Finally Operating Within the Lines: The MLS Agrees to Enforce Training Compensation and Solidarity Payments

On 18 April 2019, U.S. soccer took a significant step to align itself with the rest of the world. Specifically, Major League Soccer (MLS), the U.S.’s Division I professional soccer league, announced its clubs will begin to assert training compensation and solidarity payment claims pursuant to the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP).

Although it is a long-overdue decision that has been delayed by legal battles and the U.S.’s autonomy in the soccer world, this decision comes as a bit of a surprise given that recent attempts by U.S. soccer clubs to enforce these rules have failed.[1] However, considering MLS academies have invested “hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade” into developing talent that has gone on to play overseas, the MLS finally believed enforcement of the RSTP rules was a necessary step to ensure such clubs are rewarded and further incentivized to create world-class players.

Having been an anomaly within FIFA since its foundation in 1995, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) has always rejected the...

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Finally Operating Within the Lines: The MLS Agrees to Enforce Training Compensation and Solidarity Payments

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