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Fifth free agents don’t cut it as compensation

Jeff Kassouf February 3, 2013 36

Amy LePeilbet will miss six-to-eight months following left ACL surgery. (Photo Copyright: Meg Linehan, Equalizer Soccer)

Half of the eight NWSL teams have received the right to sign a fifth free agent as compensation for allocated national team players missing time with their respective teams.

The fifth free agents have been granted to each team as compensation for having allocated players miss partial or full seasons. It’s a nice gesture and, in some cases where hands are tied, possibly sufficient.

But in the cases of the Western New York Flash and the Chicago Red Stars, the fifth free agent doesn’t cut it as just compensation and that’s because each team — and all four teams granted that fifth free agency slot — will be paying for the additional player out of pocket. The NWSL has granted each team extra cap space, but not the cash with which to buy the player.

Amy Rodriguez’s pregnancy seemed to shock everyone, including Seattle. The National Women’s Soccer League (quite obviously) can’t control the fact that she will miss the entire season for Seattle Reign FC. Nor can the league predict the ongoing uncertainty surrounding when U.S. goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris and Mexican defender Alina Garciamendez will be available.

Developments in both of those scenarios occurred following allocation (though in Seattle’s case, it was known over a month ahead of time that Megan Rapinoe would be headed to Lyon until June).

But the Flash were shorted from the start, having received six allocated players to every other teams’ seven. Sure, as it stands, all six of those players (including Abby Wambach, Carli Lloyd and Veronica Perez) will actually be in Western New York for the start of the season, which is more than can be said for at least three other teams. No matter how you shake it out, though, the Flash have to pay for an extra player out of pocket.

The U.S., Mexican and Canadian federations are paying the salaries of the allocated players. Seven of a team’s maximum of 20 rostered players are then taken out of the cap, with the exception of Western New York. The Flash have six, leaving them accountable for 14 salaries from the beginning.

In Chicago’s case, it was widely known behind the scenes prior to allocation that Amy LePeilbet had a knee issue (we touched on it here on Jan. 1) and that there was a possibility she would miss the season. The team confirmed on Jan. 28 that she would have left ACL surgery and miss six-to-eight months, or essentially the entire season, barring a speedy recovery.

The logic of which teams get extra free agency spots (and how many spots) remains open to debate. Should Portland receive a fifth free agent slot for losing Tobin Heath to PSG until June? Does Seattle deserve a sixth and seventh slot, since it lost Rodriguez for the season as well as Rapinoe and Teresa Noyola until June?

At this stage, free agents are signed (many are still secrets), so compensating teams with cash for at least pre-existing and known scenarios seems the most logical option. The two chief qualifiers for that are Western New York’s shortage of allocated players and Chicago being allocated LePeilbet, whose knee status at the time of allocation was at the very least questionable.

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POSTED IN » Analysis, Chicago Red Stars, NWSL, Seattle Reign FC, Washington Spirit, Western New York Flash
About the author: Jeff Kassouf View all posts by Jeff Kassouf

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  • Beth

    Noyola is also missing for Seattle until June. They really do deserve a 6th FA if Washington gets one for their 2 players beings overseas.

    • http://twitter.com/JeffKassouf Jeff Kassouf

      Truth. My oversight. Seattle took some serious hits with this trickling in news. On paper, with everyone there, it was a good allocation. But that’s proving not to be the case.

      • wtf

        Was Noyola’s absence known before the allocation? If so, there’s no excuse for giving a team two players who were known to be missing the beginning of the season.

        NWSL is obviously flying by the seat of its pants, but the discrepancies here are just ridiculous. Look forward to seeing how free agency pans out for the unfortunate teams.

        • Steglitz49

          Teresa Noyola Bayardo is 22 and plays for the Dutch club Den Haag. Holland and Belgium created a new structure this year with the BeNe-league. Briefly, the Dutch and Belgian sides play group matches and then the top few teams from each country go into a second stage. The date of last game of the season is usually known at the beginning of the year.

          A lot is happening in Holland’s ladies soccer. Ajax, the legendary club of Cruyff and who were the first team to sign a young Zlatan out of Sweden, have started a ladies side. Holland is not a bad place for a lady to ply your trade today.

