Why would he not just be eligible for the draft? http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110...cer?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I don't understand this either. Quoted from the above article: Has the cutoff for signing up for the 2013 draft passed? I don't understand how he's just not allocated due to him being in the USMNT pool.
Just looking over the official rules it seems that a) he should be draft eligible and b) if hes not that he should be allocated. If I remember correctly from the superdraft last year that there was still players that were signing up until the last minute to be in that draft. Bottom line is that I thought lottery is supposed to be for GA-types that signed after the draft was over, and the allocation process was for USMNT pool players.
I wonder if the article is just incorrect, are there any other sources from MLS itself on Fehr's situation?
MLS doesn't apply their rules consistently. Lee Nguyen and Kamani Hill had almost the exact same profiles but one was subject to allocation order and the other to a lottery.
I might have answered my own question here. Maybe he had a previous offer from the MLS on the table and didn't take it in the 2012 draft, thus putting him in the lottery. If this was the case it would make sense out of why Kamani Hill went through the same process last year as a returning USMNT player (if he had an offer on the table before signing in Europe). The official MLS rules did explain how under these circumstances a lottery was necessary to prevent a player from "holding out" in order to get to the team he wanted.
The fact that he isn't entering the draft makes me think its a "lottery" like Gil went into a lottery. And where he is playing is already determined, but will see.
The allocation list is supposed to be for players that have been capped by the senior national team, and the lottery system for players that are draft-eligible that sign after the draft takes place and/or during the MLS season. Fehr signed with the league in November, so he's subject to 2012 player allocation rules and the only one that applies is the lottery.
Hill is a weird case, but he was previously targeted for a GA deal a long time ago. I'm assuming MLS stuck to their guns and offered him a minimum salary deal that superceded the standard allocation process. It's still a bit convoluted, but I can see what hoops MLS jumped through.