Another fairly detailed article on this topic posted in The Athletic today:
https://theathletic.com/2362432/2021/02/02/
Another fairly detailed article on this topic posted in The Athletic today:
https://theathletic.com/2362432/2021/02/02/
As in they become free agents and can sign essentially anywhere in the world they want to?
There is a paragraph in The Athletic article which I believe address this:
"By extending the deadline to Thursday, the league, intentionally or not, strengthened its position in that regard. A lockout would make all MLS players free agents. They would be eligible to sign free agent deals with non-MLS clubs for the duration of the work stoppage, but only in leagues where the transfer window is open when the lockout actually goes into effect. That list of leagues got considerably shorter on Monday, when the transfer window closed in most of the big European countries."
Oh wow. I didn't know that. That was definitely intentional. Based on wikipedia, the countries with still open transfer windows are Brazil, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania, and starting on Feb 7 USA, Canada,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_window
So, if they do enact a lockout, how would that affect B teams like TFC2 in USL League One (not MLS). Could we theoretically just send a bunch of our young guys there? Back when the NHL had their lockouts, teams sent a bunch of their players to the AHL through that loophole. We could just loan Nelson, Jahkeele, Priso, Fraser, Akinola, Dunn, Okello, Dorsey, Peruzza, Achara, Endoh, Shaffleberg there tomorrow before the lockout.
There's a flaw there
Free agents can be signed outside of the transfer window. Signings are only blocked by registration deadlines, which are not the same as transfer deadlines. IF there is no CBA, there are no valid contracts. All players are free agents. If they can get registered as a player with that team, which doesn't require an ITC as those are only due in cases of an international transfer, the player can go.
Not quite. Free agents can sign with a club outside of the transfer window if they were a free agent while the transfer window was still open. So a player whose contract expired on December 31 could still sign a contract in Spain today, but a player released today could not.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/6971785.stm
Sol Campbell got released from Notts in September, but he could only join Arsenal in January, because he wasn't a free agent during the window
https://www.theguardian.com/football...campbell-quits
I think regardless of the technicality of signing immediately vs. in a few months, invalidating the CBA could leave MLS vulnerable to players leaving without having any recourse.
If there could be no soccer for the next six months anyway and if being under contract with MLS only makes moving more complicated, who cares if you don’t start playing again until the summer?
teven Goff
@SoccerInsider
·
46m
Sounds like sides have made progress tonight. Owners seem firm on CBA through 2027. Unclear what concessions they would make to strike a deal. Fascinating 24 hours ahead ...
Deadline extended 24 hours (again, these deadlines are an owner construct)
And...they're still talking.
Looks like they have reached an agreement pending the player pool vote this weekend.
Interesting free agency move
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/JeffreyCarlisle/status/1357871621067866115
That's a big win for the players - 4 years and 24 years old means a lot of kids out of academies will be able to get a chance somewhere else in the league
MLS and the players have reached a tentative agreement on a new CBA that will be effective through the 2027 season
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/MLS/status/1357880692307333122
- The players got better free agency terms for 2026 and 2027, 10% growth in salaries across the board in 2027. Improved minimum salaries as well. Will be interesting to see what the find print says.
- In terms of revenue sharing of TV deal, anything over $100m over previous deal, players will get 12.5% in 2023 and 2024. They will get 25% from 2025-27. And that $100m carve out was always part of that clause even back during the February deal.
Interesting. Good news. This was a good saw off given revenue sharing and better FA terms in out years. There is more of a spirit of partnership in this than the force majeure language implied.
This was in everybody's best interest. The league obviously needed to be able to guarantee no labour strife over the term of the upcoming TV deals. No network wants to make a big long term investment in this only to see a foreseeable hostage situation emerge halfway through.
So the doom and gloom did not materialize!
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/samstejskal/status/1358170362039656453
The details in this twitter thread
Players ratify
This tweet gives the cap spend figures
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/pkedit/status/1358897735580086274
For my reference, are DP’s off budget? TAM players? How does that work again?
I think the players came out of this pretty well – I mean, I don't even see what MLS gained from this deal other than 2 extra years of stability.
Totally disagree. Roster spend is now flat for 2022 vs 2021. An approximately 10% reduction a year in overall salaries for each of the next four years (call it $100M overall). The players gave up a huge bargaining chip (the World Cup).
That's a pretty good return on 30 days work. Although the really big win for the league was getting force majeure back in the deal last summer, that is what made this work for them. I have posted about this before, I still don’t understand that.
Couldn’t agree more. Seems to me that the owners got two more years while the players got less than what was agreed upon last year. If this was my union, I’d see it as a clear case of getting strong armed while the membership is vulnerable from no fault of their own.
Maybe in a vacuum, but under threat of lockout, and where the league is bleeding revenue, it seems pretty good to me.
'Flat' for two years is a million times better than 'nothing.'
"Bleeding revenue" is what MLS claims, sure these two years are tough, but lots of folks that are very knowledgeable about MLS suggest taking the amounts that are being announced with a major grain of salt. But the biggest deal is that they're expecting a major increase in interest around the Word Cup. Players have lost any extra bargaining power around that.