MLS Announces Mid-Season Roster Rule Changes

Major League Soccer announced roster rule changes, effective immediately, just as the league’s summer transfer window opens. Although none of the changes are major, taken together, they give teams significantly more flexibility with how they construct their roster.

Unfortunately for the Fire a second buyout, which had previously been mulled by the league, was not one of the changes, removed, reportedly, due to objections from the Major League Soccer Players Association (MLSPA) whose approval would have been required to see the change occur. As MenInRed97 previously reported, the Fire have already exercised a buyout this season by transferring striker Kacper Przybyłko to sister club FC Lugano, and with a completely full roster, any roster additions must be paired with a subtraction.

The changes continue a trend in recent years of allowing additional spending flexibility without making wholesale changes to the complicated and often opaque system of roster slots and accounting mechanisms that restrict spending in MLS.

Change 1: Ability to have three senior Designated Players and three U22 initiative players, or two Designated Players and four U22 initiative players

In 2021, MLS announced the U22 Initiative program, which allowed teams to bring in players under 22 years of age with an unlimited transfer fee and who could earn up to the maximum salary charge ($683,750) but whose salary would have a minimum hit against the team’s salary cap. The rule also allows teams to sign a homegrown player to a second deal that pays them handsomely while minimizing their salary cap hit.

The Fire have made extensive use of the U22 initiative, bringing in Jhon Durán from Colombia as an 18 year old and selling him on to Aston Villa in the Premier League for a significant profit, and re-signing Brian Gutiérrez to a second MLS deal that significantly increased his pay.

Previously, in certain circumstances, teams would have three U22 slots, while in other situations they would be limited to one. Before, teams who had three Designated Players (DPs) needed at least one to be either under 24 years of age or earning less than the Maximum TAM amount ($1,683,750 in 2024).

Now, all teams have at least three U22 slots, regardless of the ages or salaries of their DPs. Teams can also elect to have just two Designated Players and get a fourth U22 slot alongside $2 million in allocation money.

The move means that should the Fire move to replace Gastón Giménez in this transfer window, they could elect to replace him with a significantly more expensive player than they could under the previous set of rules. Teams might elect to spend less at the top of the roster and have only two DPs while having more young talent and spending more on the middle part of their roster.

Change 2: Change in Allocation Money for Transfers

Under the previous set of rules, when a team sold a player abroad, they could convert up to $1,215,506 into General Allocation Money (GAM), which adds to a team’s salary cap space. That amount was per player, so if a team sold three players for $1.5 million each, the team would have over $3.6 million in additional cap space.

However, for teams that sold a player for a large transfer fee – like the Fire’s eight-figure deals that sent Gaga Slonina and Jhon Durán to the Premier League – they could only use about $1.2 million from each sale to add to the salary cap.

Now, all teams max out at $3 million in GAM from transfer fees per year. The rule change benefits teams who make one blockbuster sale per year, but now puts a hard ceiling on how much GAM can be added to the cap, regardless of the number of sales that a team makes over the course of the year.

What the Changes Mean For the Fire

At present, the Fire are using every available slot on both the senior and supplemental roster, so every player arrival must be matched with a player departure from the team.

The team had hoped to have a second buyout available so that they could open up a roster slot. Instead, for the Fire to make any acquisitions, the team must find a way to move a player on, whether via an intra-league trade, a sale to a team in another league, or a mutual contract termination.

This is most relevant in the case of DP attacking midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, who the club is hoping to move on from this summer. With the second buyout now of the cards, another team must be willing to bring in Shaqiri via a transfer in order for him to move on, but with reported interest from Greek club Panathinaikos cooling off, finding a taker is easier said than done. Shaqiri is still owed a significant sum under his current contract with the Fire, and any transfer to a new club (or mutual termination) would render that contract null and void. Shaqiri would almost certainly need to be willing to take a significant pay cut if he wants to leave this summer.

Gastón Giménez, who is earning below the max-TAM threshold, will more than likely stay with the club at least through the end of the season. Rumors of a return to Vélez have ceased after the Argentine club declined to make an offer to the Fire, and there seems to have been no way they would have been willing to take on Giménez without a buyout of his Fire contract. Should the Fire look to sign one or two DPs this summer – dependent on Shaqiri’s sale as well – Giménez could also still be bought down to a TAM status, vacating his DP tag.

The Fire have been one of the highest spending teams in the league since Joe Mansueto took full ownership of the team, but the full roster limits the team’s ability to make changes this window as the team looks to strengthen the roster for the rest of 2024 and beyond.