I have tried Googling to find some answers but it doesn't really help... I have been getting really into soccer (I know its football but this is 'Murica) lately maybe the past year or so, but there are so many things that i don't understand. 1) Why is there not a draft? Or perhaps a better question would be why don't american sports just train players from a young age and have youth teams like these big FC's have? 1a) Don't the Houston Dynamo have a youth team? If so do they pay the kids, are the kids still aloud to get a scholarship to play at a university? 2) What is the deal with "third party owners" this just is bizarre to me! It kind of reminds me of these guys that pay for young ghetto kids sneakers hoping they make it big one day and pay them back, but if they actually could had rights to that kids future earnings. Which is bogus imo 3) I like how the players are transferred though, I like the idea of having to pay to get the player rather than having to make a trade for them, because it gives a team that maybe doesn't have very great players a chance to get better just by spending money, rather than getting lucky. Is there any limits as to how much a team can spend? Like lets say in theory some rich guy bought the Dynamo and wanted to purchase a hot shot European player, could that owner spend all the money he wanted to make that team great?
Other people can chime in and correct me if necessary. But MLS has a draft. It's called the super draft and they draft college players. They also have youth teams. The dynamo have some. I think drludacris can explain it better than I can. They have something called discovery rights I believe, which protects from being drafted or some crap like that. I don't believe leagues in Europe have salary caps, but mls has it.
Euro leagues do not have salary caps. And that is one of the main reasons why the rich teams have a unfair advantage. It is one of the things I like about the NBA a lot. If you look at La Liga, it has been 10 years since aomeone other than Real or Barca has been champion. If you look at Wikipedia, of the 82 years in La liga Barca was champion 22 times and Real 32. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_football_champions The dutch competition is even worse there are 3 big team (Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV). Since 1964 only 2 teams beside those big three were champions (1 time twente, 3 times AZ) I
3) I like how the players are transferred though, I like the idea of having to pay to get the player rather than having to make a trade for them, because it gives a team that maybe doesn't have very great players a chance to get better just by spending money, rather than getting lucky. Is there any limits as to how much a team can spend? Like lets say in theory some rich guy bought the Dynamo and wanted to purchase a hot shot European player, could that owner spend all the money he wanted to make that team great? The Dynamo, or any other MLS team really couldn't compete with the wages that the top footballers make in Europe. When the big boys like Bale and Neymar move teams the team that buys them ships out close to $100,000,000 for the rights to the player and then the player will sign a contract for around $200,000 in weekly wages. That puts the top guys at over 10 million dollars a year. That's simply something that these MLS teams can't afford.
They have teams in different age groups (U-16 and U-18). They just started a U-23 team for players under the age of 23, sort of like a college team. Here's the site: http://www.houstondynamo.com/academy I don't know about the play-for-pay. The UIL and NCAA have strict rules for high school players and college players playing for professional sports organizations. These kids have two choices: play in the Dynamo academy team or high school/college soccer.
I'm a Dynamo/MLS fan but I still don't understand how did teams like Seattle get Dempsey, Toronto getting Bradley and Defoe, and LA Galaxy getting these superstar players? Conspiracy?
I don't like reading about salaries as much, but here's what I know, from the last time I read about all these things. There IS a draft. It happens every season in the MLS ( please read about the last draft ) ; some teams, however, have academies or under-17 or even development teams. If you're talking about other leagues, there are "Basic Strength" and development teams for them, too. They do have a youth team. It's the Dynamo Academy. Please read all about the academy. No. They are an amateur team. They sign a contract but it's only for developmental purposes. They do not get paid. It is a business move, and a risky one, albeit. No. There aren't any limits. These are based solely on the risk of taking a player in its youth, potentially developing into a greater player, say for example a player on loan like Donovan in Germany or playing in the EPL. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Yes. He would have to call that player a 'designated player' that is the one that isn't capped at the minimum. There IS a cap, however, for MLS teams. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designated_Player_Rule I don't agree with you... it is NOT difficult to find information on all that you asked about. Keep searching. They have to sign them as free agents, make them designated players, or have a transfer agreement with the original team if the player is under contract, or a combination of the previous factors, like TORONTO did with Roma of Italy for Bradley. Currently he is a 'transfer.'
So i just went on to the Dynamo Youth academy site and i realized that a bunch of their guys were going to play at college... so does that mean they would be put in the Super draft after they graduate? It seems kind of like a waste if the Dynamo don't have any kind of rights to the player. If a player was good enough could he go straight from the youth squad to the big club without going thru the draft?
For Bradley and Dempsey the league helped out with the transfer fees. They recently sold a portion of their marketing arm (SUM sports) and are using that money to bring in or keep bigger name players. As to how the teams that get these players is chosen, that's a mystery and is where the conspiracy theories come from. But LA, Seattle, and Toronto all generate a lot of revenue so they're more likely to be able to make these deals. And they've got owners that are willing to spend money to improve the team. Each team can also use some of the money to retain their better players, Kansas City has done this to keep Zusi and Besler. They do have their rights and I think they keep them forever. So if a player goes through your academy he can't sign with another MLS team unless the team with his rights are compensated somehow. They can sign with foreign teams though. The Dynamo have signed a few academy players to the first team, a couple while they were still in high school and a few after they went to college. None of them have really gotten any playing time though.
