The Official "When Can This Yank Play in Europe" Thread

Because of the new discussion over the eligibility of Richie Ledezma and Alex Mendez when they (possibly) move to Europe in the coming months, I wanted to create a thread that will hopefully shine some light on how these transfers work. This will assume that the reader is already quite familiar with previous situations like these, and for such reasons, will get heavy quite fast.

I want to preface this with the knowledge that Nick Taitague and Haji Wright had the ability to play immediately once they turned 18, even though we know that Nick was on an 'amateur' contract, meaning, unless I'm off the mark, he was not paid. It also takes into account that Josh Sargent was not able to play the second he turned 18, and had to wait for an official registration period.

For reference, Haji's official press release with the Cosmos can be found here:
http://www.nycosmos.com/news/2015/03/30/cosmos-sign-striker-haji-wright

And an article about Nick's signing with the Carolina RailHawks can be found here:
https://www.wralsportsfan.com/railhawks-provide-next-step-for-taitague-s-promising-future/15684803/

To start off, I will provide quotes from FIFA's regulations on transfers. There's going to be a lot of stuff here, and we know that our federation does not abide by all of these laws (training compensation and solidarity payment). However, for clubs in Europe, these are pretty much set in stone.

On the status of amateur and professional players:

On player registration outside of a transfer window:

We are now familiar with the difference in language of professional and amateur, as well as how FIFA uses professional to aid in their definition of who sign outside of a window.

However,

So far, I come to the conclusion that one of two things has to be true, given the the fact that Haji and Nick could play immediately, while Josh could not:

1. Taitague and Wright were considered professionals before they moved over, even though at least Taitague did not receive payment for his play, which contradicts the first quote. This allowed him to be registered outside of a window. However, Sargent, an amateur, could not be registered outside of a transfer window, and because the U19 Bundesliga is not a league in which only amateurs participate, Sargent was unable to play in said league.

2. Taitague and Wright were considered amateurs before they moved over, which contradicts the second quote. The only way that FIFA's laws can still all agree that Taitague and Wright could play in the U19 Bundesliga right away, as they did, is if the U19 Bundesliga somehow falls under the third provision, which although not technically true, would provide the U19 Bundesliga to provide registration periods of its own, thus allowing Taitague and Wright to play. However, because Sargent was ineligible to play right away, this means that Taitague and Wright had some other differentiation from Sargent, even though both were becoming professionals after having not been professionals before. This means that the U19 Bundesliga has some provision that allows formerly officially amateur players to become pros midseason.

The second explanation is so hard to even put into words that I'll by-and-large disregard it from this point on, and operate under the pretense that my first assumption is correct.

Now, onto USSF rules.

The USSF uses similar language to distinguish pros and amateurs.

However, their definition of a professional is different. A player can be a professional without receiving payment, as long as they sign a "professional form" of the USSF.

And their definition of an amateur is just the opposite of a professional.

There's a lot more stuff that parrots FIFA docs, but I just wanted to make that one distinction clear while showing that the rules are pretty much the same.

Now, for USL rules.

So the USL clearly separates academy players from professionals, meaning that under the USSF, they are considered amateurs.

This may be an issue for Richie and Nick, given my prior assumption that Haji and Nick were recognized as professionals in Germany. This 'professional' tag had to come from the USSF, and the USSF states that one can be considered a professional player as long as they sign the right form. Although this does not align with FIFA's definition of professional, it makes sense in the given context.

My hypothesis is that the NASL got Nick and Haji to sign professional forms without paying them. However, the NASL has no real documentation for me to read, which means I can't prove it. Unfortunately, because the USL is so explicit that an academy player is not a professional, I don't believe Richie and Alex will be able to play on their 18th birthdays.

If you actually read this, I applaud you. The whole point of this was to organize my own thoughts and have a place where everyone can do the same. Of course, it's probably a lot healthier to just wait a month and a half and see if Richie and Alex play right away, but that's not what I'm here for.

Lastly, Because I do not speak German or Dutch, I have decided not to read their respective leagues' legal documents. However, I hope that this has proved helpful.

More fun nuggets that I found reading these guidelines:

From FIFA:

It's kind of interesting that a player can terminate his contract if he doesn't play in 10% of matches. I guess it could be useful.

Also from FIFA:

In combination with the USSF clause:

Not sure how MLS's 3+2 contracts for homegrowns are allowed for those under 18. Obviously the US doesn't follow all of FIFA's rules, but I wasn't aware they'd have a rule against something this specific. This likely explains why homegrowns started to get 3+2 contracts instead of standard 5 year ones.

From the USSF:

This doesn't even make sense. There's nothing about being an amateur in any regulations of Olympic Soccer.

This language not only makes it sound like the USSF can force it's teams to release players for senior national team events, but it's left purposely ambiguous enough that it seems like it works for any international tournament ran by FIFA, including qualification.

Wait, what!? This means that every American who was registered with the USSF and then moved to Europe has a stipulation in their contract that they have to be released or the Olympics. I wouldn't normally take this seriously, except for the fact that the last sentence makes it sound like they really mean it.