With every year that MLS puts into its history column, one question keeps getting repeated for the next season. How should teams develop youth in the US and Canada? Time and time again you hear the phase “pay to play” and how this is hurting the development of the USMNT. Well I for one don’t think it’s the responsibility of MLS team’s to develop players for the USMNT. I’m sure everybody remembers a little spat between Jurgen Klinsmann and Don Garber this past year and how they had differing opinions on how players should develop. They both had good points and in the end were looking out for their own interest.
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The problem is the system is outdated and we never really been in this position before. This is the first time a league is spending on youth development. Don Garber mentioned in his State of the League press conference that the league is spending in the neighborhood of $30 million dollars on youth development. I can understand the dilemma the league is having when they lose players and get nothing in return. At the same time, Klinsmann is trying to build a team to win the World Cup and wants to pick players that train in the most competitive leagues. Also, foreign leagues are signing players out of the academies without MLS team’s getting any compensation. Evidently this has to do with US child labor laws. The clash comes as we try to get up to speed and are still in the growing stage of the academy system.
I’m sure most of you know the history of youth development in this country, so I won’t go into a long explanation of how it’s done. You are probably familiar with the process of players being drafted by professional sports leagues. For the most part, players are developed in high school and college depending on the sport and are drafted into the league after their senior year. When a players become eligible for the draft varies by league, just as it does with MLS. Some players must spend a mandatory amount of time in college, and others must make their intentions known and declare before the draft. However, that isn’t how it’s done in the rest of the world, and now as MLS shifts to follow the worlds academy system, they are having growing pains.
It started in 2006 when MLS enabled clubs to retain the rights of players developed in their own youth academy. They tried to give more incentive by making homegrown player’s more cap friendly. Also if the player was sold outside the league, the team would receive more of the transfer fee in allocation money compared to a player who didn’t have the homegrown distinction. In 2013, MLS mandated that all teams must have an academy with U-14, U-16 and U-18 teams competing in the U.S. Soccer development league. Yes, this was a good idea, but very soon more problems started to kick in.
MLS Multiplex
Teams were assigned “Home Territories” and each team had a unique territory. Teams in LA shared the same one and others had overlapping territories. Another problem was that smaller markets were at a disadvantage as a team’s territory extended 75 miles from the team’s training ground. Teams like New York, Los Angles and Philadelphia were lucky to recruit players in a territory that was stocked with players and high-profile youth clubs ,but other teams in smaller markets had less to choose from. As expansion happened, the territories were redefined to make it more fair; some teams got whole states to recruit from and more players that could be signed from outside their territory but that number varied by team. Meanwhile as the league only had nineteen teams, many places are left off the map of where teams could recruit from. This year with expansion and the folding of Chivas USA, only more questions are being raised.
So what’s the solution you ask? I have a few ideas.
Last July, it was reported by Ian Thomson in TheSoccerObserver.com that college soccer (Division 1 primarily) was looking to change the season to a full academic year. If this was to happen, I think MLS could take it another step and develop a hybrid of youth development by taking the best ideas from here and around the world. Lengthening the season would give players more time to train and make the college game more relevant. Currently, academies are sending more players to college than they are signing into the league. With a better environment to develop, this could raise the level of players coming into the league. Most colleges have an excellent facility for players to train, so why not take better advantage of the infrastructure? Now by requiring teams to either have an affiliation with a USL Pro team or field one of their own, I think the path is almost complete.
The final piece of the puzzle is each team’s academy and how they can better take advantage of the benefits of having one. By limiting the area where a team can draw players from, MLS is missing out on signing many players in the US and Canada. Also the model for what an academy is varies from team to team. In the end, none of the levels are really tied together like they are in the other four major sports league in the US and Canada. So the question that is repeated year after year of how can MLS create a better path from U-14 to the 1st team might finally have a solution.
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The first thing they should do is establish what is the required model of an academy. The Philadelphia Union has established a full-time residency program that has won rave reviews around the league. Players train twice a day on campus, while attending school for grades 8-12 in a first class environment. The problem is where the Union can recruit from and how it limits the team and MLS. The team is bound by a 75 mile radius of PPL Park excluding Maryland and a 25 mile radius of Red Bull Arena.
Here is the first problem and I think it’s quite easy to solve. Require all teams to follow the Union Academy full-time residency program and have the teams recruit like colleges do. Get rid of the designated “Home Territory” as it limits everybody. Most teams will draw from their local area as full-time scouts are few and far between. However, this would give teams the incentive to hire them in the future. The benefit to the league is capturing more homegrown talent. A byproduct of this is ex-players now would have more career options once their playing days are over, and this should increase the talent level of future coaches. The way MLS could protect their youth investment is by requiring a player that leaves their system to pay back the team the cost of the player’s scholarship if they don’t sign with the team. The player would be released of this responsibility if they don’t get signed by the team or aren’t drafted after they graduate college. If they could do this, I think they should be required to end any type of “pay to play” in their youth development system.
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Teams can now sign players right out of their academy, or they retain their right as the enter college. If the player isn’t ready at eighteen to sign a professional contract, they could move onto college. With a better college system in place, I think these changes would help excel a player’s development. Players can still be signed by the team right up until they graduate college as a Homegrown player or a player can declare for the draft if they don’t like the team’s offer. Once a player signs with the team, MLS now can get young players valuable playing time in USL Pro. Right now teams are allowed to start a team or are required to affiliate with an established one.
Basically MLS is copying the MLB and NHL minor league system. As an American league this makes perfect sense, although I’m sure many would disagree with me. Former MLS players will have many more career paths they could pursue after their career is over. With the need for more quality scouts and college coaches, MLS should see the same benefits that MLB and the NHL do. By stealing a little of the best idea from around the world, this new hybrid system could reap many benefits for players, colleges, and MLS.
In the beginning of this article I stated that I didn’t think it was the responsibility of MLS to develop players for the USMNT. The reason I think this is because it’s more or less a byproduct of a good league’s system. If the system of youth development is strong, the national team will be able to benefit. Although it helps Jurgen Klinsmann to have a strong domestic league, it’s better that MLS strives to accomplish their goal of being one of the top five domestic leagues in the world by 2022. One of the ways they could help this process move along is with a strong youth development system. They should put rules in place that will let them benefit from their investment and use the infrastructure that is available to them now. Filling in the missing pieces is all that is left for MLS as they have a chance to build a unique hybrid of youth development.
What are your thoughts? How can MLS fix or alter their current system?
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