Manchester City Football Club have announced that they have purchased Major League Soccer. This comes days after it was revealed that the Premier League club owned by Sheikh Mansour will co-own MLS's 20th franchise, New York City FC, which will begin play in 2015. And according to Man City, the decision to buy the whole league arose from their desire to eliminate its tight salary cap.
Just like with every year, Major League Soccer tweaks and updates various roster rules and regulations to begin their new season. The 2013 season will be no different as several updates have been made to the roster rules.
Here is a look at key elements of MLS's 2013 roster rules.
I meant to post this here a week ago and totally forgot. But I wanted to mention a series of posts that I recently did at BigDSoccer.com that dived into the tricky salary cap mess that each MLS team has to deal with. I looked at each positional area for FC Dallas and broke down what kind of potential salary cap space the club would have to work it.
Must we perpetually deal with the cloak-and-dagger nature of the salary cap situation in Major
League Soccer? There is nothing like watching international players enter the league, primarily to
the Big Two teams of Los Angeles and New York, when ...
Plans change, and the Chicago Fire's Marco Pappa is now a member of Eredivisie club Heerenveen
rather than waiting until after the Major League Soccer season. "This was a very difficult decision
to make, however, we feel it is the best move for the club and the player at this time," Chicago
president Javier Leon said in a press statement.
If the Chicago Fire are to reach the playoffs and go on a postseason run this season, they will
have to do so without Marco Pappa.
The Guatemalan midfielder's transfer to Dutch club Heerenveen has been expedited, and he will
leave the Fire with immediate effect. The Fire had originally planned on sending Pappa to
Heerenveen following the conclusion of the MLS season after the transfer had been agreed upon
earlier this month.
Delicate Balance: The MLS' designated player rule - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Beckham. Henry. Keane. And now Nesta. There are some very internationally recognizable names
gracing today's Major League Soccer ranks to be sure, but why does it still seem like the West-ward
movement remains a feeble trickle instead of a rising swell?
Jerry Bengtson's signing could prove a double victory for the Revs. (Photo: New England
Revolution)
"Why not us?"
It's a sentiment that's often been heard from MLS fans in the age of the Designated Player.
Since the DP rule was implemented in 2007, it's created a bit of a haves and have nots scenario in
MLS – not necessarily in the trophy case, but in the big name impressive European-pedigree player
department.
The Revolution added Honduran forward Jerry Bengtson on Thursday in the hopes of bolstering its
attack. Bengtson will occupy the team's second designated player spot. (Photo: New England
Revolution)
The New England Revolution have been behind the ball on signing Designated Players far too often
over the years at least, according to fans yearning for a big-name, big-market player.
News out of Germany is that Christian Tiffert has a three-year offer from the Seattle Sounders.
As it seems he'd be more likely to replace a roster slot occupied by Alvaro Fernandez due to a need
to pay a transfer fee of some size and plays in the space where Brad Evans usually lines up this is
unlikely to be the only move of the window, if this move happens at all.
Two news reports, one out of Denmark and one out of Poland, are saying that Jan Frederiksen will not be signing with D.C. United due to salary cap considerations. An earlier article said that while D.C. United wanted to sign him, it was only going to be on their terms. United were only willing to offer a one year contract at $80,000 per year, at least according to the Danish media, whereas Frederiksen wanted more money and a longer contract.
The Philadelphia Union have announced that they have agreed to a mutual contract termination
with forward Jorge Perlaza. Perlaza joined the Union this season in a trade which sent MLS
Superdraft first overall pick Danny Mwanga to Portland. This move should come as a surprise to no
one. Perlaza had not played or been available as a sub for the last ten Union games.
Two teams on the outside of the playoff race looking in have swapped goalkeepers in an unusual
mid-season deal.
The Montreal Impact sent goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to the Portland Timbers for Troy Perkins in
a straight-up trade that sees both veteran goalkeepers get a change of scenery.
The New England Revolution have waived Colombian striker Jose Moreno this morning, according to
the team's official twitter feed. "Pepe" Moreno, 30, made seven appearances in 2012 (five starts),
scoring one goal.
New England acquired Moreno on loan from Once Caldas in February, but it took over a month for
the striker to arrive in Foxboro.
