Suit Against MLS Shows Poor Timing
Just when it seemed that professional soccer was finally getting its act together in the United States, attempts are being made to yank the grass out from beneath its feet.
What is most surprising is that it is the players themselves who are doing the damage.
In one of the more misguided moves in recent memory, 10 Major League Soccer players and the MLS Players Assn. last week filed a class action suit against the league and the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The players, including the Los Angeles Galaxy’s Mark Semioli, claim that MLS-imposed restraints on player movement and salaries are illegal under antitrust laws.
They are seeking an injunction and treble damages.
In addition to Semioli, the players named in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston are Paul Caligiuri of the Columbus Crew, Mark Dodd of the Dallas Burn, Iain Fraser of the New England Revolution, Steve Trittschuh of the Colorado Rapids, Sean Bowers of the Kansas City Wiz, Mark Dougherty of the Tampa Bay Mutiny, Rhett Harty of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, Tim Martin of the San Jose Clash and Scott Vaudreuil of Washington D.C. United.
Regardless of the merits of the suit, this is no time for the sport to be tearing itself apart.
“I am frankly disappointed they would choose to challenge practices a whole bevy of lawyers have told us are completely lawful, and to take an action like this at a time like this in the league’s history,” Alan Rothenberg, chairman of MLS and president of U.S. Soccer, told the Associated Press. “We expected more from our players, and we’re disappointed. The suit is totally without merit.”
Perhaps not totally without merit, but the timing is abysmal.
The players and their agents should have at least allowed the goose to grow to maturity before trying to kill it.
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Martin Machon walked through the MLS front door last week and into an immediate starting position with the Galaxy.
Now, the team has to decide which players to quietly usher out the back door.
The acquisition of the Guatemalan midfielder-defender puts the Galaxy well over the MLS salary cap of $1.3 million. But, as Danny Villanueva, the club’s president and general manager, pointed out, right now it is a matter of numbers, not dollars.
Machon’s arrival at the Galaxy training camp in Guadalajara, Mexico, increased the team’s roster to 27. That figure has to be cut to 22 by March 14 and to 20 by March 28.
In other words, seven necks are on the line, and the salary-cap factor means that one of them might belong to a star.
Speculation continues to surround the future of striker Eduardo Hurtado, the league’s third-leading scorer last season. Without categorically saying “El Tanque” would not be traded, Villanueva emphasized his reluctance to even consider such a move.
“As I’ve said all along, I’m very committed to keeping Eduardo Hurtado here in Los Angeles,” Villanueva said. “I believe he is the most potent offensive force in this league and I am not at all interested in moving him to another city.
“I will do a lot of gyrations and standing on my head with the cap figures before we get to that point.”
But if the Galaxy keeps Hurtado, along with its other marquee players, such as Mauricio Cienfuegos, Cobi Jones, Jorge Campos and Machon, the likelihood is that more than one or two of last season’s starters might have to be traded.
The numbers will take care of themselves. Of the seven players the Galaxy selected in the collegiate and supplementary drafts, only defender Danny Pena and goalkeeper Kevin Hartman appear to have a good chance of making the roster.
Villanueva said the Galaxy has been impressed so far by Hartman, the former UCLA goalkeeper from Palos Verdes.
“He’s looked quite sharp in a couple of our training sessions,” Villanueva said. “He’s got extremely good reaction and reflex abilities, as well as an extremely good vertical leap. He has a little more work to do on his foot skills.”
With Campos unlikely to rejoin the Galaxy until several games into the season while playing for his Mexican League team, Atlante, Hartman will be pushing Campos’ backup, David Kramer, for the starting spot.
Pena, 28, a former Los Angeles Salsa player from Culver City, also appears to have a solid chance of becoming a starter.
“Danny came within an eyelash of playing for the U.S. national team,” Villanueva said. “For a while, it was not at all certain who would make the [U.S.] team, Pena or Marcelo Balboa. That’s the caliber of player he is.”
If it keeps all its national team players, the Galaxy’s starting lineup would look something like this: Campos, Arash Noamouz, Dan Calichman, Robin Fraser, Pena, Jones, Chris Armas, Cienfuegos, Machon, Harut Karapetyan and Hurtado.
The bench would have to include the backup goalkeepers, Kramer and Hartman, but beyond that almost everyone else might be scrambling for a place. That includes such players as Ante Razov, Greg Vanney, Guillermo Jara and Semioli, all of whom got significant playing time last season.
Compounding the problem for Villanueva, assistant coach Octavio Zambrano was at the recent MLS player combine in Rio de Janeiro and spotted two players who were invited to join the Galaxy in Guadalajara.
If either or both of them catch Coach Lothar Osiander’s eye, there will be more than seven itchy necks in the coming weeks as players wonder just where the ax might fall.
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While U.S. Soccer is “studying the feasibility” of creating a women’s professional league, someone else has stepped in and beaten the federation to it.
On Friday, the National Soccer Alliance, an eight-team women’s pro league, announced that it would begin play in 1998 and would feature 13 members of the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic team.
They are Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers, Carla Overbeck, Tisha Venturini, Kristine Lilly, Tiffeny Milbrett, Shannon MacMillan, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Briana Scurry, Mary Harvey and Carin Gabarra.
Former Gov. Booth Gardner of Washington was hired as commissioner of the league, which has yet to select its cities.
“I think they are moving a little faster than prudent,” Rothenberg told the Seattle Times.
Wrong. U.S. Soccer is moving too slowly.
