This afternoon, Major League Soccer will release the full list of protected players for each club in advance of Wednesday's Expansion Draft for Seattle Sounders FC. United's list of eleven protected players is, as follows (in alphabetical order):
Marc Burch
Luciano Emilio (international)
Fred (international)
Ivan Guerrero
Greg Janicki
Boyzzz Khumalo (international)
Devon McTavish
Jaime Moreno
Bryan Namoff
Santino Quaranta
Clyde Simms
The players who will be available for selection by Seattle include:
Jeff Carroll
Pat Carroll
Ryan Cordeiro
Louis Crayton (international)
Francis Doe (international)
Rod Dyachenko
Marcelo Gallardo (international)
Quavas Kirk
Ibrahim Koroma (international)
Gonzalo Martinez (international)
Domenic Mediate
Ryan Miller
Ben Olsen
Gonzalo Peralta (international)
Craig Thompson
James Thorpe
Joe Vide
Zach Wells
Mike Zaher
You can read the full set of expansion rules after the jump.
Senior Roster
- Teams may protect 11 players between their Senior and their Developmental Roster.
- If the Player’s contract expires at the end of 2008, he will still be considered part of the Team’s Senior Roster.
- If a Team protects a player, it is not obligated to exercise the player’s option. It may renegotiate a new budget number for the player as in previous years.
- If a player retires, he will not be a part of the Senior Roster, but his Team will lose its right of first refusal to him should he ultimately decide to play.
Developmental Roster
- Players on a Team’s Developmental Roster, other than Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2008 season, will be part of the expansion draft.
- Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2008 season are automatically protected (teams do not have to use a protected slot on them)
- If Seattle selects a Developmental Player it must offer him a Senior Roster position and he must be on Seattle’s Senior Roster as of Roster Compliance Date.
International Players
- Teams are restricted in the number of International player(s) that they may make available (Teams may make available the number of international players equal to their total number of international players minus 3, provided that if a team has 3 or less international players it may make available not more than 1).
- For purposes of this expansion process, for US-based teams, any non-domestic US player would count as an International and for Toronto FC, any non-domestic US player or non-domestic Canadian player would count as an International.
Designated Players
- Designated Players do not have to be protected unless the player has a no trade clause in which case he must be protected.
Maximum Player Loss
- Once a player has been claimed from a Team’s non-protected roster, that team is eliminated from the expansion draft and may not lose any further players.
Right to Renegotiate
- Seattle will have the right to renegotiate a drafted player’s salary (either up or down) without having to place such player on waivers or giving his previous Team a right of first refusal.
Priority
- On the first day of the Discovery/Allocation Period, Seattle will have priority over players who played professionally in the USL First or Second Division in 2008, subject to another MLS team’s right of first refusal.
Rounds
- The expansion draft will be 10 rounds.
