Article on MLS rules holding back Canadians

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/26/canadian-soccer-players-left-out-in-the-cold

TORONTO - A host of U.S.-based MLS clubs are passing on current Canadian internationals due to an imbalance in league roster rules, according to officials at the Canadian Soccer Association.
The Toronto Sun has learned that despite growing interest in European-based Canadians since the 2009 Gold Cup, clubs located south of the border have had to pass on at least three Canadian national team players, two of which took part in the most recent round of World Cup qualifying, due to the international status bestowed upon Canadians playing in the U.S.
“There are a couple of (U.S. MLS) coaches that have put out some feelers about potentially having some Canadian national team payers but they’re hesitant ... because the Canadians count as foreigners,” Canadian head coach Stephen Hart told the Sun.
“There are a few players they have liked and if they didn’t count as foreigners I have no doubt they’d be in the league.”

{Mod note - Read more via link above}

Start your own league

"I'm getting free handouts and it's not enough!"

Maybe if TFC didn't join MLS and revive it from death Canada would have it's own league by now

It worked for the CFL.

(And then MLS really would be like the NFL, more so than those lumpers the NBA, MLB and NHL.)

Maybe. But most likely probably not.

Sorry but league rule changes regarding to player status for US clubs has to follow US law.

There are other fixes - ie raising the number of international slots.

Yeah, that's what happened. You clowns are really being oppressed

i agree that the rules should change. how they work at it is there problem.

FYI... if there are Canadians that want to play in the MLS, what it should mean is that Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal all have a competitive advantage of signing them. its basically saying to those teams that it is cheaper and easier for them to sign their own players. It may hurt the Canadian National team, but its an advantage to Canadian based MLS teams.

Are you making reference to the USA's financial industry after 2008?

Thank you for keeping it civil and professional with the name calling.

I understand what you're saying, the problem is that those players may not fit into a Canadian teams needs or wants - ie injuries, formation, playing style etc, while there are coaches like DK in Houston would like to have that player, especially over an American, just not over a Brazilian or a Frenchman.

I don't buy it one bit.

Players get green cards so easily in the US that the international spots really don't mean a whole lot.

If a team wants the players, they will bring them in.

If these players are in such demand by MLS teams, why aren't the Canadian teams scooping them up?

A link to the article and an excerpt would have been preferable to posting the entire text.

[/Grumble grumble get off my lawn old man tag]

And here's the thing

And let's not forget that plenty of members of the Canadian National team play, or have played for, members of the Canadian national team.

I give props to Toronto as they're the only Canadian MLS team that has continously made an effort to sign Canadian players. They signed 5 or 6 homegrown players and have played members of the Canadian senior squad from Gerba, DeRo, Sutton, Brennan, De Guzman, Attakora, and Serioux. They're the only one that has committed to truly having a Canadian identity in MLS. They're kinda like the Chivas or Bilbao of Canadian soccer.

Outside of Toronto, none of the Canadian sides are signing Canadian talent either. So if the CSA are worried about Canadian talent being passed over, they need to give a call to the FOs at Vancouver and Montreal before calling MLS. It's actually those team's responsibility to foster Canadian talent, not ours.

Outside of 3 Canadians at each MLS club, Canadians have a lower value as a commodity with MLS clubs because they don't have as much value when dealing with American clubs. ie sign the player but the trade value is very low at a later date because 16 other clubs view it as not worth it.

Solutions to the problem:

1. All people who are citizens of any country in MLS' territory is considered domestic.

2. Eliminate the stupid national origin based roster rules.

This is a good point. It does cripple the Canadian clubs when they try to move what are considered domestic players in a like-for-like exchange with their fellow MLS teams. I have no problem if they decide to change the rules, but they need to talk to the Canadian franchises first.

Explain. Why is MLS's rule for domestic roster slots not illegal, but expanding that definition to include Canadians would be illegal?

US law does not allow you to treat any non-American nationality different than another. So, MLS can't have a rule that says "Canadians are considered to be domestic players" anymore than they can say "only two Brazilians" or "one international slot must be used for an Australian". From the league's standpoint, they have to treat, say, Julian de Guzman exactly the same as they treat Julio Cesar. (The exception, of course, is a Canadian player with a green card. But that goes for any foreign player.)

You could expand the international slots, but if MLS teams aren't signing them with 8 slots there is no guarantee that they will at 9 or 10. You could include the CIS colleges in the draft (I think that's legal), but that wouldn't do anything with regard to the mid-career guys referenced. You'd probably have to get Congress/DOL to issue some exemption (possible, but not necessarily likely).

Are you dumb?

I would argue that if you have a split league nationally then you need to consider both domestic. The academies rapid improvements of late will negate this issue in my opinion. (This debate is a super-charged one though)

Under U.S. law, employers can treat foreigners differently than U.S. residents but cannot make distinctions among foreigners. So MLS teams in the U.S. cannot have one set of employment guidelines for Canadians and another set of rules for Mexican or British players, for example.