MLS commissioner Don Garber gave his State of the League address today, hitting a wide-ranging array of topics. None may prove more vital to the league than their youth and development initiatives, loosening the rules on signing academy products, expanding rosters to accommodate developing young talent and reinstituting the reserve league to give said talent a place to grow.
The league took off limits on how many homegrown players a club can sign from its youth academies, a huge step forward. MLS’ restrictive rules on the topic have long been a cause of consternation, but with the NCAA loosening its own dogmatic grip last year, the single-entity league has finally fallen in line with the rest of the soccer-playing world.
“Some of these guys are truly going to be great. Tristan Bowen in L.A,, Juan Agudelo had a great playoff in New York. We believe these homegrown players are the future of our league,” Garber said today. “It’s part of the DNA of soccer around the world, and (now) it’s part of our DNA as well.”
Pending aproval by the Board of Governors Wednesday, rosters will get expanded from 26 players this year up to 30 players next year, with the last six players being 24-and-under and exempt from the salary cap expected to be $2.67 million. MLS will also re-launch its new reserve division, providing a place for those homegrown prospects and correcting one of the more hideous and short-sighted mistakes its board ever made.
“Those young players will be part of reserve division in 2011. It will be a major improvement on one we had a few years ago,” said Garber, who pointed out how MLS Golden Boot winner Chris Wondolowski and MLS Cup finalists Omar Cummings and Jeff Larentowicz of Colorado all came up through the earlier incarnation of the reserve division between 2005-08.
The reserve division will afford much-needed developmental opportunities to young, inexperienced players that would otherwise be buried or simply cut. It will have three six-team regions, with each team playing the others in its region for a 10-game slate, the top eight reaching the playoffs. They can also play local NASL or USL-Pro clubs, but have more limits on who can and cant be used.
“These matches can only have players who are on the club’s roster or are on trial with the club or are members of the club’s academy,” Garber said.
