MLS player payments & Other comments

[midfielder]

Was talking to a guy from the states on the weekend and he says the US is looking at Australia in how successful our move into Asia has been... he said that the US is thinking about trying to take some of the WC spots they have to South America and quality through South America  as a way of getting the attention of the US media, and he said the Regular Meaningful Matches has been shown by Australia to change things.

He also gave me the link below that shows MLS payments to players and they are no half bad.

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/3_2_09_salary_info_club.pdf

 

[loyalist]

k

 

[midfielder]

k

meaning ? ? ?

 

[clarence]

Midfielder, did you notice the wild variation between the lowest paid players and the highest paid?

That has been an issue within the MLS. Some of the lesser known squaddies, and young up and comers have been forced to get part time jobs to supplement their 'professional' playing career. $20100 - even if it's in US $ - is not much.

I believe our salary cap has a base level pay for any squad member, a deal thrashed out with the PFA here. But over in the USA you do have a defender who is on a pittance in the same club that is paying Beckham $5.0 + m. I know there's always plenty of $$ for the top flight players, but it's the lowest denominator that's been causing grief within the players' ranks over in the USA.

On the question of the USA moving to the South American conference:
A) Would the South American countries want them?
B) It wouldn't necessarily translate to an increase in WC spots in the South Amercian Conference if the USA (1 country) moved to there. Might only be a 'half' spot. And the current WC spots they play for, belong to the North American Conference, not the USA - it's not theirs to horsetrade.
C) They'd have a far harder road to travel than us in Asia, coming up against the might of Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia all at home.

 

[midfielder]

Calarence

He said they where thinking about ways of how to make it work. He said they have hit a wall and need something to make the next leap ... also if the US starts to get beaten by South American countries that the US gov would put some dollars in to lift the side as they would not like being beaten by SA countries.

But it's only talk at this stage and not by all. It is funny that they are looking at us because many people say we should look at the US model. He argued as I said before that playing in the SA club comp and SA countries would bring the regular meaning matches which they only get against Mexico now.

 

[dibo]

You'd have to merge the confederations. They should do the same with Asia and Oceania - both would become roughly 50 member confederations with considerable weight to throw around to protect their interests and pose somewhat of a counterpoint to the power of UEFA.

 

[midfielder]

Dibo

You may be right its seems to be a sensible solution, might also take some WC places from Europe as well. Having said that I cannot see a merger more like Australia did, with the US and Mexico (maybe) jumping ship and take all but half a place with them.

Its just a lot of talk, but according to the guy I spoke to more people are getting behind the idea each week.

 

[dibo]

the point of a merger is that the 3.5 places add to the 4.5 - they're not going to get any more from europe, as they're already arguably underrepresented.

 

[midfielder]

Your right but it would be much harder to achieve and I am more a  pragmatist than a dreamer and think the jumping would be easier... LOL it's still only talk anyway and not even MLS policy just some players and supporters pointing out Australia's success.

Also no time now but I think Europe is over represented in WC ..... but work calls for a long week will put something up one day why I think Europe has to many spots.

 

[dibo]

Your right but it would be much harder to achieve and I am more a  pragmatist than a dreamer and think the jumping would be easier... LOL it's still only talk anyway and not even MLS policy just some players and supporters pointing out Australia's success.

Also no time now but I think Europe is over represented in WC ..... but work calls for a long week will put something up one day why I think Europe has to many spots.

it's got nothing really to do with what the MLS wants, it's about US Soccer and what they want.

i see it as much more likely that the confederations would merge than that the two big fish would be allowed to jump. that'd be like oceania losing both australia and NZ - FIFA would never let it happen.

i still think it's faintly ridiculous that australia was allowed to jump and the rest of the confederation wasn't folded in - it's really cherrypicking by the AFC and will surely be rectified next time there's someone in a big chair keen on wholesale reform.

