Re: Interesting. I doubt that will happen. I think the right of first refusal idea will be the one that works, or something to that effect. This is more about encouraging clubs to develop the talent in their area.
Yay! Now instead of signing Eric Quill, Felix Brillant, and Tim Sahadyak for weekend contracts to play in the reserve games, DC can call up kids from its U-17 team!
http://metrostars.mlsnet.com/MLS/met/player_development/academy/ Thats the pro-mo for the MetroStars Youth Academy. I would argue it is not a true acadeny system. It has many attributes of an academy but its not as intense. These systems should mimic development programs like Bradenton, Ajax, ect. where player development and talent scouting are a major investment in the team. These kids should be in the academy more at a yountger age and gradually sifted out up into the U-18's. Those graduating 17-18 year olds can be offered a contract by the parent club first. Scenarios to consider: An academy player isn't offered a pro contract after graduation. (free agent scenario) (a) the player can sign with another club (b) retain NCAA eligiblity and enter college An academy player is offered a contract but refuses to accept. (a) the player can sign elsewhere but the signing club owes the parent club a % (b) retains NCAA eligiblity We want to discourage academy players from getting the training and resources then trying to use it to leverage a better deal somewhere else. Thus some mechanism needs to be in place for the teams to be componsated. We also want players not offered a deal to not be limited in their options... if the club fails to tender a good faith offer in the req. time period then they relinquish all rights. Brainstorming here ^
Not necessarily. Within SEM (or in reality any league) the teams can mutually agree to respect the boundaries of one another's youth development systems. So the player may not be tied to MLS, but should he sign with MLS, MLS can then allocate him to the team who developed him. With all of the various protectionist laws in Europe and from FIFA, none of these kids can sign anywhere but MLS until they are 18, and even then susbtantial barriers exist to their doing so, making MLS the likely destination for almost all of the kids. Besides which, each year plenty of kids who played in the academies in the UK come here to play college soccer. Andy Dorman and Bryan Jackson are both products of UK Youth Academies and NCAA soccer. If UK academy players don't lose their eligibility, why should US players?
I would be against this. I'd want the MLS team to retain the intra-league rights until that player turns pro. Why? For the simple reason that it would increase the potential payoffs for doing youth development in the 1st place. The vast majority of professional players are still going to want to play at least a year or two of college soccer, so if we limit the rights pool to only those that come straight out of high school, we limit the benefits teams could reap from youth development considerably. We really don't want to do that. We want MLS teams to really wrap their arms around this (so that they do more scouting, more coaching, more training, etc.), and the way to do that is to incentivize the crap out of it. Give them more control of transfer fees received from former academy players, allow them to retain their MLS-specific rights through college, etc. Also, if the teams do retain the players through college, each MLS team could set up a PDL team (many already have) wherein their academy players would play during the summer inbetween their college seasons. We don't have to do this exactly like Europe. We can accomodate the NCAA and to a certain extent club soccer as well, but this really is an absolutely crucial move that was long overdue.
The above works for me. I would just add that if the player wants to go to college, I would let the team that offered the contract to continue to hold that right when the player decides to turn pro. It just seems to me that so many players are going to go to college, that removing all players who do so from the system would greatly reduce the attractiveness of youth development to the individual teams. Let the kids go to college, but when they come out, provided the MLS team offered them a contract before, I think the team whose academy he played for should still hold that players' rights within MLS.
So you're suggesting that MLS needs to protect MLS from itself? I don't think that's what Garber was talking about. As for European academy kids and the NCAA, the NCAA has a longstanding habit of looking the other way when it comes to foreign schoolboy players. But I'm willing to bet that as soon as a professional "academy" structure turns up here, it will be quite a different story (primarily because they'd be afraid it would spill over to a big time revenue sport like basketball).
I'm not sure I like it, either--it was just a brainstorming idea. One thing I'm concerned about is that having a player's rights tied too closely to a professional club could jeopardize his NCAA eligibility. But I think some kind of right of first refusal system, where the clubs could claim the best of the players they developed, but not have unrestricted rights to the whole lot of them, probably would be OK with the NCAA.
Two words, folks. Amateur contract. That leaves it up to the parents of the kid to sign a reasonable deal (play for the club up to date X) and the club can try to re-sign if they want to keep him. Let's not fret too much on this - there are many ways to skin this particular cat, and I'm sure that as much as it appears Garber has the right blueprint, they will come up with something that works both short term and long term. (I guess what I'm saying is let's throw around ideas, but remember that WE don't have to come up with the ultimate solution.)
