So with the rosters now being shrunk to 24 and the addition of 2 senior spots I was wondering what the new count is for MLS rosters in terms of Senior, Developmental and International slots. In addition, I was interested in how these rules are applied to Toronto FC. Anyone with the knowledge who can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.
LINK I. MLS ROSTER COMPOSITION A Major League Soccer team's full roster is comprised of the Senior Roster and the Developmental Roster. The full roster shall exceed no more than 24 total players: 18-20 players on the Senior Roster and no more than four (4) players on the Developmental Roster. All 24 players are eligible for selection as part of the game-day squad during the regular season and playoffs. (A) SENIOR ROSTER Other than at specified times during preseason or through injury situations (e.g., a player added as either a disabled list replacement or a season-ending injury replacement), an MLS team shall have no more than 20 Senior Roster players at any time. The Senior Roster is comprised of the following players, who all count against a team's salary budget: INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS Each team is allotted eight (8) International slots, with the exception of Toronto FC who is allotted 13 International slots, five (5) of which may be used on domestic U.S. players. All International player slots are tradable, therefore a team may have more than or less than eight (8) International players on its roster. DOMESTIC PLAYERS* A domestic player is either a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident (green card holder) or the holder of other special status (e.g., refugee or asylum status). * For Toronto FC, players with the legal right to work in Canada are considered domestic players (i.e., Canadian citizen, permanent resident, part of a protected class). (B) DEVELOPMENTAL ROSTER MLS teams shall not have more than four (4) Developmental players on their Developmental Roster at any time (unless a player is added as a disabled list replacement or season-ending injury replacement). Developmental players can be either Domestic or International and must be 25 years of age or younger during the calendar year of competition. These players do not count against a team's salary budget. They are signed to non-guaranteed contracts, and thus can be waived at any time. Teams are permitted an unlimited number of Developmental player signings during a given season to ensure all four Developmental Roster spots are occupied at any one time. Generation adidas players and Domestic and International underclassmen form part of a team's Developmental Roster. They are acquired by MLS teams through the SuperDraft, Lottery, Discovery or waiver system (see below) if they join the League after the SuperDraft. For 2009, if a team has more than four (4) Generation adidas players on its Developmental Roster, then the additional Generation adidas players would be grandfathered and count against a team's 20-player Senior Roster (with no budget charge).
Keep in mind Trader Mo' has gotten a couple of extra International slots. IIRC they have 15 Internationals on their roster.
So basically TFC has 13 international spots, and 5 may be used on US players, or could be used on any other international players?
This seems as good a place as any to ask this (and I suspect I missed quite a bit of discussion about the roster rules when TFC entered the league), but can someone explain the rationale behind having different rules for TFC? Why not just count American and Canadian players as non-internationals and have the same set of rules for every team in the league?
I think American law forbids it. For the purpose of employment you're either American or not American. It would be illegal to consider Canadians different from other non-Americans.
It has nothing to do with American law. The league sets the rules for 'domestic' and 'international' player limits, and if they wanted to include Canadians under 'domestic' they would be able to do so.
No, they couldn't. That would violate US labor laws by giving preference to Canadian internationals. Why give them preference instead of, say, Mexicans (who are here in far greater numbers working)? US labor law applies to every business, including sports. Therefor, MLS domestic laws are written the way they are.
to be honest, i'm not 100%. i thought all their international slots could be used on americans, but no more then 8 on non-americans (unless they trade for them), but that's not how it reads. maybe that is indeed how it stands, and the wording is intended to be interpreted as the 5 extra can only be used on americans, as opposed to the other 8 that can be used on any international. as metro said, it very much does have to do with US labor laws, and probably international relations and/or trade agreements on top of it. probably get a rise out of anti-discrimination groups while you were at it as well, but in the end, the first line you would cross would be US labor law as you can't discriminate based on an individuals country of origin. making an allowance for one group of a particular foreign origin, discriminates against all others. i'm sure there are other bits of legislation that cover it other then anti-discrimination, but it might be easier to visualise how it would fall foul of that if your switched the group given preference from just canadians, to every country except those in africa.
So what happens if FIFA implements the 6 +5 rule? The ruling applies to national leagues. Is it possible that TFC, playing in MLS, a U.S. League would have it's Canadian players counted as "foriegn" by Fifa, but Domestic by MLS....?
******** Canada..This is why all MLS Teams should have been only in the US and let ********ing canada pay for its own ********ing league
I think that Ivan Gazidis mentioned this in an interview or chat or whatever a year or two ago when somebody asked why MLS couldn't just treat both Americans and Canadians as domestic players for all teams.