D.C. United's stand-in opponent for their July 28 friendly will be Paris St. Germain.
As a result of Juventus cancelling its North American tour and pulling out of the World Football
Challenge tournament, D.C. scrambled to find a new opponent and landed on PSG, which will also be
playing Chelsea at Yankee Stadium on July 22 as part of the WFC.
The picture might not be quite as rosy as we'd all like to think after the Seattle Sounders lost their best defender and one of their best scorers, but it sure looks a lot better than it did the last time we looked. Based on a fair amount of educated guesswork and using last year's roster-rules as base, it would appear the Sounders are now about $170,000 over the 2013 salary cap of $2.
When Adrian Hanauer said the Seattle Sounders were feeling the salary-cap crunch during his postseason press conference, there were definitely some skeptics. Their total team salary was only the eighth highest in the league, after all. How bad could it be?
Well, we decided to run the numbers and it appears the Sounders GM was giving it to us pretty straight.
MLS teams have very cramped rosters. You can argue whether the MLS obsession with parity is a
good thing or a bad thing, but it's the law of the land and teams need to find ways to work around
it. With a limited roster size and a salary cap, teams that want to compete don't have the luxury
of carrying players that can't help in the short term.
The Seattle Sounders are not sitting silently as the race for postseason berths in the MLS
Western Conference intensifies.
The club signed FC Kaiserslautern midfielder Christian Tiffert to a Designated Player deal
Friday, according to his representatives. Kaiserslautern's website says that Tiffert's deal with
MLS is for three years.
It should hardly be shocking at this point, but the Seattle Sounders announced that Christian
Sivebaek has been waived. To replace his spot on the roster, they also signed Daniel Steres, who
had been picked up in the recent waiver draft.
Sivebaek's departure does open up an international roster spot though, and presumably clears
about $60,000 in salary cap space (the rough pro-rated portion of his unpaid salary).
While the Portland Timbers have been making waves in the last few weeks with regards to an ever changing roster, as well as some juicy rumors, the Portland Thorns FC and their respective league have also been making waves as they prepare to get everything in order for next year's kick off. Here's what has happened in the last few weeks:
Merritt Paulson hints at Portland Thorns head coach
With a tweet sent out yesterday, Merritt Paulson stated:
Look forward to announcing @ThornsFC head coach tomorrow.
File this article under the "major speculation" category, but we thought it might be fun to peer into the salary cap of the 2013 Portland Timbers. Keep in mind that the current squad will most definitely change between now and then. Caleb Porter is certainly not done wheeling and dealing. Regardless, here is our methodology for these numbers:
Rumors about Wells Thompson being traded to the Chicago Fire started yesterday. That's weird I
thought. Wells Thompson is a guy that this team doesn't need. The rumors persisted today but the
move seemed so odd, I brushed it off. I don't have that luxury anymore as Wells Thompson went to
Facebook to post a picture of himself in the Fire's locker room with the words, "Breaking News:
Newest Member of the Chicago Fire Team!
The Chicago Fire announced on Thursday that midfielder Marco Pappa will be transferred to Dutch
side SC Heerenveen immediately as opposed to at the end of the season.
The idea that a European club would essentially wait half a season to get a player seemed a bit
farfetched at the time. We may never know if this was the plan all along or if Heerenveen made a
last-minute offer that the Men in Red couldn't turn down.
There seems to be for the first time a serious debate on introducing salary cap restrictions a
la NFL into the Premiership. This comes on the heels of a strengthened TV deal that would generate
£3bn to be shared by all 20 clubs towards player transfers and wages.
The bottom line is that increasing and out of control wage demands have eaten into that pie
leaving clubs with less to spend.
Francois Hollande's 75% tax rate on millionaires was a central election platform
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's transfer is complete. He is now a PSG player, a team he probably had no
intention of joining when he launched his footballing career ten years ago. But the fact is he is
now France's richest paid athlete with an annual salary of €14m with only Cristiano Ronaldo and
Leo Messi earning more.