Well, whatever happens in L.A., I sure hope it isn't one team takes all of the players that have hispanic surnames, and the other gets all of the rest Now, interesting things could happen in places like Columbus where the Crew would conceivably compete with an academy such as the one Brad Friedel is establishing in Ohio.
Or they could find some way to cooperate with one another. Even if there is some competition from private academies outside the MLS ones, or even from Bradenton, this can't be seen as anything but a positive development for MLS teams and player development in the US.
Right, I think SEM comes into play again. When a player signs with MLS, MLS can send him wherever they want within the league. It wouldn't seem to me it was any of the NCAA's business where MLS was planning on sending him should the player eventually sign with MLS. As for the potential problem of LA and NY dominating because of their youth developmet systems: a) Roster limits should be able to moderate that somewhat. b) Do we really want to start complaining that the system may develop too many good players? How exactly can that ultimately be construed as anything other than good?
Sure, but it's a natural incentive to develop talent, too. It's good for business, and it's good for the quality of play, which are both good for each other. We all win!
Can the league also lend him to a lower league? I thought it might be possible as it's generally part of the contracts in Europe. I can also see the value of preventing that, given the young age (and our American definition of young being much older than elsewhere) and likely low salary, the player would benefit from some geographic stability.
Is it an academy or a glorified soccer camp competing with all the others in the area for upper middle class bucks? Read the info about it on United's site and you'll see a John Harkes promo. Let's compare and contrast. I know we have to start somewhere, but really...as Fox News says, you be the judge... DC United... All D.C. United Summer Academy Programs include the following: <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td id="content" width="630"> Top-class professional instruction from D.C. United youth coaches Guest instruction/autograph sessions with D.C. United players and coaches Official D.C. United Academy Ball Official D.C. United Academy T-shirt FREE ticket voucher to a 2005 D.C. United regular season home match featuring an Academy Graduation (stand-alone only) Membership in D.C. United's Youth Fan Club (Open to campers 16 and under) <li> Discount offers on D.C. United ticket packages SUMMER ENROLLMENT IS LIMITED! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TODAY What is academy-like about something open to whoever has the money to pay for signing up? Scroll down to the map and you'll see the academy is a bunch of regional summer soccer camps. At least Freddy will be the attraction at the one at the SoccerPlex. </td></tr></tbody> </table> Blackburn Rovers: Blackburn Rovers' academy is regarded as one of the best in the country, along with the likes of West Ham's, Nottingham Forest's and Crewe Alexandra's. Rovers have been producing exciting young talented players for many years in the club's history, but with the facilities at Brockhall upgraded by Jack Walker's investment in the 1990s, Rovers have the state of the art facilities to match the best academies worldwide The Blackburn academy is situated about half a mile away from the senior team's Brockhall training complex, but the senior team do still use the excellent facilities; the twenty acre academy features five full sized pitches, a half sized indoor pitch, seven changing rooms, swimming pools, treatment rooms, a gymnasium, a players lounge plus much more. The Blackburn Under 18s play their home fixtures at the academy complex, and showed just how successful the youth set-up is in Blackburn by winning the inaugural FA Academy Premier League in 2004/05. Rovers have only won the FA Youth Cup once (1959), but have recently reached the final of the competition twice (a 5-3 aggregate defeat to Everton in 1998, and a 6-3 aggregate defeat to Arsenal in 2001).
And more to the point, as long as it is a hard cap, the playing field is relatively level. And yeah - we're worried about TOO much talent? I'd love for MLS to have that problem.
Dallas will have a youth system from 18 on down. They basically made an agreement with the third best youth club in town and rebranded them FC Texas. They will use the FC Dallas facilities in Frisco and have access to players, coaches, etc. Not sure how it will shake out. Chicago does something similar.
