Altidore’s move has caused some controversy
Photo: Tino Arana
By Steven Agen
Consider the US Men’s National Team for a moment. Think specifically about the attacking talent in that group. Now, pick the two most influential players in that segment of the squad.
Did you pick Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore? So did I.
For a number of years now, the goalscoring hopes of the United States have rested on the shoulders of these two. Dempsey led the American attack in Brazil, and Altidore was literally the only player Klinsmann didn’t have a replacement for. Both Altidore and Dempsey are superstars, watershed signings for the league. The parallels become more sinister when one considers that, arguably, both should be Portland Timbers right now.
Those in the Rose City are feeling a touch shafted by the MLS Manhattan brain trust, and rightfully so. Now almost a year and a half since Clint Dempsey returned to MLS – bypassing the Timbers for archrivals Seattle – Jozy Altidore will be withheld from them due to a new interpretation of unwritten league rules.
When Dempsey made his move from Spurs, MLS announced that Designated Players above a certain threshold (of salary, importance to league, etc.) would not be subject to the allocation order. This resulted in the signings of Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, and Jermaine Jones. Jones’ transfer to New England was of particular note, as a suspect tie breaker was used to allocate him to the Northeast instead of Chicago.
It appears the negative press garnered by the fallout of the Jones move has now caused the league to rethink its allocation policy yet again. As Altidore sizes up a move home, MLS sources say that they’ll use the allocation order to determine Altidore’s destination. With his salary estimated to be at least $4million, can anyone really question if he meets the necessary threshold to be a marquee DP?
The real question here: what is MLS playing at? Do they realize that their growing pains in allocating stars create winners and losers in real competition?
To be clear, there’s no organized campaign against the Timbers. No one in New York looks at Portland as a second-rate market, or judges the stadium capacity. Anyone who follows American soccer and has a pulse knows that Portland are vitally important to the future of the league- with years of consecutive sellouts, an ambitious owner, and one of the best atmospheres in the world, the Rose City club are a model franchise. Don Garber knows this as well as anyone else does. What we have here is an unintended consequence of opaque MLS rules.
At the end of the day, archaic rules from MLS 1.0 haven’t been eradicated yet, the league is still afraid of giving clubs more control, and players want to play for the club they choose. On the whole, it’s these factors that have doomed the Timbers to remain without a US star. To elaborate:
MLS was (and, in situations like these, still is) a league with extremely tight regulations and odd rules designed to not see it go the way of NASL (belly up, that is). While the ideology has changed, the league is just now becoming big enough for these monumental signings to arrive and make the issue relevant. Nobody was worried about where national team stars were going to play in America in 2005- it just wasn’t an option. As the league has grown, those in charge have become more open. Without committing all the way to opening the league up, however, they leave inconsistencies like this one. From this perspective, we see that the Altidore problem arises because league rules haven’t grown as quickly as its ideology and level of play have. The mindset of those in Manhattan isn’t entirely aligned with those of the more progressive soccer figures in the country, either. In the ideal world of a 1998 MLS executive, players are going to play wherever the main office says they are. Some of this philosophy, and a desire for control, still persist in MLS.
Obviously, the MLS of today wants its stars to be happy, and play where they want. This half of the MLS mindset has grown to be more progressive than before, but it’s battling the other half of the mindset and the archaic rules it spawned.
This twisted web reveals indecision, and indecision is a vice.
From the league’s perspective, they’re just trying to overcome growing pains. They’d like to grow slowly, at their own pace. They’d like to relinquish control over time, and keep the drastic changes to a minimum. This rule rethink is an attempt to grow- it just isn’t moving in the right direction, and hasn’t been instituted without causing damage.
Timbers fans really don’t care about growing pains, and the existential migraine of progress and transparency taking place in New York. That was a pretty detailed breakdown of where the league’s coming from, but it doesn’t ease having stars stolen from you. Let it be heard, loud and clear – Portland is the greatest victim of MLS allocation experimentation. These aren’t intuitive competition decisions – these are arbitrary, philosophical decisions made by folks who seem to go through philosophies with considerable haste. There’s no excuse for favoring TFC twice, based on what philosophy you decided on in the shower that morning.
Recognition of the injustice does little to make anyone feel better. In addition, MLS can only change the rules so many times. At a certain point, they’ll need to create a lasting system that fixes the issues of the allocation order. At a certain point, MLS must stop asking for mulligans when it comes to rules it creates. What might this system new look like?
First off, define the threshold for being a “special” DP as having salary of at least $3million, and being approved as such by a majority of the league owners. Publish the results of these votes (all of them!) on the league website as they occur.
Next, rid the league of the allocation order. Create a luxury tax that must be paid when an allocation order-eligible player signs with a club. This fee is evenly split between the other clubs in the league. If a club has signed one of these luxury players, their fee doubles if they wish to sign another that season. This keeps smaller clubs in the running for big names and retains parity, as big clubs will have a large cost associated with gobbling up all the marquee players.
Lastly, post ALL of the league’s competition rules on the league website, and update them as they change.
These adjustments will create clarity and justice for MLS clubs. Scenarios like the Timbers debacle shouldn’t be occurring in a league that’s now 20 years old. With a new CBA coming soon, now is the time to pressure MLS into the reforms it needs. Just ask the Rose City.
The Cascadian who played in the EPL
