MLS loosens academy rules

[Oldtimer]

Red Bull fans have clamored for the club to sign _ or at least take a look at _ their youth academy prospects. Well, the Post has learned MLS has loosened its rules to make academy signings easier, and the Red Bulls had Dilly Duka and Johnny Exantus at practice today _ the U.S. Under-20 revelation and the kid who thrust the academy into the spotlight.
Coincidence? I think not. Now teams can sign TWO academy players to a Generation Adidas deal instead of just one; they can ink four prospects per year, up from two; and other clubs can no longer raid their prospects, good news for talent-rich academies like New York.

This is good news for TFC, and eventually the 'Caps, as well.

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/socce...osens_aca.html

[JonO]

It's good news in general if it can provide an incentive for teams to strengthen their academies...

[Fort York Redcoat]

"other clubs can no longer raid their prospects"

Best move. The rest will improve by increments.

[Ageroo]

Our Academy seems to be coming along well with alot of high finishes. This can only be good news for our system......and as JonO said only does provide incentive to strengthen it further.

[Ossington Mental Youth]

amazing, so very very very glad to read this

[bee dubya]

This is a HUGE move by the MLS in the right direction. It still isn't perfect but it's much better than it was before. I bet you'll see a couple clubs look to sign some academy players this season now that the rules have been changed.

Who follows the TFC academy? Who looks like a stand-out for us, someone that could step up into the senior team and help us in the future?

[Toronto Ruffrider]

"other clubs can no longer raid their prospects"

Best move. The rest will improve by increments.

This is good news. Now the teams that have not been investing much into their academies will have an incentive to do so. Good on the league for rewarding teams that invest in player development.

[Oldtimer]

This is a move away from parity... which could be bad for small-market teams. BUT, if the goal is to develop US and Canadian talent, this is great news.

For TFC and especially the Whitecaps, who have invested $$$ in building good academies, this is a good payoff.

[Toronto Ruffrider]

This is a move away from parity... which could be bad for small-market teams. BUT, if the goal is to develop US and Canadian talent, this is great news.

For TFC and especially the Whitecaps, who have invested $$$ in building good academies, this is a good payoff.

I'm glad about the move away from parity. The league puts too much energy into keeping the big teams down in a bid to keep the little ones afloat. If a team can' survive in a league with a $2.3M salary cap, then it deserves to move or fold.

[bee dubya]

I think a move like this can save some of the smaller teams. Let's just say that a team like Kansas City or the KKKrew set up an excellent academy, it could very well save their team in the future. They can get players on the cheap and have them play for the senior team after developing them in-house.

I wonder how much affect Vancouver had on these changes?

[denime]

This is a huge move forward for MLS.Now finally clubs that invest money in their youth development will be able to profit from that.

[S_D]

I bet Vancouver had a lot to do with this as from what I understand, their academy set up was a sticking point in negotiations when they were signing up.

This is good news for all clubs.

[Oldtimer]

I think a move like this can save some of the smaller teams. Let's just say that a team like Kansas City or the KKKrew set up an excellent academy, it could very well save their team in the future. They can get players on the cheap and have them play for the senior team after developing them in-house.

I wonder how much affect Vancouver had on these changes?

The problems with KC or the KKKrew setting up a good academy is that their cachement area is small. NY, Toronto, LA have tonnes of kids playing soccer to choose from. Columbus has significantly fewer kids to select from.

The solution to this would be residential academies, like Vancouver currently have in USL, but MLS has still not allowed.

Vancouver on now on the "Competition Committee," which makes such decisions, but don't have a vote until Vancouver is in MLS. I'm sure though that they can informally discuss such issues with the other members of the committee and may have pushed for these changes. Who knows, in the murkey world of MLS?

[Gazza_55]

The problems with KC or the KKKrew setting up a good academy is that their cachement area is small. NY, Toronto, LA have tonnes of kids playing soccer to choose from. Columbus has significantly fewer kids to select from.

The solution to this would be residential academies, like Vancouver currently have in USL, but MLS has still not allowed.

