I forget how I got on to this mailing list, or if these people are legit, but if any of you are interested, LawI n Sport is offering a 6-week class on football law. https://www.lawinsport.com/courses-sports-law-business/football-law-in-practice Learn How Football Law Works Improve your understanding of how governance, regulation and the law impacts football in practice. Without having to give a huge time commitment. Football Law In Practice is a 6 week online course from the 19 September to the 27 October 2022, where leading football lawyers explain and provide practical insights into the important governance, legal and regulatory issues in football.
Is this anyway related to the Laws of the Game? Does it tackle corrupt soccer organizations such as FIFA?
OTOH you could view MLS as the ultimate capitalist league, in that it's a private enterprise with aggressive goals to capture the market, and the government isn't trying to reign it in via antitrust. But I know what you mean - all the byzantine MLS rules. It's madness, but it's been working very well. The league is growing rapidly and appears to have a solid foothold.
Here's some football law! Wagatha Christie trial ends in England. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-61719250
One advantage of soccer not being so high profile here. Can you imagine say Wondo's wife suing say Michael Bradley's wife for defamation?
As a business it is coming along nicely. Whether that is best for soccer in the US with its closed system is an entirely different question.
We are developing a lot of players in the MLS academies. If we took the training wheels off completely in terms of intls, cap, etc., not sure it would have a positive impact on the development of US soccer. IOW it's going good, it's not broke, don't try to fix it with big changes. But always be looking to make it better incrementally.
Haha. I aspired to be Leigh Steinberg (played by Tom Cruise in the later released movie) while in law school. Had some undergrad pointy-ballers in the civil rights / civil liberties class in which I was teaching assistant. Sadly, unlike Steve Bartkowski in Berkeley, none signed up with me. “Show me the money!”
30 years ago at HP, I worked with a fellow engineer whose sister was married to Leigh Steinberg. I didn’t know enough about pro sports to ask lots of questions back then… Also Don, it’s not too late! Take this class and live your dream!