How an MLS Expansion Draft Could Work in Europe

By: Daryl | November 26th, 2008

It’s MLS Expansion Draft day today, where newcomers Seattle Sounders (who currently only have enough players for a five-a-side team) get to “steal” ten players from established MLS clubs.

Basic rules: they can’t take more than one from each team and all the MLS teams have been able to “protect” 11 of their players. If you’re wondering who’s up for grabs, read this great post about who Seattle should take.

Simple enough, especially to anyone familiar with other American sports. But fans less familiar with America’s harem of three-letter acronym sports might be thinking “What? MLS, you are some crazy fools!” Here’s why they’d be wrong…

In many ways the expansion draft works just the same as when a team gets promoted to the top flight in, say, the English Premier League. In that instance the promoted club suddenly has a little more money to play with and usually wants to spend it on players with Premier League experience.

Great example: Hull City were promoted to the Prem this year and signed Geovanni on a free transfer from Man City, and his form and goals are a huge part of why Hull are currently sitting 6th instead of 20th right now. Man City didn’t need Geovanni and so were more than happy to let him go as his contract expired, which isn’t really that different to leaving him “unprotected” in an expansion draft.

Of course Geovanni’s situation was fairly unique (players of that quality aren’t usually available to newly promoted teams on a free transfer, and even then there are usually three promoted teams in need of players). So given Geovanni’s success maybe European leagues should look at adopting the MLS model a little more?

Not with an expansion draft (it just wouldn’t work) but with the loan system. The more obvious equivalent is when newly promoted teams loan players from established Premier League teams. Kieran Richardson went from Man Utd to West Brom for a season, resulting in the Baggies staying up (temporarily) and Richardson finally finding some form. So maybe it’s time to bend the rules a little and give newly promoted teams better access to loan players, along MLS Expansion Draft lines.

Here’s the plan: At the start of every new season in the top flight of any European league, the established teams in the top division (let’s say the top 10) all have to make a certain number of their squad players available for loan to the newly promoted teams. The established teams can’t refuse loan bids from the promoted teams for these players, hopefully making more up and coming (or experiences but getting on a bit) talent available to the new teams and giving them a better chance of survival.

The MLS Expansion Draft is designed to provide some measure of equality, so maybe it’s time top European leagues did a little of the same.

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Rob

Toby - And a goal against Scotland! They were so embarresed they didn't play us again for about 10 years.
ursus arctos

It's an interesting idea, and one of the more clever ones that I've seen recently.

A few challenges:

1) It would need to be combined with the equivalent of "roster limits", otherwise top clubs would simply warehouse players they had no intention of protecting (the question of how many players they would be allowed to protect is also an interesting one (11, 16, more? no more than one keeper?, etc.);

2) Rather than the involving the top ten, I would suggest it be linked to anyone qualifying for European competition; there needs to be a positive to balance the negative of the forced loans. Without that you would run the risk of midtable teams tanking games late in the season to avoid losing players.

3) It would likely need to be Europe-wide. Otherwise clubs operating under the system would be at a significant disadvantage when trying to attract young players with the "you may not start, but you'll get to work with Arsene/Sir Alex/Rafa/etc and train with a first XI of internationals" gambit. That just won't be credible if the kid knows that there is a real risk of him being loaned to the likes of Hull.

Still a very interesting idea, especially if you required the loans to include an option for the borrowing team to buy the player at a fixed fee (say some multiple of his salary).
Rob

The problem, I guess is the history the Prem has. For example, say Wolves come up next season as looks likely. Then they took a player who's just come through the West Brom youth ranks. He's supported Albion all his life, but he's not in the ones they kept, so Wolves snap him up and he has no choice but to go play for a club he loathes, upsetting all the WBA fans, and Wolves fans might not want him when they realise.

Christ knows what it'd do to Arsenal...
Shane

And also a list of must loan players who will go to the 3 relegated clubs.
Laurie

Interesting thought. Not a bad way to subvert the "Dog in the Manger" impulse of the richest teams, where they buy up the best players simply to keep them from going elsewhere, and then keep them warming the bench rather than developing their talents.