Pele's Wisdom: Beckham and the MLS

From Soccernet 11/8/07:
Pele believes David Beckham has been mis-sold to the American public.

Los Angeles Galaxy signed former England captain Beckham amid a blaze of publicity earlier this year as part of the sport’s latest attempt to buy its way into the US sports mainstream.

But Beckham’s performances, curtailed by injury, failed to match the hype and Galaxy endured a miserable campaign, missing out on the MLS play-offs.

In marketing terms, Beckham’s move has been a huge success but Pele fears the momentum will be lost because the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star is a midfielder and not a regular goalscorer.

Brazil World Cup legend Pele knows plenty of the US soccer scene having been part of the New York Cosmos side which briefly enjoyed popularity in the 1970s.

Pele said: ‘They announced him as a scorer of goals. He isn’t a goalscorer – that was a mistake.’
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Ok, Blah Blah Pele – we already know this, but what you say next makes more sense.

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Pele is keen for soccer to take off in the United States but feels for development to continue, restrictions on player movement and wages now need to be lifted completely.

Beckham, who reputedly earns £500,000 a week, joined Galaxy after MLS introduced a rule to allow teams to break the salary cap for a `designated player’.

The MLS also has control over players’ contracts and Pele believes it is time for clubs to be given a free hand.

Pele, 67, said: ‘This was one of the mistakes – they have to give freedom to the owners of the teams to buy the players and (chose) which players they want to put (out).

‘The big mistake in the league now is to control the level of the teams. If they opened this up, it would be much better.’
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Ok, now the real issue to talk about…

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Pele is on the right track here. A once former player of the doomed North American Soccer League in the 70s, he has been vocal and straight up about the MLS. He’s calling for reforming the current MLS structure in de-centralizing ownership and autonomy in team affairs.

The MLS operates under a single-entity structure in which teams are centrally controlled by the league. In order to keep costs under control, revenues are shared among the league, and player contracts are negotiated by the league.

Think: NFL, NBA, MLB, and the NHL. Or just think American franchises, like McDonalds.

This doesn’t work in our beautiful game. This is the reason why we can’t attract foreign talent or seasoned vets who come here for the game rather than for the glitz and glamour.

Not all seasoned footballers have spicy wives like Victoria “Posh” Beckham who are working hard to revive their singing career, so the prospect of coming to America for the love of the game is almost non-existent. First of all, they won’t earn much in non-endorsement salary, thanks to the MLS collective bargaining procedure, but also because in the current structure, competition is restricted.

It’s sorta like Communism. Yes, I said it, the MLS is like Communism.

Players sign contracts with the MLS, not the team they play for. Each team is allocated a salary cap. A team also earns favorable “allocations” through mal-performance. Think: teams with higher draft privileges because they suck ass.
Revenue is shared upwards to be allocated back down. The MLS itself is controlled and owned by a handful of powerful and wealthy families and organizations, some owning and operating more than one team.

Everything but the color red, a brick wall, and a ruling leader with a funny-looking moustache, the MLS is run like a Communist country.

So, what’s Pele’s infinite wisdom getting at? Decentralization and free-market economy. The same principles we owe to the success of all industrialized nations. If teams are owned and operated by a single entity private owner, usually based in the home-town of the team, and have their own financial culpability, each team will conduct their affairs according to their financial capabilities. Meaning, teams with more money, will attract and buy big-money players, and consequently raise the level of competition amongst the board.

But this is what the MLS is exactly protecting their child about. The men-in-black-suits were worried that the MLS wouldn’t be able to be profitable, especially in its early formative years, and would likely fail. Hence the need for an MLS umbrella-type communist structure.

They didn’t think there would be enough investors to give a crap about club ownership because frankly, who gives a crap about “socca” in the US.

But it’s different now. There’s talent abound on our own fields. Soccer is getting competitive now. I don’t know about being able to beat EPL teams, like Lalas seems to be having pleasant dreams about, but I think there’s alot of excellent US players walking around begging for a chance for more exposure. And because of this, there are more fans now.

With Beckham’s arrival, he certainly raised the commercial awareness of the sport. I mean, gdamn, i heard his name in a Lil Kim song not too long ago.

So i agree with Pele. The MLS needs to change. They need to let the little birds fly, after being mature enough to grow little wings. Clubs should be allowed private ownership and be operated as such. This will open the doors wider to attract more foreign talent, who actually want to play in the MLS for the right amount of money, and cause a direct effect on the growth of the fanbase.