Many European clubs have academies overseas. Perhaps we should extend our influence into the Caribbean. The league as a whole or the individual teams should start academies there. For me I'd like to see them in Trinidad,Jamaica,Suriname,Haiti perhaps some other places.
A slightly more reasoned as to why I said "No." 1) There are international rules about players moving about as teenagers, which would have to be dealt with first. 2) This would cost a lot of money. 3) MLS teams are having a tough enough time setting up academies, youth teams, etc. in the US. 4) There is no reason for MLS going to the Caribbean to set up academies except: weather and pot (although that would be easier to do in Colorado and Washington, I guess). 5) It would be expensive to get there for teams, scouts, coaches, etc. 6) The limited resources would be better spent here, attempting to bolster the sport in the US. 7) If successful, it could have a deleterious effect upon the USMNT.
So you want Columbus (to choose a club at random) to set up an Academy in Dominica (to choose a shit-bag island at random) and you think there's going to be significant return-on-investment. Even if they get and train and develop the best 20 players in Dominica, how many of them do you think either A. See the field for the Yellow Football Team or B. command a transfer payment? #NonRhetoricalQuestion
More than if you set up an academy in Columbus? I don't know, but it's possible, particularly if you choose Jamaica or Trinidad rather than Dominica. I think there are enough minor impracticalities not to make it worth the hassle, but I can think of better places to recruit players than Columbus. Trinidad has a pretty strong athletic tradition for its size, I expect most of the players there aren't expecting to go to college and an MLS team would be the rich team on the island. Seems like that would be a decent recruiting ground.
Pretty sure the Jamaican Football Federation would have a not only no, but ANFWHNGTFO type of response.
Scouting is the way to go if you believe you can get enough good players out of it. Once a year try-outs might not be out of the question, good to do as much networking as possible, this is how the diamonds are found. Scouting is a lot like college recruiting, it is about the relationships.
I'm curious why you think that. It seems to me that they would love to have someone spend money developing Jamaican youth players who will end up playing for the Jamaican national team. It may even benefit the local pro league as the players who aren't good enough for MLS (the vast majority of them) would benefit from improved training and then be available for the local league. I don't think it will happen because it is not beneficial enough for MLS not because it would somehow hurt Jamaica.
Because MLS has a history of green carding players quickly to make them count as domestic, catch a youth player early enough and at 21-22 you could have them as citizens, and thus eligible for the US, because you brought them in early they probably have not yet been capped by Jamaica and now the best and brightest there are suddenly playing for someone who can offer them better facilities, more money, a better chance at the World Cup etc...
FIFA Rules allow players from all 50 States, DC, and the territories to move to Columbus for the expressed purpose of playing for the Crew U8s. The same is not true of Trinbagonians moving to Jamaica.
How long does it really take someone to get citizenship? Think we are looking at closer to them being mid 20s than early 20s. http://www.us-immigration.com/us-im...ow-long-does-the-us-citizenship-process-take/ So, once they get their green card it will take around 5 year before they are able to apply. Then a minimum of another 6 months or even longer for the application to get processed and then a little longer before you can take the oath. So the minimum is probably they sign at 18, get green card at 19 and then at 24 they apply for citizenship. They probably take the oath when they are 25 or close to it. Now, if they marry a US citizen everything changes. But I wouldn't rely on that.
If an MLS academy were set up in the Caribbean, you wouldn't see players sign in MLS until there were 18 due to FIFA rules against internationally transferring minors. Even if they got green cards instantly (which is unlikely, it usually take a while), it would be a 5 year wait for citizenship. Unless I'm mistaken, I think it has been quite a while since a non-minor emigrated to the US to play soccer, got US citizenship and then played for the US national team. Most of the immigrant guys whose citizenship processes we're currently tracking - Nagbe, Zelalem, Fagundez - came to the US as children. I honestly don't think Caribbean nations would be all that worried about us poaching players. If they were, they wouldn't be supportive of the new annual MLS Caribbean Combine, which scouts Caribbean players age 18-21 with the idea of putting them in the MLS draft. That's young enough that players recruited could still get US citizenship in their 20s.
To say nothing of the fact that Caribbean National Teams are usually so bad and play in so many games that 'matter' (per FIFA rules) that a CFU FA can offer a player a chance to play for his country much earlier than the US can. Hell, Shalrie Joseph (who I'm to understand could have easily chosen the United States) was first capped by Grenada when he was playing the the PDL.