Series Why it is unlikely we will see the MLS in FMH

[BiodegradableGirl]

I must admit a certain surprise, as I read through the forums from over the years, having seen the number of people expressing desire to see Major League Soccer included in future relases of FMH. As an American, it makes me smile a bit, to see our fledgling (comparitively) football league having engendered such affection. For a footballing program as young as the MLS, that's a step in the right direction. I, myself, would love to see my country's league represented in FMH. I'd especially love to see our national team available for management.

 

Unfortunately, I believe the former is unlikely to happen, and I'm going to give you all my best guess as to why.

 

Association Football in the United States is a many-headed beast. Unlike the streamlined systems possessed by her european cousins, the United States has no organized footballing pyramid. There are many who will argue that there is the MLS at the top, followed by the North American Soccer League, and then the USL. If they are establishing an order of prominence, they may be correct in that alone. However, these are all separate entities. The United States lacks a single governing body for the sport, with each league having a different administration, officiating qualifications and standards.

Youth soccer is governed by as many as 3-5 major youth organizations. Each organization has different rules, a different yearly calendar, and is broken up into differing geographical regions with abundant overlap with competing major organizations. These youth orgs have their own pyramids, their own competitions, their own tournaments, and their own champions. That's right, 3-5 youth national champions. Per year.

 

That's merely youth soccer. I haven't even touched collegiate soccer. Collegiate soccer would make up perhaps the "fifth" tier of the US Footballing Pyramid. The fourth would be the USL's Developmental League, as long as it lasts. College soccer maintains amateur status, and is governed not by its own footballing organization, but by the NCAA, an entirely seperate bureaucratic beast. Again, like every other tier of the American Football Pyramid, the NCAA has its own standards for officials, training, and player eligibility.

 

Teams in Major League Soccer are not independent clubs formed separate from the League itself. They are established and fixed franchises of Major League Soccer. Though they have their own ownership, a strict measure of control over the clubs, their right to play and conduct business, is controlled by Major League Soccer itself. In essence, the teams are a PART of it, they do not merely compete within it. There are tight restrictions in place, regulating what a team is able to do with their image; teams are not permitted to negotiate their own TV or merchandising contracts. Such contracts are handled and held by Major League Soccer. Team sponsorship is strictly regulated - sponsors must first seek MLS approval before offering sponsorship to a specific club. As such, there will not, without a new league coming about, be promotion and relegation within the American Footballing System.

Players seeking to enter Major League Soccer must first seek employment elegibility through Major League Soccer, and then, barring professional experience elsewhere, enter through the MLS SuperDraft. With the exception of big-name signings and aquisitions from other MLS clubs, most players will enter the league through the draft. Players released from their contracts do not continue to be available on free transfer. After a speficied period of time, these players must go through a complicated Re-Entry process and be assigned through the multi-stage Re-Entry draft. (I wish I could comment more, but the process is truly over my head. Suffice to say, the MLS does not play by the same rules the rest of the footballing world does).

 

I dearly wish I were done... but the list of problems goes on.

 

While still on the subject of curious contracts, there is the matter of the Salary Cap. The Salary Cap is a league-wide regulation common in American sports. Its aim is to ensure parity and competition within the league by limiting the total wage budget for each team to the same amount. The current salary cap per team is $3,100,000 per annum, with no player earning more than $387,500 per annum. However, the salary cap is not quite that simple. That budget cap only applies to players filling roster spots 1-20. Roster spots 19 and 20, for example, are not even required to be filled. There are also minimum required salaries. Roster spots 1-24 must earn at least $48,500, and roster spots 25-30 must earn at least $36,500. HOWEVER... a player may earn less than $36,500 - they must not turn 25 during the current competion year. There's yet more complexity to the contracts in Major League Soccer. Each team is permitted three (3) Designated Players, no more, no exceptions. These players count against their team's salary cap in an amount of the team maximum salary of $387,500 (assuming they are above the age of 23. Players aged 21-23 count $200,000 against their team cap, and players age 20 and younger count $150,000.)but in the case of such players as David Beckham, may earn upwards of $6.5 million annually.  Players above the age of 23 signed mid-season count only $193,750 against their team cap.

