How a MLS Approach Would Impact The European Game Of Football
Part 1: Should We Americanize European Football here
I want to clarify that I am not suggesting that the European game should copy the American system. Some policies are unusable in Europe, such as the relocation of teams, the lack of promotion & relegation, the match schedules, and the old penalty rules.
As suggested in part 1, the MLS or Major League Soccer is a lot more competitive than the European game. This does not mean that the standard is higher, but instead, there are no teams can dominate year in and year out in the same way they do in Europe. The MLS has had six different winners in the last seven years, and this reality is very different from European Leagues or the Champions League. Part 1 explains this in greater detail. In this piece, I will take a look at some of the things the football/soccer organisers do to make the game different in the United States. First of all, some of the key terms that help explain why in the MLS is not so easy to predict and is ever-changing.
GAM (General Allocation Money): "This is money that is available to a club in addition to its salary budget. Each MLS club receives an annual allotment of GAM." (1)
TAM (Targeted Allocation Money): "TAM are funds strategically provided by the league to teams to add or retain players that will make an immediate impact on the field." (2)
Single Entity Business: In a nutshell, this means that the clubs belong to the MLS and therefore are not independent in the same way European teams are.
Promotion and Relegation: This is not a thing in the MLS. This is one method which protects franchises and investors from significant losses, but it also stops new teams from entering the league.
Expansion Teams: Criteria existing that new franchises need to meet to join the league. These include an established fan base and a stadium. The idea is that teams entering the league will not be easy prey for existing teams and will be financially stable.
The Playoffs: The top six teams from the Eastern Conference and the top six from the Western Conference play in an NFL style knockout playoffs. The last two teams remaining play in the MLS Cup Final. This is similar to the playoffs in the Championship in England, in a sense, it gives teams as low as 6th in league position a chance to win silverware. Like the alure of the European competition in European leagues, this keeps more teams fighting for something until the end of the regular season.
Salary Cap: Each team is only allowed to spend just over $4 million a year in wages. This protects the league and the clubs themselves. It also prevents some clubs from buying the division.
Home Grown Rule: Players that are considered homegrown do not add to the salary cap. This encourages franchises to have as many of these players as possible if they want to use the salary cap to their advantage.
International Player Limit: Each team in the MLS is allowed to have eight foreign players. This is a similar situation to the Spanish game where La Liga clubs can only have three Non-EU players in their squads. Up until 1995, European teams could only have three foreign players when playing in European Competition. (3) Sir Alex Ferguson famously once had to leave goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel out of a Manchester United squad for this very reason.
Designated Players: Each team can have up to three selected players. These players are not included in the salary cap. They are often older European and American players past their best like Wayne Rooney, Bastain Schweinsteiger, Clint Dempsey or Tim Howard, to name a few.
What Ideas Might Work In Europe And Why?
Home Grown Rule: This is a concept that could easily be internalised in the European game. In the MLS, academy players are not included in the MLS salary cap. When thinking about Europe it is important to keep financial fair play in mind. If European clubs could not include the wages of players that came through their academy in their financial reports, it would incentivise clubs to bring as many young players through as possible to the first team. This situation would benefit clubs that produce their own talent. It would allow clubs to stretch their money further and give youth players and other players higher wage packages. An unintended consequence of this would be that clubs might refuse to sell players from their academies and keep such players to fill up the squad. To avoid this, UEFA could look to making the youth player exclusion valid until a player's 23rd birthday. We want clubs to be incentivised to produce their talent but without the 23rd birthday rule some clubs with fantastic academies such as Barcelona, Ajax and Chelsea FC may gain an unfair advantage until other clubs can catch up with development. We want strong youth development to be rewarded not to make things unfair in a diffent way. Players should have to be at said club before they turn 16 to qualify. With UEFA's tightening rules on the transfer of youth players, this should stop clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid hoovering up all of the best young talents. UEFA could also follow La Liga's bluepring and restrict the number of players outside of the EU or more realistically the European game as a whole.
Play-Offs: We already have play-offs in Europe. In England, we have the play-offs between 3rd and 6th to get promotion to the Premier League. While in Germany we have the playoff game 17th place in the Bundesliga and 2nd in the Bundesliga 2. What other kinds of playoffs could we have in Europe? How about instead of 4th getting the Champions League spot automatically, leagues had a playoff between 4th-7th? Or perhaps if a team from outside the top four wins a domestic cup such the FA Cup, DKB Pokal or Copa del Rey they should play in the Champions League? And a runner up plays in the next seasons Europa League. This would bring back the idea of the much-missed Cup Winners Cup to a point, and it may give new teams a chance to play in the Champions League or Europa League. How different would the Premier league be for example if Crystal Palace played in the Europa League after losing the 2016 FA Cup Final? Or of newly relegated Wigan Athletic played in the Champions League due to beating Manchester City in 2013's final?
Targeted Allocated Money: European Leagues should distribute 20% of profits amongst the clubs in that year's competition. Clubs nearer the bottom should get a more significant percentage. See table 1 below as an example for the Premier League could do it with a £200 million fund. This figures mention would not break the bank but would help to make the league a little fairer.
