So, someone please wrap their head around this one. Metro has a kid by the name of Dilly Duka in their academy...he's been there for over a year. He wants to play in MLS, and he is currently a U-20 for the USA. So naturally, NY tries to sign him...until this happens: http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2009/07/midday-musings-gold-cup-thoughts-the-deal-with-duka-and-more.html#more I mean, really? Why do we even have academies if MLS is going to pull this sort of shit? Teams can't even sign their prospects GA deals because MLS says so?
Preventing academies from raiding local colleges seems reasonable to me. What have the Red Bulls done to really develope him? It's too bad we don't have a more free flowing system, but MLS teams shouldn't be allowed to cherry pick local college rosters. That's an unfair georgraphical advantage to some.
But wait...there's more! Even the DON doesn't know if the rule is legit... http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/redbulls2.php?article_id=19091 What a joke.
Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't the Red Bulls be free to sign him to a non-GA contract? I believe they could according to the rules. If that's the case then if they want him so badly they can take the cap hit.
I call bull on that. Duka has been in Red Bulls academy for a while now. We helped develop him...what they're saying was that we didn't make enough "contacts" with him before he joined the academy. This is straight from Ives also. So what is the arbitrary number of contracts a club must make with a player before this is allowed? Here's a little background on this kid... -Grew up in NJ -Played high school footie in NJ -Went to college in NJ How is this cherry-picking?
A. Red Bulls want to sign a player under the academy rules that doesn't appear to qualify for the academy rules. MLS points this out and says no. B. When pressed Garber says he doesn't know the exact situation and wants to check the details before making a definitive statement. I fail to see the problem here. Do the current rules suck, yeah. But since those are the rules I'm glad MLS is applying them.
No. He must enter the draft because he does not qualify as an academy player. He cannot sign with the club.
Erm, Sounds like the kid was already in College before he started with the RB Academy? He really isn't a prospect coming out of an MLS teams academy, so it only seems fair to have him join the league via the official methods; drafts, allocation, whatever.
Except that "time" in an academy system is not related to amount of time played there. What the rule states is that teams must make a certain number of contacts (there's that word again) over a certain amount of time to qualify to sign their player. This is a fine print issue, and a rule which hadn't been made public before (again quoting ives here). Duka qualified in amount of time playing with the academy, but apparently not in amount of contacts. And my issue with all of this is why MLS would have that stipulation. What qualifies as a "contact"? And why would a player (a u-20 national team prospect no less) stick with MLS if he's not going to be playing for the club which developed him, and the club he wanted to sign with? He's going to Europe if this rule doesn't change...he's that good. We have the U-20 World Cup coming up in September and European scouts will be there. So what MLS gets is another Yank playing abroad instead of in our own league...all because of fine print.
But, wait, no...Jason...that flies in the face of "Garber is a doodyhead who doesn't know how to run his league as well as anonymous internet people!"
BS!! MLS is just trying to protect the Superdraft. So much for loosening their rules. Vancouver, here's a warning; MLS will be coming for the kids in your residency program soon based on some fine-print bs.
God forbid you actually read what I wrote. This "contact" rule wasn't made public until RB tried to sign the kid. So Red Bull was surprised at the ruling as well. In addition, Garber has publicly stated that the rule is questionable, and may be under review. But it's okay, your outplayed sarcasm will do.
I suppose the Red Bulls are getting wacked by this rule as an early adopter. However, while the rule isn't clearly defined in Ives' piece (including an editing error) it's unfortunate that MLS HQ didn't point this out to Red Bull before they were ready to sign him.
What's stopping Red Bull from signing him to Salzburg to protest it? This isn't the first time MLS' signing rules have pissed them off.
Call me crazy, but if a player is in college before he joins an MLS academy, it seems perfectly fair to make him go through the same channels as every other college prospect. If Duka had been a RBNY player before enrolling at Rutgers (i.e. if RBNY had helped develop him into a national-caliber player) this would be a different story. Maybe it's not perfect, but it's a helluva lot better than the alternative.
let me get this straight, do you think people are in a tizzy about this because (1) they doubt Garber's dedication to enforcing the MLS rulebook or (2) because they don't like the rule in question? Judging by your post, you seem to think it's option one. You admitted that the current rules suck, then you applaud Garber for applying them. I don't think anyone is doubting Garber's proclivity to handing out judgments based on the MLS rulebook... he just fined a guy for Twittering, FFS. Garber will be fine, trust me. And you missed the point. As usual, way too quick on the sarcasm trigger. And it's lame sarcasm too. FTR I'm actually going to agree with the BigSoccer intelligencia on this one. If he was already enrolled at a college/university, he should have to go through the appropriate channels to MLS (e.g. the draft). Rutgers has dibs on him. And MLS respects dibs, they're not barbarians.*** ***name the show?
As others have said, a player should have to be an active member of a team's academy prior to attending college, and in all honesty, it should be someone who's been part of the academy prior to his senior year of high school. How much development can you really claim for someone who's only been with the club for a year? How would you as a Metro fan, feel if United simply cherry-picked the cream of the crop from incoming freshman at every school south of the Mason-Dixon line? Hell, United already get's all the best kids from Jersey and Pennsylvania as it is
I mentioned this in another thread (but couldn't remember who had reported it), and thanks to the OP for posting this with the link. Anyway, I agree with most of what's been said and I don't have any real problem with a rule that essentially says once a player enrolls in college they ought to go through the draft. That makes sense to me. What concerned me more the other day was the note on the lack of funding for Generation adidas players, which provides the money needed to pay these young developmental players more than $20,000 a year. That's the story here IMO. Tight as the cap is, we all know that there are three important "circuit breakers" that allow teams to exceed it and add talented players -- allocation money, designated players and the Generation adidas players. If the money for the Generation adidas signings is drying up, that's not a good development. I'm not sure if MLS supplements the Generation adidas funding on an annual basis or not -- perhaps the funding issues are only temporary -- but it's critically important to have those dollars available to sign good young players IMO. Academies are expensive to run. They are well worth the investment if they produce players who not only perform well in MLS, but subsequently have value in the transfer market. If the dollars aren't there to sign and retain the talented players coming out of those academies, however, MLS will simply be producing some talented players for other leagues for nothing. I'm not sure that's the place to economize.
I was wondering who Ives would say the next kid would be that RBNY are "entitled" was going to be. Stupid rule? Yes, but we've come to expect that. The whole academy thing is a sham, but this seems like they are trying to grab a college guy too quick. Anyway, they're probably doing this guy a favor by keeping him from that sinking ship that is RBNY. It's not like JCO was going to play him if he is from the states.
Part of me is concerned about the lack of transparency in the Academy rules. The other part of me is glad to see RBNY take it in the shorts ... again. (Sorry, Fina, it's nothing personal)
Actually he was responding to me, and I was responding to the posted quote by Garber which said he didn't want to comment on if RBNY could still sign Duba until after he reviewed the situation. I had not, at that point, read the linked article that does have quotes from Garber questioning if the rule made sense. However, the quote that was provided in the post showed a Commissioner that was doing his job the right way, and a poster who apepared to be complaining about that. So kenn was hardly off base with his response.
I think the explanation is simpler. RB's front office doesn't understand the rules. And is too lazy or incompetent to ask the league. Then they get upset when they can't do whatever they want.