 

But wait... there's more. Teams may "buy down" the amount of the player's salary that counts against the salary cap by using some specially allocated funds. These funds allow teams to partially circumvent the salary cap, and are awarded to teams based on a number of factors:

1. Teams that have missed the annual playoffs (9 of the 19 teams every year) receive a certain amount of allocation funds. Presumably, this is to further foster a competitive league.

2. Expansion teams in their first season (new teams to the league) receive a significant amount of allocation funds to help grow their team quickly and attract talent/big names that will put fans in the seats.

3. Teams that have sold a player to a foreign club receive that sale price plus a small bonus to their allocation funds.

4. Teams that advance to the CONCACAF Champions League knockout round and beyond receive funds as a bonus for performance.

5. Teams that do not fill all 30 roster spots receive funds for each of the bottom 10 roster spots that remain unfilled (this.... makes no sense to me, I cannot fathom why)

6. Teams that do not utilize a third Designated Player slot receive additional allocation funds

 

There are also requirements for the composition of each team. Each team in the MLS began with eight (8) roster spots available for international (non USA/Canada internationals). However, like players, those spots can be traded, bought, or purchased. Players eligible to fill the domestic slots vary based on the location of the franchise team. Teams based in the United States must fill those domestic player slots with Team USA elegible players only. Canada-based franchise teams may fill those slots with either Canadian or USA-eligible domestic players.

There is the difficult problem of organization within the MLS. Having been designed to attract American/Canadian fans that have grown used to fixed-franchise sports with conference/divisional breakdowns, the MLS is divided into a Western and Eastern Conference. This would, of course, prohibit the standard single-table format. Teams do not compete in the standard home-and-away format accepted by most major footballing organizations. Rather, teams face other teams in their conference, and play only a small selection of teams from the opposing conference. At the end of the regular competition season, the top five teams in each conference, enter a tournament (2-leg, home-and-away, as in knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League) to establish a yearly champion. Unlike in the English system, where there are playoffs for promotion (for teams not winning their league), this system determines the yearly champion. An entire year of soccer played, merely as a prelude to a one-off tournament to determine the league champion.

 

Difficulties with the league's organization aside, there is one other glaring issue: Major League Soccer is still growing, and still incredibly unstable. Since it's inception in 1996, the league has grown from 9 to 19 teams. (Yes, there are an odd number of teams, and the conferences are unbalanced. It's a small issue, in light of everything else) 4 new teams are to be added over the next 5 years, with three having secured locations to play, while the Miami franchise has yet to secure a stadium agreement. (on that note, five of the nineteen teams do not have their own stadia to play in, playing on a surface shared by another sports team... in a nation's top-tier football competition) In its short not-quite-twenty years of operation, two franchises have folded.

 

Now, it sounds as if I've spent a lot of time telling you what's wrong with my country's footballing program. Far from the case. It's just a unique animal born of unique circumstance. Those unique charactaristics just seem to be too many, in my opinion, to make it worthwhile to bring the league to the FMH franchise. FMH does an amazing job at replicating European football, and to some extent, Brazilian and Aussie football. MLS is a different beast. It plays by different rules.

Hey, my country likes to march to its own drummer. Whether or not said drummer could carry a beat in a bucket..... remains to be seen. Particularly where our footballing league is concerned. I think, in time, as European football grows in popularity in North America, the structure of American Association Football will change. European Football, and world football competitions grow exponentially in popularity with each passing year. This year's World Cup drew unprecedented crowds to viewing venues across the country, both while the US was involved, and after our elimination. La Liga and Serie A get regular air on broadcast television, and even more on cable. Barclays Premier League competitions have a deal with NBC and ESPN to show their Match of the Week. And these programs draw viewers.

