Though America may be heralded as a leader of the free world, it’s MLS labor rules are anything but. But, things may soon be a changing, albeit coercively.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734848692labto1734848692ofdlr1734848692owedi1734848692sni@n1734848692osloh1734848692cin.n1734848692eb1734848692