People, it is probably fair to say, are troubled by the current financial imbalance in the
Premier League. That only three or four clubs can realistically end up as the champions of England
is a situation that has vexed many over the last few years, and even the thin veneer of tightness
that the end of last season brought us can mask the fact that both Manchester City and Manchester
United finished nineteen points ahead of Arsenal in third place at the end of last season.
In a time when everything about American soccer is growing, we just finished the first round of the
new season in the English Premier League and the only 2 American players to see the field were both
goalkeepers. Feels like a step backwards doesn't it?
STORY OF THE DAY
The always amazing Steve Sirk has a great tribute to recently deceased Kirk Urso from the Columbus
Crew.
It was announced this morning that Geoff Cameron's work permit has been approved and the former
Dynamo defender is now officially a member of Stoke City. Congratulations to Geoff on having the
opportunity to pursue this incredible personal opportunity and we wish him all the success in the
English Premier League.
If you've ended up here for a discussion of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Act, I apologize, this post isn't for you. If you've ended up here to discuss the return of Ricardo
Clark to the Houston Dynamo, then you're in the right place.
Unless you've been away from the Internet for the last couple weeks, you've probably heard the
news that midfielder Ricardo Clark has re-signed with the Dynamo after over two years in
Germany.
The Dynamo are finalizing an agreement with former U.S. national team midfielder Ricardo Clark,
pending the receipt of an international certificate. Now, the club must figure out a way to fit
Clark under MLS' salary cap. Because Geoff Cameron will remain on the roster until he gets a UK
work permit to seal his move [.
The Los Angeles Galaxy are gearing up for the stretch run of their MLS Cup title defense, and
they've added a Swedish international midfielder with valuable experience to help them in the final
months of the season.
With 10 days to go until the MLS roster freeze deadline, the Galaxy announced the signing of
Christian Wilhelmsson, adding a 32-year-old wide midfielder who was part of the Sweden Euro 2012
team and also played in the 2008 European championship, 2006 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Champions
League.
- Arguably QPR's Greatest-ever Goalie Phil Parkes Turns 62. (Also Damion Stewart Turns
32)
- See the Truly-Brilliant Bushman Photo Archives of Old QPR - Follow QPR
REPORT on TWITTER! - Visit the Football-Only QPR REPORT
MESSAGEBOARD __________________________________________________________________________ Welcome
and good luck to QPR's New-look Website - On This Day: Season Openers vs Leeds and Blackpool at Home and Away to
Sunderland.
After the big news of Troy Perkins' trade today the Timbers still practiced at their Beaverton
training facility. Perkins was sighted briefly before practice as he stopped by to say goodbye to
his teammates and clean out his locker.
Donovan Ricketts, who was picked up in exchange for Perkins, will practice with the team for the
first time on Friday, according to Gavin Wilkinson.
Goodnight, sweet prince.Let's cut the crap Toronto FC. We know what you're up to and
yes, we're taking it personally. You aren't making personnel moves based on talent, roster size,
salary cap or international slots. No... you wily devils are trying to destroy the TFC blog
industry one pun at a time!
I think quite a lot in this league, what holds back their salary cap. It is the only reason why
Seattle can not compete with the biggest, but the financial muscle there's creating a very good
team. But the salary cap is a little higher each year
Adam Johansson gives a somewhat revealing interview to Swedish outlet Fotboll Skanalen (via
Google Tranlsate).
"If we continue to have the growth that we've had over the next 16 to 20 years, it's entirely
realistic to stand shoulder to shoulder with the NFL," Durbin states.
Alex Labidou: Thierry Henry admits MLS is a tough sell to America's young premier athletes -
Goal.
Deron Williams is arguably the biggest name on the 2012 NBA free agent market. The talented
point guard will be an unrestricted free agent and just about every team in the league would love
to have him on their team. Where will Deron Williams sign? If you believe the latest reports that
have hit the wires, Williams has narrowed his list down to two teams: the Brooklyn Nets and the
Dallas Mavericks.
Good morning everyone! Yesterday I attended training and did not wake up early enough to put
together the Rounds first so, instead, I'll be putting all of those links into today's! Thus, we
have a BIG set of links ready for you. There's some word on Paul Mariner at TFC, Clyde Simms'
health, Bob Bradley in Egypt, soccer stats, and a heck of a lot more that I don't even
remember.
