I heard that European soccer will soon be re-formed and is applying the salary cap in that case, there will be three obvious advantages for MLS : 1) US players don't need to go to Europe anymore since the money won't be as good as is it today So, the US fans will be able to watch the home based stars week in and week out. 2) There will be plenty of European stars who are eager to come to MLS since the money won't be an issue anymore. 3) The quality of MLS will be vastly improved. Anyone agree ?
got a link? i know there's been some talk of that in england, but it's largely a response to chelsea's attempt to buy everyone on the transfer market, from what i can tell-- and i didn't think they were near any decision. as for europe as a whole, does uefa have any sort of authority as far as that is concerned? and even if there were a salary cap, the financial rewards for playing in europe would still be considerable (salaries would remain high; i sincerely doubt sponsorships would be affected)... and for the foreseable future, the top leagues in europe are the standard against which top players measure themselves. so i guess whether or not a salary cap is in any way likely to happen, it wouldn't much matter... at least in the near future.
Salary cap in Europe? Not for another 50 years. Why? The players will fight it like NHL players fought it. Expect a season or two without football. And unlike the NHL, there are other markets that these players can play and wait it out. Expect lock-out, strike or whatever you call it. That's why it is doubtful that there will be a salary cap. Also, MLS will not benefit. MLS salary cap is $2 mil. The top 3 Euro leagues cap will be around $40 mil.
There is TALK of reform. That's about it. Chance that it will happen: 1% There is also TALK of the G-18 forming an European superleague. Chance that it will happen: 0.5%
I wouldnt be so quick to dismiss that report, and keep in mind salary caps were only a small part of the overall investigation by EU sports ministers. They will pass their report and recomendations on and perhaps we will see a closer relationship between UEFA/FIFA and the EU. I will repeat. Salary caps are being discussed but so are a wealth of other options, its is nothing more than an investigation on how to better control the problems facing football in europe. This is still a long way off.
I doubt it. The main resistance will come from the big clubs. They operate under different labor rules than we do here, so your direct anaoloy to US sports may be off.
The cap would be so high that it won't make a difference to MLS. MLS needs to look at college football as a model; it does not have the best football players but people still love it because of the regional identities, the idea that the best players move on to the top league, and the imbalance of programs that means a down year can be really costly so there is a lot at stake each season.
MLS with low budget operation but still can produce some good players and the nat team with mostly MLS players finished in the big eight four years ago, that's amazing. It should be a model for leagues around the world ! .. i am indeed amazed.
do euro leagues have players unions? if not I find it hard for them to be fighting anything. Like some said earlier in the thread the fight will come from the big super clubs against the EU, FIFA, UEFA who will all ban together. If a players strike does happen across Europe's top leagues expect top players to go to the Gulf region and Asia where money is being thrown around to get top level players.
Um, no. College football DOES have the best football players--in the 18-21 age group. There are zero child prodigies in the NFL because they would get killed--literally. So Division 1-A college ball is the pinnacle a high school grad can compete in, until he ages. And while people do love the regional identities, a third of the fans at a game are current students, and another third are alumni--they have a built-in reason to support that school and no other. And MLS absolutely does not want the imbalance that gives you a Michigan or Ohio State at one end and an Indiana at the other, because pro leagues love parity to maintain fan interest for teams during down years.
ignoring the obvious that it's not going to happen (an meeting of EU ministers is a euphamism for a weekend long booze-up at the tax-payers' expense) and a wage cap was actually declared unworkable by the same group, the players have EU employment law on their side. It was EU law which caused the Bosman ruling, and any artificial suppression of salaries would be illegal.
Techinacly salary caps are illegal here as well, but US labor law allows for unions and management to collectivly bargain into agreements that generally would be illegal if imposed unilaterally. Does European labor law have similar provisions such as this?
Fair points. I am just saying that the MLS should not count on getting the world's best anytime soon; and that it can succeed without them if makes connections in the communitities where it is. I do think parity is overrated, especially with an playoff structure. The MLS would benifit from a high spending or elite team that everyone wants to beat.
Why would players collectively bargain a salary cap? They did it in the NFL in return for free agency, but players in Europe already have that, amongst many other rights. I can see a cap on total spending of a club, but not on individual salaries, and the cap would be very high.