I'm not saying MLS in FMH will -never- happen. It's just some time off. The sport needs to grow in this country, it needs to evolve, to fall in line with the rest of the world. Until it does, it's this writer's strong opinion, that Major League Soccer will not join the ranks of playable leagues in Football Manager Handheld.

Edited August 10, 2014 by BiodegradableGirl

[dirtboy]

+1

I agree, MLS would be too complicated. You haven't mentioned the salary cap and Marquee Players (another similarity to the A-League, and not implemented there) which would add to the complexity.

The format itself wouldn't be impossible but adding the draft and marquee players pushes it over the edge. If the A-League can't be implemented properly then the MLS won't be any time soon, as it is far more complicated.

[Lee-Roy]

Great work, you've done a brilliant job explaining the MLS to those in the dark and hopefully answered the question of why it's not in FMH.

And great job on explaining the designated player rule

[BiodegradableGirl]

Oh, crap, the Salary Cap But Not Really rule. I knew I'd left something out. Edit coming!

Thank you for pointing that out. I'll correct that when I'm done here at work.

 

Edit: Okay, updated with Designated Player/Roster Requirements, and Allocation Money. Thanks for the heads-up, gents.

[jaymarvels]

I know Marc has said he'd like to get the MLS in there in the past.

[BiodegradableGirl]

I'd like to see them get the MLS in there, as well. I was just giving my opinion as to why I think it's unlikely, and explaining some of the complexities and obstacles to doing so. I honestly hope I'm dead wrong on all accounts. MLS is just plain weird in comparison to the European leagues.

 

Much of Major League Soccer (SuperDraft, re-entry policy, Discovery slots, rights to players) isn't yet well emulated on FMPC, let alone making the transition to FMH.

[Ashez]

Very interesting

[xHadex]

I think we will get MLS 

[rafa]

I don't think the complexity of the league structure is the problem. This can always be simplified - see Australia and Brazil. The only issue seems to be financial really, with licensing fees and rights.

[BiodegradableGirl]

Even with the -really- weird wage restrictions and league restrictions on importing foreign players? Well... then again, the English Premier League has rules on homegrown players which can be freely ignored in FMH. Maybe you're right, Rafa.

[Lee-Roy]

Not only does FMH ignore rules such as homegrown players, FIFA takes it one step further and includes the MLS and ignored the very rules you've mentioned in the article. Although we all crave realism m, I don't think a single person wouldn't want the MLS even if it didn't have it's crazy rules.

[cRaCkZ]

Yeah, MLS is a great league and should be added in FMH .. this rules can be ignored and make it simple like european leagues. Is only a game...is not real life.

MLS is one of the most desiree leagues along Russian,Turkish and Argentinian. I really want to manage L.A.Galaxy

I know..is great to play with teams in your country/national team...i'll be happy if i can play with Romanian teams in future...English people are too lucky

FMH14 hadn"t new playable leagues because they relase My Club and Large Database . I think FMH15 should have at least 2 new playable leagues like in FMH13.

[Fozz_Quaker]

Yeah, MLS is a great league and should be added in FMH .. this rules can be ignored and make it simple like european leagues. Is only a game...is not real life.

MLS is one of the most desiree leagues along Russian,Turkish and Argentinian. I really want to manage L.A.Galaxy

I know..is great to play with teams in your country/national team...i'll be happy if i can play with Romanian teams in future...English people are too lucky

FMH14 hadn"t new playable leagues because they relase My Club and Large Database . I think FMH15 should have at least 2 new playable leagues like in FMH13.

1. Then it won't be MLS if SI make it simple and create it like a European System, no thanks, I want to manage D.C United, and will only be happy managing them if a simplified version of MLS can be created

2. How are English people lucky?

[Lee-Roy]

I read it to mean that we're lucky we get to manage English teams.

[dirtboy]

I read it as you're lucky you get 6 divisions