Other Ideas:
The 30% Rule:
To stop the big clubs buying all the best talent, players should have the right to leave a club for free if they have not played in a certain percentage of competitive games. The two previous seasons could be used as a dataset. Games in which the player is injured or out on loan should not count. Players can't refuse to play to force a move. UEFA or their respective league should investigate clubs if it is thought that a player is only getting game to avoid losing them for free. Players over the age of 24 should have the option to terminate their contract if they do not play in at least 30% of competitive games over the previous two years.
TV Money:
For the 2017-2018 season, Barcelona and Real Madrid alone received 21.2% of the TV rights money for La Liga clubs. While the bottom three clubs only got 9.1%. On top of this, the entire second division only got 10.3%. (4) While the Premier League is much better, it could be improved. "The country’s top 20 teams split a pot of £2.42 billion this season, with the most prominent clubs earning just under £150m each while the bottom feeders settled for a measly £94m." (5) 20th place West Brom got £94,666,492 while 2nd place Manchester United and 1st place Manchester City got over £149,000,000 each. (5) In the case of both leagues and Europe in general, all clubs in a European league should get the same amount as teams in the same domestic league despite the fact some are on TV more often than others. Big clubs can have little complaints as they will have much more money due to ticket sales, merchandise and European football. If all 20 Premier League clubs got the same amount, they would each get £120,010,000 each. This would see just over a £29 million drop in TV money each for the Manchester giants but a £25.34 million increase for West Brom in 20th.
If this TV money and Premier League Allocated money allocations existed, 16th place Huddersfield (2017-2018) would have a £19.725 million reduction in the gap between them and Manchester United and Manchester City. These changes would mot turn the table upsidedown, but it would make the European game fairer and more enjoyable for everyone.
Table 1:
References:
1. MLS: https://www.mlssoccer.com/glossary/general-allocation-money
2. MLS: https://www.mlssoccer.com/glossary/targeted-allocation-money
3. Independant: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/relief-at-end-of-foreigner-rule-1526032.html
4. Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2019/01/06/1-5b-in-tv-rights-fees-barcelona-real-madrid-and-16-other-teams-bank-record-payouts-from-la-liga/#3a8d3f6c5eb9
5. Talksport: https://talksport.com/football/376346/how-much-money-each-premier-league-club-earned-tv-and-their-final-position-180518283150/
Bibliography:
Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/26/tam-gam-and-trades-why-mls-is-the-worlds-most-overcomplicated-league
The Sportster: https://www.thesportster.com/soccer/things-that-existed-in-mls-soccer/
I want to clarify that I am not suggesting that the European game should copy the American system. Some policies are unusable in Europe, such as the relocation of teams, the lack of promotion & relegation, the match schedules, and the old penalty rules.
As suggested in part 1, the MLS or Major League Soccer is a lot more competitive than the European game. This does not mean that the standard is higher, but instead, there are no teams can dominate year in and year out in the same way they do in Europe. The MLS has had six different winners in the last seven years, and this reality is very different from European Leagues or the Champions League. Part 1 explains this in greater detail. In this piece, I will take a look at some of the things the football/soccer organisers do to make the game different in the United States. First of all, some of the key terms that help explain why in the MLS is not so easy to predict and is ever-changing.
GAM (General Allocation Money): "This is money that is available to a club in addition to its salary budget. Each MLS club receives an annual allotment of GAM." (1)
TAM (Targeted Allocation Money): "TAM are funds strategically provided by the league to teams to add or retain players that will make an immediate impact on the field." (2)
Single Entity Business: In a nutshell, this means that the clubs belong to the MLS and therefore are not independent in the same way European teams are.
Promotion and Relegation: This is not a thing in the MLS. This is one method which protects franchises and investors from significant losses, but it also stops new teams from entering the league.
Expansion Teams: Criteria existing that new franchises need to meet to join the league. These include an established fan base and a stadium. The idea is that teams entering the league will not be easy prey for existing teams and will be financially stable.
The Playoffs: The top six teams from the Eastern Conference and the top six from the Western Conference play in an NFL style knockout playoffs. The last two teams remaining play in the MLS Cup Final. This is similar to the playoffs in the Championship in England, in a sense, it gives teams as low as 6th in league position a chance to win silverware. Like the alure of the European competition in European leagues, this keeps more teams fighting for something until the end of the regular season.
Salary Cap: Each team is only allowed to spend just over $4 million a year in wages. This protects the league and the clubs themselves. It also prevents some clubs from buying the division.
Home Grown Rule: Players that are considered homegrown do not add to the salary cap. This encourages franchises to have as many of these players as possible if they want to use the salary cap to their advantage.
International Player Limit: Each team in the MLS is allowed to have eight foreign players. This is a similar situation to the Spanish game where La Liga clubs can only have three Non-EU players in their squads. Up until 1995, European teams could only have three foreign players when playing in European Competition. (3) Sir Alex Ferguson famously once had to leave goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel out of a Manchester United squad for this very reason.
