Player Moves Are Suspect but They’re Also Necessary

All the wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanied the recent series of player moves by Major League Soccer is understandable but also unnecessary.

The fact that strings were pulled, that rules were bent and that arms were twisted in order for some transactions to be made is clearly evident, but it doesn’t mean a great deal.

Because the bottom line is that MLS is a business, not a charitable foundation. Fans might not like it, but the young league--not yet five years old--will do whatever it sees as necessary to not only stay in business but to eventually realize a profit.

There is nothing wrong with that.

The tens of thousands of soccer fans in this country who want to see the sport reach the levels of, say, Europe or South America, need to realize that some hurdles are simply going to have to be flattened rather than cleared.

So, if MLS had to be, well, creative, in finding a way to put Mexico’s Luis Hernandez in Los Angeles, so be it. If the league had to apply some pressure in order to move El Salvador’s Raul Diaz Arce from Tampa Bay back to Washington, so what?

And if some fans see a blatant conflict in one Robert Kraft-owned team, San Jose, completing a three-player trade with another Kraft-owned team, New England, who is to say that the swap of the Earthquakes’ Mauricio Wright for the Revolution’s Dan Calichman and Mike Burns was ethically wrong?

In its brief history, MLS has introduced American sports fans to such odd notions as single entity and the ownership of more than one team by a single person. These are strange concepts to grapple with, especially when looking at the small picture through traditional eyes.

But what about the big picture?

What if single entity--the practice by which, for one thing, all MLS player contracts are owned by the league--is not a permanent arrangement? What if it is merely an expedient way to get through the early years without anyone or everyone going bankrupt?

Then it doesn’t seem such a bad idea at all.

And what if Philip Anschutz owns three MLS teams--the Galaxy, the Colorado Rapids and the Chicago Fire--for the very sound business reason that, if the league prospers, he can eventually sell one, two or all three of them and recoup the millions of dollars he has invested and then some?

The same goes for Kraft and his two teams and for Lamar Hunt, who owns both the Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wizards.

These men and other MLS “investor-operators” are the ones keeping professional soccer alive in the U.S. They aren’t doing it for fun and they certainly aren’t doing it for money. At least not now.

So, yes, from a purely sporting standpoint, the league’s player moves do seem suspect, even tainted. And, yes, it is difficult to take seriously a league where the puppet strings are so obviously being manipulated from high above.

It’s true, MLS does, to a large extent, orchestrate which “marquee” players play where. It does so for business reasons, just as the NBA and NFL and major league baseball have moved entire teams from one city to another, all the while seeking the best market.

Times will change. MLS will grow and eventually the oddities of today will disappear. Already, its commissioner, Don Garber, has indicated that change is in the wind.

“Five years from now, maybe we won’t have to deal with these issues,” Garber told the Columbus Dispatch earlier this week while in town to promote the nearly sold-out July 29 MLS All-Star game. “But we’re still a young league. Someday these procedures won’t be necessary.”

He had more to say.

“In time, you look at five or 10 years, I certainly see one owner, one team. But that’s not how we can operate right now. Are we better off with multiple ownership or without joint ownership and no league?”

The answer should be obvious, especially to all those hand-wringing souls bemoaning the way that MLS is doing business.

QUICK PASSES

Only two MLS players will be taking part in the 16-nation European Championship that begins Saturday in Belgium and the Netherlands: Kansas City Wizard forward Miklos Molnar, who plays for Denmark, and New York/New Jersey MetroStar defender Lothar Matthaeus, whose chance of playing for defending champion Germany is in jeopardy. Matthaeus aggravated a thigh injury while playing in a warm-up game against Liechtenstein on Wednesday, a game in which Matthaeus extended his men’s world record for international appearances to 147 games.