Major League Soccer changes the designated player rule; teams can now have up to 3
Major League Soccer has announced a change to the designated play rule or the “Beckham rule”. The rule would allow a team to sign one player and pay them whatever salary they wanted that only counted $415,000 towards the salary cap. So the Galaxy were able to sign Beckham for a salary of millions of dollars per season but only have $415,00o of that count towards the $2.3 million salary cap.
Under the new rules, MLS will let teams have two designated player slots (instead of the previous 1) and an option for a third. The third slot will cost teams $250,000 with that money being divided up among teams who don’t have a third DP slot. Another change is the DP slot will cost teams $335,000 towards the new $2.5 million salary cap.
Overall, it’s a great move because it will allow teams more flexibility to sign a designated players and bring in high profile names from Europe. For example, this allows the New York Red Bulls to bring in Thierry Henry as well as other teams to make moves in the summer. Full details of the changes are below.
MLS changes DP rule (official press release from MLS)
NEW YORK — Fans who dream of watching the likes of Thierry Henry, Raúl and Ronaldinho on an MLS field at the same time can wake up. That dream is closer to being a reality.
MLS announced on Thursday morning an update of the Designated Player rule to allow every MLS club to sign two DPs. Teams will also have the option to purchase a third DP slot.
In a mechanism that works similar to a luxury tax in other professional sports, an MLS team seeking a third DP slot would be required to pay $250,000 that would be evenly shared as allocation money with all the other MLS clubs that do not have three DPs.
The Designated Player rule, popularly referred to as the “Beckham Rule,” was first introduced in 2007. It allowed MLS teams to pay a “designated” player above the club’s league designated salary budget.
Each DP player signing will now count as $335,000 toward a team’s salary budget and $167,500 if the DP is signed midseason. According to the league, the $335,000 figure represents approximately 13 percent of a team’s salary budget. Previously, teams were charged $415,000 against the salary budget for the first DP. A team can also use its allocation money to bring that salary budget hit down to just $150,000.
MLS confirmed that these new rules will be effective immediately.
It is worth noting that DP slots cannot be traded between teams, nor can a team acquire a fourth slot or more.
Also, DP slots can be used to sign existing MLS players.
According to the league, the Galaxy’s Landon Donovan will count as a DP while New York will be compensated with $70,000 of allocation money for the second DP slot the club acquired two years ago.
It all seems like a mathematical and administrative nightmare at this point—though no worse than any other professional league’s roster rules, to be fair—but it should make a few dreams come true for fans.
