NEW YORK – The 2011 MLS season will see the league’s twoCanadian clubs operate on a more even playing field compared to their US-based counterparts.
The league announced on Friday that playersconsidered domestic players in the United States will also be considered domestic playersin Canada.
“We want to make sure the MLS teams from Canada arecompetitive with other MLS teams and, at the same time, we want to make surewe’re creating the best environment for domestic players to develop in Canada,”MLS executive vice president of player relations and competition Todd Durbin told MLSsoccer.com.
“The backbone of the league has been and will continue to bethe US domestic players, and that is a very large pool upon which our teams candraw from. If the Canadian teams are limited in their ability to draw from thatpool, there’s a possibility that it could impact them competitively on thefield.”
With the freedom to select players from the pool of US andCanadian domestic players, the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC and futureCanadian clubs will also be required to maintain a minimum of three Canadianplayers on their roster. Montreal is set to join the league in 2012.
The rule sets the first ever domestic-player minimum for MLSclubs in league history. Durbin expects Canadian teams to regularly exceed thisnumber.
“You could in theory have a team with no Canadian domesticson it,” Durbin said. “That is clearly not our goal and it’s not the goal ofVancouver or Toronto, who are committed to developing players.”
In order to monitor the impact on the development ofCanadian players, MLS has partnered with the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA)in setting up a task force that will continually evaluate the rule, whichexpires after the 2015 season.
“MLS and the CSA will be working together to ensure thatthere’s optimal player development opportunities for players in Canada,” Durbinsaid. “We’ll also be reviewing the number of Canadian players oneach MLS roster with the idea of balancing the need for MLS teams to becompetitive and our collective commitment to developing players in Canada.”