 

[Jesus]

Would change the whole south american qualifying system if all of concacaf joined. They might not be too keen on that. Though i guess there could be playoffs to make the final usual round robin, mexico and usa likely to push for spots, but would allow another spot as well plus the .5 wouldnt it? So sth america would probably be happy with it knowing the likes of uruguay are very likely to beat canada or trinadad and tobago

 

[dibo]

Would change the whole south american qualifying system if all of concacaf joined. They might not be too keen on that. Though i guess there could be playoffs to make the final usual round robin, mexico and usa likely to push for spots, but would allow another spot as well plus the .5 wouldnt it? So sth america would probably be happy with it knowing the likes of uruguay are very likely to beat canada or trinadad and tobago

They might be pretty happy to set up groups where they'd do quite well rather than the absolute minefield that is an 11 nation, 20 match ordeal. They could set up a bunch of groups with seedings etc. and it might work pretty well. The USA and Mexico getting to host matches against Brazil and Argentina would be very popular with their associations.

 

[Omni]

The MLS has a weird youth set up which would contribute to the big disparity between highest paid and lowest paid, have a look at Generation Adidas. They've also just scrapped the reserves league which also would contribute to such wide gaps.

As for moving to South America, hmm it'll certainly give them more meaningful matches but they'd have a huge chance at missing out on qualification, the MLS would certainly have to change, can't have players having to choose between a cup semi-final and the national side when the game actually means something. It'd mess them up at a club level though, as is only Houston Dynamo (huzzah!) made the CL quarterfinals and even Houston would be a long way off the Copa Liberdetores pace, and with all that they might also have the same issue we have with the AFC of being out of sync.

It would certainly help their development though, particularly if they could qualify through a much much tougher system. The problem would then be Canada, in much the same way as the Wellington Phoenix, with Toronto FC in the MLS and Vancouver joining in 2011 (announced today) the MLS would have to work something out there, mind you like the Phoenix, Toronto haven't looked like qualifying for the CL.

I agree with Dibo, merge the confederations would be of the best benefit, although the USSF won't be keen for that just now as they won't want to be ruled out of hosting 2018/2022.

 

[Redline]

That would bring us then back to UEFA, Africa, and Asia...assuming Oceania is merged into the Asian Confederation...three confederations running the world game unless I've missed someone?

 

[dibo]

yeah, the americas - the topic of the conversation.

 

[Redline]

haha...woops..but four then...from all the talk, UEFA is the Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates of the football world, with everyone dancing to their tune...that's the way I see it anyway...but my point is...would UEFA have themselves, or FIFA for that matter, have objections to the merging of the north and south American confederations.?

 

[Omni]

I doubt UEFA care, FIFA might, given they haven't merged OFC/AFC. What puzzles me about all this is that the USSF would actually want to do this, they are practically ASSURED a world cup berth every tournament and they want to scrap that? If the OFC had an instant spot do you think Australia would have left?

As an aside on more MLS news: Portland, OR & Vancouver, Canada have been given the two expansion sides for 2011 (Seattle was added in 2009 and THUMPED NY on debut last week and Philidelphia are coming in 2010). The addition of Vancouver is starting to hint towards a total merge of the Canadian & US leagues (the top Canadian teams already play in the USL - MLS' lower divisions) so really, give all the US & Canada spots in the CL to the MLS! (and Puerto Rico, seriously, one club? They shouldn't have a spot, they're a territory of the US, DC Utd don't get an instant spot!)

 

[dibo]

I doubt UEFA care, FIFA might, given they haven't merged OFC/AFC. What puzzles me about all this is that the USSF would actually want to do this, they are practically ASSURED a world cup berth every tournament and they want to scrap that? If the OFC had an instant spot do you think Australia would have left?

Optimistically, you'd hope that they want to improve their standard. Bigger games against better opposition means more interest from suburban Americans (read: white families whose kids play the game but who are more interested in watching 'American' sports) and more money too. Direct parallels to Australia to the AFC.

At the moment though and with all pragmatism, I think they would have a good chance of qualifying even if they simply went into the Sth American group with no other changes. They'd be on about a par with Uruguay after all.

If the Confederations merged, wouldn't they have 8 spots? They'd be fine.

 

[clarence]

Good luck with the USA dealing with Uruguay to qualify for the WC. Took us about 4 goes to get past those pricks.

I'd say that Asia is pretty much sitting on it's hands about a possible merge with the remnants of the Oceania conference. I bet they see it as of no value to them and the possibility of having to spend $$ into thankless development ventures with Island Federations or constantly bailing out the NZ federation, or propping them up.

If the AFC had to (that is, told by FIFA to 'merge' with Oceania), they'd probably blame us for it. And I suspect the Arabian delegates not supporting anything to do with Oceania federations - they are worlds apart and nothing tangible between the two regions exist.