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Arch Bell, American football writer
Lionel Messi arrived MLS play for Miami Coalition. It was a pivotal moment for the tournament in which arguably the greatest player in game history has come to these shores less than a year after winning World Cupwhere he was named the tournament’s best player.
Bringing Messi to Miami is a big enough financial hurdle. managing owner Jorge Mas confirmed that Argentina Newly signed captains and designated players will earn between $50 million and $60 million a year – more than the team’s 2023 salary Real salt lake, City of Orlando SC, New York Red Beef, City of St. Louis SC And CF Montreal combine — in a deal that runs until the 2025 season, with sources telling ESPN there is an option for a 2026 campaign.
The MLS rule book stipulates that clubs can bring in three designated players, whose salaries will be just $612,500 off the limit, regardless of how much they actually earn. So Messi’s salary is from 50 million to 60 million USD? For limited purposes, they only make up 1% of it.
From a roster rules perspective, signing Messi is relatively easy. The hard part is matching old friends and old ones Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets And Jordi Alba in the list.
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Why not sign them to the same lucrative DP deals? Because the South Florida club already has three players specified on its roster: forwards OFFEReonardo campanamidfielder Gregore and the attacker Rodolfo Pizarro. Miami has tried to break the DP threshold once before, in 2020, when it was reported that they had essentially done five of them. It received the heaviest fine in MLS history for its efforts.
The club had to implement some gymnastics salary cap to make all of this work.
Pizarro, with precious little time to negotiate a move away from the club, agreed to terminate the remainder of his contract on Friday night. That has freed the DP position that Messi currently occupies.
Gregore, with a salary of $826,000 according to the MLS Players Association, will be redeemed on the contract using general allocation money (GAM), one of the league’s squad-building mechanics. That should clear the way for Busquets to sign his own DP.
For Alba, it’s simpler and more complex.
He is expected to join using Targeted Allocation (TAM), capped his salary at $1,612,500 per year. Each team in the league has $2,720,000 available in TAM in 2023 — essentially in addition to the salary cap — but as part of sanctions imposed against Inter for violations in In the past, the club has deducted $2,271,250 from its allotment worldwide. 2022 and 2023, making it a scarce resource in South Beach.
Simple, right?
Now, imagine if Luis Suárez or any of Messi’s other friends who want to join him in Miami. The club will certainly want to make that happen, but the MLS wage regulations will make that almost impossible.
For the 2023 season, the MLS salary budget is $5,210,000 per team, excluding DP and allocations. Such conservative limits have helped make MLS a financially secure league, but the arrival of Messi (with Busquets and Alba certainly not far behind) could serve as the turning point in terms of how MLS approaches roster building and spending.
Inter Miami is not alone in its desire to grow big. clubs like Toronto football team, United States Atlantathe LA Galaxy And LAFC tend to splurge to attract big names to their teams. Why should they be restricted to such extremes?
“If you want to constantly compete in [continental] finals and to win these games, you’re going to have to rethink your squad rules and regulations,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said after the final defeat. Concacaf Champions League of the previous team MX . Federation beside Leon last month. “You’re at a huge disadvantage. There’s a little extra money on [Liga MX’s] edge of the table, and money in this game buys quality players.
“But I think with our schedule and all the tournaments this year, we had a lot going on and we ended up in the final at a time that wasn’t our best moment. Team building is about that, and having a deeper roster and more players — the quality of the players on your team will allow you to extend that game time and every MLS team to face off. disadvantage there.”
Factor in that currently every team in MLS is playing in the Leagues Cup against rival Liga MX, you’re talking about at least three different leagues for the league’s teams (MLS, US Open Cup and League Cup) , not to mention that starting in 2024, eight teams can participate in the fourth game: the Concacaf Championship Cup.
Our dear colleague, Grant Wahl, once posted Annual Ambition Ranking of MLS TeamsThis certainly upsets the leadership of the clubs at the bottom, but it tells fans how their team’s ownership is approaching investment — from infrastructure to staff. player’s.
With that in mind, MLS is at a stage where the ambitions of teams like Inter Miami and LAFC should be facilitated, not controlled.
The league is in its 28th season. The delicate nature of childhood and adolescence, when its existence is not guaranteed, is long in the past. By age 28, most of us have left our parents’ homes and are managing financial independence, being able to pay our own bills and learn from our mistakes. MLS teams can do it too.
There is a logical disconnect when new ownership groups for MLS are write a check for 500 million dollars to operate a new franchise expansion, but was then capped at a salary cap of just 6.2% of the NHL (the next most financially constrained men’s league in the US) which teams are allowed to spend every year. If there is money to form a team, then the money to build a squad to their liking won’t be shackled so much.
Messi’s arrival in Miami will certainly bring more eyeballs to MLS from both outside and within these borders. Loosening squad spending rules for ambitious teams like Inter would strengthen the league and improve its ability to retain those viewers after the Argentine magician’s move from South Beach.