Vancouver on now on the "Competition Committee," which makes such decisions, but don't have a vote until Vancouver is in MLS. I'm sure though that they can informally discuss such issues with the other members of the committee and may have pushed for these changes. Who knows, in the murkey world of MLS?

The Crew's catchment area is not small. They can players from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Kentucky, West Virginia etc as none of those states will ever have an MLS team.

[Lucky Strike]

This is a move away from parity... which could be bad for small-market teams. BUT, if the goal is to develop US and Canadian talent, this is great news.

For TFC and especially the Whitecaps, who have invested $$$ in building good academies, this is a good payoff.

Think of it as the elimination of the Tragedy of the Commons that existed in regard to academies. Doing so is IMMENSE and cannot be overstated. This is the best thing MLS has done in a while.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons (the first few paragraphs give you a good account of it, you don't necessarily have to read the whole thing)

[Red CB Toronto]

What I find interesting is that the USL has no academy policy, so the Whitecaps whose academy is fully pro and is run like one in Europe can bring up players whenever they want to the first team.

I think it would be great if this was the case in the MLS with full blown Academies but I think they are reluctant to diminish the value of the NCAA which is a free development system for them.

If they moved away from this and started to sign players at say age 12-13 or even younger there would be a cost involved that I am not sure that the league would want to strap all of the clubs with at this point.

It will be interesting if things change.

[Oldtimer]

The Crew's catchment area is not small. They can players from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Kentucky, West Virginia etc as none of those states will ever have an MLS team.

Yes, they can get players from all of these areas, but the players have to

(1) rent a place at their own expense, the team is not allowed to supply anything.
(2) go to school in another state with no family nearby.
(3) pay all their own way, they are not paid.

Lets be realistic, only players from Columbus will go to the Crew's academy.

If there was a residency program like Vancouver's current setup, the team would provide accommodation, schooling, etc.

[C.Ronaldo]

Id pay to go live in columbus to learn soccer............................................ .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ............










NOT!

[Shway]

idea for TFC with restrictions improving.
http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/sh...ad.php?t=13268

[Toronto Ruffrider]

The problems with KC or the KKKrew setting up a good academy is that their cachement area is small. NY, Toronto, LA have tonnes of kids playing soccer to choose from. Columbus has significantly fewer kids to select from.

The solution to this would be residential academies, like Vancouver currently have in USL, but MLS has still not allowed.

Vancouver on now on the "Competition Committee," which makes such decisions, but don't have a vote until Vancouver is in MLS. I'm sure though that they can informally discuss such issues with the other members of the committee and may have pushed for these changes. Who knows, in the murkey world of MLS?

MLS will just have to change its rule on residency restrictions in order to get around catchment area challenges. Columbus might be a small city by MLS standards, but about 11.5 million people live in Ohio. There is no reason why, with some innovation, small cities can't run decent academies in MLS.

[Detroit_TFC]

The Crew's catchment area is not small. They can players from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Kentucky, West Virginia etc as none of those states will ever have an MLS team.

True this, plus Brad Friedel has a residential academy in Cleveland that started a couple of years ago. When he retires, that will be his main gig. It's going to be an important center of youth talent.

[InTheCrowd]

A guy who I played with on my school's vollyball team (1 year older than me) recently signed for TFC academy (and yes, for footy). Good news for him?

[T_Mizz]

This is all fantastic news now let the speculation about the first signee start. As far as I'm concerned the best prospect in our system is Jonathon Lao, but he is only 15 I believe (born in 1993, not sure exactly when) and he's a standout for the Canadian U-17 team. Also I think signing him would be a great move as he's an attacking mid so having two of the best in the MLS working with you day in day out at training would do wonders for this kids development.

[T_Mizz]

Another thing I noticed in the article if you read on, is that one of those guys is 20, this seems like TFC is at a bit of a disadvantage as our academy only goes up to 18.

[Shway]

Thats exactly what i was saying....
They need a USL/PDL U-23 team or even U-21