Eddie Pope Faces Challenges With the Players Union

By: Laurie | January 15th, 2008

If you were following MLS news last week, you saw that longtime player Eddie Pope has signed on with the Players Union as Director of Player Relations.

It could be a contentious job. The next contract negotiations aren’t till 2009 (with changes to be implemented for the 2010 season), but both sides seem to be gearing up for confrontation.

I don’t envy anybody dealing with MLS. The organization is run by a secretive cabal of billionaires who are used to getting their own way. They play hardball, often at the expense of the players. The current majority seems intent on paying these players the least amount possible; the minimum developmental salary for the 2007 season was $12,900. Yes, for the year. (Full list of players’ salaries is on the Players Union website.)

The organization in charge of trying to increase that figure is the Players Union. It’s a job that’s full of tradeoffs. Are you wondering, as I was, how it came to be that the Players Union signed off on these developmental salaries?

The developmental system was unilaterally implemented without consultation with the players prior to the existence of the Union. At the bargaining table, MLS insisted that developmental contracts were, and would remain, a tool for clubs to keep some local summer practice players around to aid in training. When the Union objected to the system, the league refused to move forward with a CBA without developmental contracts. Although the Union was able to negotiate pay increases for developmental players and negotiate their right to receive health insurance for the first time in league history, the players’ choice was to strike or accept the existence of developmental contracts. Given the state of the league in 2004, they understandably chose the latter path.

(Full details of the current contract are here.)

But the landscape has changed since that contract was signed. Beckham has arrived, TV deals have been arranged, soccer-specific stadiums have been built, and the league as a whole is lurching steadily toward solvency. And the players are going to want a piece of the revenues they are bringing in. And if the past is any indication, chances are that the owners will fight it.

Here are Pope’s thoughts on the issues facing him in his new job:

“I really think the players need to start weighing in about where the league needs to go in terms of getting involved in coaching, the front office, even as referees.” …

“I think the biggest issue we have to deal with is the contracts of the developmental players,” he said, referring to the deals that pay young American players a paltry $12,900 a year. There are modest incentives, but the maximum they could add is $15,000. “Having been a teammate of several on those contracts, it’s hard to watch guys playing their hearts out on the field, then going home to a house with four or five other guys and sometimes not living in the best neighborhoods. That’s tough.”

Pope, who has been on the job for only four days, said his “ultimate goal is to have happy players and families, because if the players are happy, it makes the league better.”

Is Eddie the guy to make this happen? We’ll find out over the next few years.