Designated Players: Each team can have up to three selected players. These players are not included in the salary cap. They are often older European and American players past their best like Wayne Rooney, Bastain Schweinsteiger, Clint Dempsey or Tim Howard, to name a few.
What Ideas Might Work In Europe And Why?
Home Grown Rule: This is a concept that could easily be internalised in the European game. In the MLS, academy players are not included in the MLS salary cap. When thinking about Europe it is important to keep financial fair play in mind. If European clubs could not include the wages of players that came through their academy in their financial reports, it would incentivise clubs to bring as many young players through as possible to the first team. This situation would benefit clubs that produce their own talent. It would allow clubs to stretch their money further and give youth players and other players higher wage packages. An unintended consequence of this would be that clubs might refuse to sell players from their academies and keep such players to fill up the squad. To avoid this, UEFA could look to making the youth player exclusion valid until a player's 23rd birthday. We want clubs to be incentivised to produce their talent but without the 23rd birthday rule some clubs with fantastic academies such as Barcelona, Ajax and Chelsea FC may gain an unfair advantage until other clubs can catch up with development. We want strong youth development to be rewarded not to make things unfair in a diffent way. Players should have to be at said club before they turn 16 to qualify. With UEFA's tightening rules on the transfer of youth players, this should stop clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid hoovering up all of the best young talents. UEFA could also follow La Liga's bluepring and restrict the number of players outside of the EU or more realistically the European game as a whole.
Play-Offs: We already have play-offs in Europe. In England, we have the play-offs between 3rd and 6th to get promotion to the Premier League. While in Germany we have the playoff game 17th place in the Bundesliga and 2nd in the Bundesliga 2. What other kinds of playoffs could we have in Europe? How about instead of 4th getting the Champions League spot automatically, leagues had a playoff between 4th-7th? Or perhaps if a team from outside the top four wins a domestic cup such the FA Cup, DKB Pokal or Copa del Rey they should play in the Champions League? And a runner up plays in the next seasons Europa League. This would bring back the idea of the much-missed Cup Winners Cup to a point, and it may give new teams a chance to play in the Champions League or Europa League. How different would the Premier league be for example if Crystal Palace played in the Europa League after losing the 2016 FA Cup Final? Or of newly relegated Wigan Athletic played in the Champions League due to beating Manchester City in 2013's final?
Targeted Allocated Money: European Leagues should distribute 20% of profits amongst the clubs in that year's competition. Clubs nearer the bottom should get a more significant percentage. See table 1 below as an example for the Premier League could do it with a £200 million fund. This figures mention would not break the bank but would help to make the league a little fairer.
Other Ideas:
The 30% Rule:
To stop the big clubs buying all the best talent, players should have the right to leave a club for free if they have not played in a certain percentage of competitive games. The two previous seasons could be used as a dataset. Games in which the player is injured or out on loan should not count. Players can't refuse to play to force a move. UEFA or their respective league should investigate clubs if it is thought that a player is only getting game to avoid losing them for free. Players over the age of 24 should have the option to terminate their contract if they do not play in at least 30% of competitive games over the previous two years.
TV Money:
For the 2017-2018 season, Barcelona and Real Madrid alone received 21.2% of the TV rights money for La Liga clubs. While the bottom three clubs only got 9.1%. On top of this, the entire second division only got 10.3%. (4) While the Premier League is much better, it could be improved. "The country’s top 20 teams split a pot of £2.42 billion this season, with the most prominent clubs earning just under £150m each while the bottom feeders settled for a measly £94m." (5) 20th place West Brom got £94,666,492 while 2nd place Manchester United and 1st place Manchester City got over £149,000,000 each. (5) In the case of both leagues and Europe in general, all clubs in a European league should get the same amount as teams in the same domestic league despite the fact some are on TV more often than others. Big clubs can have little complaints as they will have much more money due to ticket sales, merchandise and European football. If all 20 Premier League clubs got the same amount, they would each get £120,010,000 each. This would see just over a £29 million drop in TV money each for the Manchester giants but a £25.34 million increase for West Brom in 20th.
If this TV money and Premier League Allocated money allocations existed, 16th place Huddersfield (2017-2018) would have a £19.725 million reduction in the gap between them and Manchester United and Manchester City. These changes would mot turn the table upsidedown, but it would make the European game fairer and more enjoyable for everyone.
Table 1:
1. MLS: https://www.mlssoccer.com/glossary/general-allocation-money
2. MLS: https://www.mlssoccer.com/glossary/targeted-allocation-money
3. Independant: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/relief-at-end-of-foreigner-rule-1526032.html
4. Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2019/01/06/1-5b-in-tv-rights-fees-barcelona-real-madrid-and-16-other-teams-bank-record-payouts-from-la-liga/#3a8d3f6c5eb9
5. Talksport: https://talksport.com/football/376346/how-much-money-each-premier-league-club-earned-tv-and-their-final-position-180518283150/
Bibliography:
Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/26/tam-gam-and-trades-why-mls-is-the-worlds-most-overcomplicated-league
The Sportster: https://www.thesportster.com/soccer/things-that-existed-in-mls-soccer/
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