to expand on my first toughts..lets run a hypothetical with Player X. Lets say the New York Cosmos set up an academy system. They decide to follow a more traditional academy structure as far as their training, development and intensity. They have a U-14, U-16, U-18s. They way the system is set up is such that the U-14 level contains about 3-4 times the players the U-16s do and so on. So player X is 13 and discovered through various scouting and youth development efforts by the Cosmos and is offered an acadeny spot. The U-14s have 72 kids in its program. The U-14s are a non residency part of the academy. So Player X impresses over the course of a year or 2 at this level and is tipped by the coaches as a player that can compete at the next level the U-16s. The U-16s have only 36 kids in the program and are part of a transisitional residency program where they spend the entire summer at the academy and part time during school months like the U-14's. Player X dazzles the coaches and and is one of only a few kids offered a spot in the highest level of the program the U-18 team. Player X is now part of the full time residency, he will finish his high school here and will train like a full professional as well as train with the reserves and first team of the Cosmos on some days. The U-18 team is a 23 man squad. Player X finds the compotition at this level to be intense, every player on the team is fighting for a first team pro deal upon graduation and only 2-4 will be signed on average. Player X is a very good player and graduates. 1. The Cosmo FO and coaches evaluate Player X and decide they want to promote him to the senoir club. They offer him a 2 year pro contract worth about 35K. Player X signs. 2. The Cosmo FO and coaches evaluate Player X and decide to offer him a pro contract worth 35K. Player X is insulted since he did earn a youth national team cap and feels the club is trying to low ball him. Player X refuses to sign. The team informs Player X and his agent that any club that signs Player X will owe the Cosmos a fee. Or the team can simply waive its rights and allow Player X to be a true free agent. Or Player X can go to college and the club can hold its rights upon leaving college for 1 year only. 3. The Club FO and coaches just doesn't think Player X will cut it as a pro and tell him he hasn't been offered a deal. Player X is upset at first but then finds out that NCAA schools are highly interested in players with the development and training he has had and is offered a scholarship to play. I see a few different scenarios playing out but if this is done correctly the players that don't make it pro right away are still very attractive to NCAA schools for recruitment. Also I bolded the word OFFERED because thats wha it should be not something parents can buy their kids into.
Sounds like layer Development School to me not an Academy. The MetroStars have one. http://metrostars.mlsnet.com/MLS/met/player_development/pds/ Bit we also have a budget Youth Academy too. In fact for as bad as Metro has been on the senior side they have done a really good job with their academy considering the $$$ they have to work with. http://metrostars.mlsnet.com/MLS/met/player_development/academy/history/ http://metrostars.mlsnet.com/MLS/met/player_development/academy/coaching_staff/ http://metrostars.mlsnet.com/MLS/met/player_development/academy/rosters/ If they can reatian the rights to a lot of those guys and have incentive to expand the academy to be a true top academy then we are really on to something.
I think that sounds good to me. You see ultimately the goal is to make trying out for an MLS academy as attractive as possible for the best youth talents, and at the same time make going out and finding the best talent equally as attractive for teams. The answer to which teams are currently running academies (in the sense we're talking about) is that none of them are. Similarly, none of the big youth soccer clubs work as youth academies either. They have a vastly different set of priorities than a pro club does when it comes to young players. A real youth academy is one in which the goal is to develop players to benefit the senior team to the best of the club's ability to do so.
I'm not sure that the kind of academy you're talking about is affordable at this point. I think what is more likely is the continuation of the systems in DC, Metro and Chicago or along the lines of what Dallas is setting up with FC Texas (buying one of the current youth clubs that have u-XX teams). Again, I think the parents can do the same thing that they do with current youth clubs - sign amatuer contracts for a period of time. If the K runs out, the club loses the option to keep him. (I think that might work....)
I think the was Dallas plans on running theirs is specifically to just that - develop players, not win trophies. (Of course, giving the kids and parents benefits like tickets will also be a part of it.)
The concern isn't so much about the talent developed by the system as the talent claimed by the system. The Galaxy could start an "academy" that's no better than an ordinary SoCal club and still routinely walk away with the rights to players like Landon Donovan, Chad Marshall, and Marvell Wynne. By losing out on players like these, the smaller-market teams would become even weaker than they are now. And at least in the near term, their own local youth systems would be awfully hard-pressed to make up the difference. So, the concern is that this policy could cause small-market teams to suck ... and when US soccer teams suck, they usually start folding soon afterward. Obviously, we'll have to wait and see what policies actually emerge, and to what extent this news is just an accommodation for Chivas and their academy system. But the risks involved are real, and shouldn't be mis-represented as "too much talent."
Since when? The Revs sucked for 6 years straight and weren't close to folding. The Fusion probably had the 2nd best season in MLS history, and then folded anyway.