I’ve been a fan of the EPL for almost as long as it’s been active, and ever since the Bosman ruling in ‘95, which allowed for the free transfer of players 24yo and older between clubs throughout Europe after that player’s contract expires, England requires foreign players to either a) qualify for an EU passport through parental/grandparental lineage, or b) earn a work permit by representing their native country’s senior national team in a minimum of 75% of that team’s competitive games over the preceding two years... the threat of Brexit has caused a great deal of concern amongst UK clubs, as the EU passports will cease to qualify those foreign players for play in the host country.
Watching England suffer thru Brexit is like watching the current decline & fall of the USA. So depressing. England’s global financial centers are leaving and I guess football will be next. If the EPL loses its ability to have the biggest stars, where would all those guys go? China?
The article below in The Athletic (paywall) reminded me of another issue for foreign players: getting visas for the players's extended family. E.g., I remember a couple of years ago some player complained that he couldn't get a visa for his long-time housekeeper, who was a vital part of his happy family. Anyhow, this article reports that the Paraguayan Kaku wants out of RBNY because he can't get visas for his extended family, and also, Red Bull never reimbursed him for his furniture as is stipulated in his contract. “It’s impossible to talk with Denis (Hamlett, RBNY sporting director) because it’s not a problem with Denis, I appreciate Denis. But Denis is under the orders of the German people,” [Kakau's agent] Casasola said. “I’m very disappointed in these people, I don’t believe these people. I want to move and never come again to Red Bull, never come again. Only if they change the way they deal with people, they don’t want to dialogue. They only want to give orders.” The Athletic is behind a paywall, but I'm including the link because they are doing great reporting and need the support. So sign up! https://theathletic.com/786209/2019...lls-club-america-transfer/?source=weeklyemail
Not sure what you mean. One typical way of doing this is having domestic player quotas. USSF does that with MLS.
Of course it is!!!! We have limits on the number of non-USian players on each team. (Green card holders count as USians because federal law says so.) Homegrown players are exempt from the draft and expansion draft, and their salaries don't count against the cap. Those are overt polices that lead to favoritism of US players, especially homegrown players. EVERY LEAGUE IN THE WORLD DOES THIS! Several of you have trotted out bogus "the league is about making money" Libertarian nonsense. MLS is about promoting US soccer players, and they do. And every other league in the world does the same. Wow. Sure, there are limits to what our league can and can't do. In another country a few years back they declared that only citizens could play in their soccer leagues and kicked out dozens of "foreign" players. I'm not on board with discriminating against people based on their nation of origin (or anything else). But socer is a world wide sport. Players who are good enough will find places to play. Thus, they are not really discriminated against. (And there are hoops for US players to jump through if they want to play in Europe.) Sorry, but this is a ridiculous discussion. Go Quakes!! - Mark
Of course the English FA will just re-adjust the rules to enable EPL teams to be competitive (while still retaining some sort of English player quota). It's not like they'll sit idly by and let EPL disintigrate. That would be stupid.
Yeah - USSF does have a mission of using MLS to help achieve its goal of world domination by 2010 (remember “plan 2010?) Of course, USSF has fumbled the ball disastrously, and apparently ruined the USMNT for a generation. Hopefully, we will be able to begin rebuilding from the ashes starting this weekend.
First of all, having a green card does not make you an American. You are a resident allowed to work in the USA. Because you are a resident, in MLS rules you are no longer considered an international player, which I guess means you count as a domestic player. But a non-American getting playing time as a domestic does not do as much to develop American players as when Americans get playing time. So in that sense, USSoccer does not do as much for American players as other countries. Other than CHina, I don’t know how other countries handle residents vs citizens. China requires that only 4-5 foreign players can be on the pitch at one time. That forces Chinese players to get playing time. Will it work? Guess we’ll find out in 2022.
I also think its important to develop domestic, American born players. Unlike earlier years of MLS though, I don't think the league cares as much about developing American players as they use to. I mean they may say they do but I saw many games last year with only 3 American on the field.
US Soccer has ZERO control over that, Einstein... It's not "in MLS rules", that is US LAW What's the saying? "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt"?
There is a law that says that all people must play on a field regardless of race color creed or citizenship? So you can’t like, require more slow white guys who can’t jump, to play on an NBA court? I wasn’t aware of that interpretation.
Wow. No, the law is that US law says that US employers have to treat green card holders the same as they do natural born citizens. So the domestic player rules used HAVE to apply to both US citizens and green card holder equally. It has nothing to do with USSF or MLS. At least USSF would prefer the rule apply to US citizens only. MLS probably doesn't.
What happened to the cool vibes in here? Usually when we disagree we do so respectfully, I don’t get it.
Not surprised at such a response, like political pundits who are more upset by a member of Congress saying "impeach that mother****er" than they are about kids being separated from their parents and kept in cages.... Excellent job with the "tone policing" ... you have managed to identify what is clearly the most important thing to discuss here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_policing https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/12/tone-policing-and-privilege/ I might have a strong reaction to Lou Dobbs / Laura Ingraham style nativist garbage... especially when it is presented as fact despite being total bulls*** ( don't wanna upset any boomer snowflakes, but some might label such statements "lies" ), completely at odds with reality, where US Soccer and MLS have no control over federal law, and the Quakes roster isn't anywhere close to being down to "1 token American" and a bunch of dirty foreigners. Example 1: the hilariously dumb comments on this page Example 2: the Almeyda Q&A
OK, let's try to be nice to each other. There was a report about the political content recently, which is supposed to be off limits, but it ties in to this thread, so I'm not removing anything -- just try to be nice instead of mocking when you discuss things.
Sure Vako is a DP. We're paying him at that level, and he does pretty well for us. The thing is, he's not good enough to carry our team and we need for him to be. We can't blame Vako for not being good enough. He does what he does and he's a decent player. Ten goals and five assists is quality production, and late in the season he really started trying to involve others in his play. It just didn't work very well because the supporting cast were crap. What we need is someone who can dominate a game, like Bradley, Beckerman, or Feilhaber at their best when they were young. But that's not really Vako's role. We play him out wide and he can't dominate the game from there. Go Quakes!! We're not good enough! - Mark