  • http://twitter.com/Deegley Diane

    Players missing part of the season aside, how can NWSL (read: Federations) justify not paying for 5th free agent for any of the teams w/o a player for the full season? That seems like a no brainer. I don’t think teams should receive anything extra for players missing a part of a season, it gets too muddy.

    • Steglitz49

      Why players carrying significant injuries were “designated” is a mystery to me. The DPs ought to represent tomorrows talent, not yesterday’s walking wounded. If a team voluntarily asked for one of those, that is their headache; if they got one without asking for her, then they have a just grievance.

      Pregnancy is an occupational hazard with healthy young ladies. Couples who have lived together for a while but suddenly get married send a strong signal. Not all are like Steffi Graf or Kathrin Hitzer, who got married shortly before the first baby was due. To each their own.

  • StarCityFan

    You’ve reported yourself that the Flash at least are getting financially compensated for losing out in the allocation ( http://equalizersoccer.com/2013/01/22/wny-flash-allocation-shortage-compensation/ ). But you do make a good argument that they shouldn’t be the only team receiving such compensation.

    • http://twitter.com/JeffKassouf Jeff Kassouf

      No, Jeff DiVeronica reported that. We embedded his tweet. It’s been made very clear to me over the last few days that NWSL will not, in fact, pay for the free agent.

      • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

        Do they get to at least go beyond their 200k cap since they need to split that with more players?

      • Mike

        Word of advice; never take anything DiVeronica says at face value. He has a habit of not confirming such things before posting them.

        • PQ

          Untrue! Devo writes for the local paper here in rochester, and has a soccer radio show as well. He has said many times, his editors make sure he has 2 sources for all his stories. He
          is not some random blogger!

          • Mike

            I’m well aware of who he is. He must have 2 very weak sources, since he’s made mistakes like those before. He recently referred to Sara Huffman as a defender (she’s been a midfielder the past 4 years).

  • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

    Hopefully the league gets it’s feet under itself quickly so in future seasons there isn’t so much federation money involved in this direct, player specific way. It messes up how teams are built more than in the past because it has money attached to it along with the low salary cap. It was necessary to launch it, but money committed in other ways might be better.

    Between players not being fully committed, medically unfit, or confusing allocations in the first place there is a lot of balance issues that aren’t adequately correctable later. Most of those problems were known pre-allocation and still an intelligent distribution of players didn’t happen. Why give two teams both two players who would be gone half the season? Why not spread that out to other teams? And anyone want to take a stab at explaining Portland without referencing mustache twirling shadowy figures, final hour demands, and Nike HQ influence? Didn’t think so. That’s what no transparency gets you.

    Compensation for inequalities has been eyebrow raising too. The Spirit and Reign discrepancy? Not giving Reign an extension to scramble and find someone who has to be 80% of their offense this season? They had less than two days at the end of free agency to rustle up someone to fill an already hard to find type of player. I’ll complain for them since they’ve been polite enough to only appear chagrined at their situation instead of a stronger word that would fit better.

    That said, I just want the season to start. I’ll support the teams I’ll support even if they need a treasure map to find the back of the net because of how crazy their roster building was.

    • Steglitz49

      I am with Diane, below, when she makes a distinction between designated players gone for the whole season and those missing some weeks. How does one replace a DP valued at $100k or $200k, who can’t play for a full season? $25k seems totally inadequate.

      One way forward could be for teams like the Reign to find a player from a poor part of the world and make the claim that they will bring this young lady to play here but $25k does not cut the mustard. Please could the federation give them $50k (ie 1/2 to 1/4 of the worth of the original DP) and the team will stump up $10k, making a total package of $60k.

      The season will start. The matches will be great. The stands had better be overflowing!

      • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

        More money certainly could have helped Reign but even twice the amount wouldn’t help when there was no extension granted for their search. With Adriana and DeVanna already taken I’m really curious to who they might have turned up. Most good strikers/offensive minded players are well accounted for around the world. Time spent finding a good player from lesser known countries would take more than two days. Finding a striker anywhere in two days seems like a long shot. S.Korea? China? Maybe Seattle fans are the only ones who care at this point. Hopefully the league won’t force a Portland/Seattle rivalry on us. At this point it seems silly. Maybe Hope can get some time up front. :)

        • Kernel Thai

          Well it’s impossible to speculate who Seattle might have signed as we still dont who has been signed. This is exactly what u get when u make things up as u go along. The fact that USSoccer didnt think it was a problem to short WNY 1 player showed u exactly how this was going to go.

          • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

            They jokingly said Abby was worth two players when asked about that. If teams had more input in who they got and knew up front getting Abby would mean that then fine I guess. But as players were allocated to teams in a mysterious fashion stuff like Abby for the Flash and Reign and Spirit’s situation of being intentionally burdened with two players missing half the season it all gets muddied.

            I’d rather be in WNY’s situation than a team like Reign to be honest. At least the Flash knew early on their situation can build a roster without all those late moving parts. They just have to account for one more player which I believe expanded their cap limit. And since they have their offense sorted out between Abby, Perez, and Carli, along with Adriana now they are a strong team despite the weirdness. Reign had to buy an offense late (cross fingers on that) as well as players to overlap with who they will be missing til June, and the rest of their roster too.

          • Steglitz49

            My money is on FCKC (LFCKC?).

          • Kernel Thai

            If Im Seattle Id look into trading Rapinoe or Noyola. Neither will arrive til June and they need help now. If WNY were interested in Noyola, IM sure returning Veronica Perez to the Seattle area would interest them. Seattle might need to add a player to make it work. Rapinoe has a lot of value and would be worth a WNTer and an additional player to a team better able to wait for her to return. U might even get Portland, who would love to have Rapinoe, to give u Heath and another good player.

          • http://www.phasedma.com Anthony

            I’d give Perez for Heath, but that’s my pipe dream.

          • Steglitz49

            If Lyon is pleased with Ms Rapinoe and PSG with Ms Heath, they will do their upmost to get them to sign on for at least another season and preferably two. If that becomes a reality, neither may bother to play in NWSL after the first season. This opens up the opportunity for young hopefuls to pull on the first team jersey.

        • Steglitz49

          A team has to have a plan B and even a plan C. They should have a list of players who at the drop of a hat would jump ship. That’s the scouts’ job. The strength in depth in USA is enormous.

          PSG acquired Lindsey Horan before she even went to UNC. If the gnomes of St Germain can scout in USA should not American teams be able to find young hopefuls? The U-20s just won their world cup so a dozen young ladies should have been on everyone’s brains.

          Some teams have suffered minimal damage and some may not suffer at all at the end of the day. For example, DC Spirit worry about Ms Harris, but her club Duisburg is in desperate financial straights and one way of minimizing expenses is to let players leave early.

          The Reign have a fair complaint. Ms Rapinoe has taken the gastronomical €uro and her services are lost till maybe mid June! OK. Portland’s Ms Heath will also be sampling the delights of snails and frogs’ legs and hopefully mastering the art of the French kitchen. Ms Noyola plays in Holland and may not be available — I do not understand why not, so I guess I missed an event. ARod, as we know, is expecting but it is no secret that she got married.

          Extra money or lifting the 200k ceiling are all fair points.

          • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

            If this was an established team with years of time together, years of relationships with players developing around the world, years of time spent together as an org with seasoned scouts then yes, I’d expect they’d have a long list of obscure yet good players they could tap into. Perhaps even with two days notice. With how quickly this league came together and this team being new somehow I doubt that is the case. Recall how difficult it was for longtime media and fans to come up with a free agent list in general for everyone here to look over.

        • http://www.facebook.com/eric.bauer.71619 Eric Bauer

          It’s more than Seattle fans that care–believe me (I’m in Wisconsin). I am baffled as to how the league thought that saying, “you get to pick another player” was enough compensation–as if top strikers just magically appear in the streets every time it rains in Seattle. It would be tough to replace Rodriguez given 2 months, let alone 2 days. I agree with you when you say you want the league to progress to a point where they aren’t so reliant on federation money, but at least there IS a league. I wonder how they are going to run free agency in years to come, and how they will handle new teams coming into the league. Pretty scary stuff.

          • Steglitz49

            I think people are making more of this issue than it is. The NWSL is 8 teams while most other countries have 12 teams in their leagues. Every year in America 1500+ soccer playing ladies come off the NCAA assembly line. Granted, not all of those intend to go on playing but even if just 5% were interested that is 75 players, almost 10 per NWSL team.

            One of the greatest forward lines of all time was the Grenoli of Milan. The story is told of how this fabulous trio ended up there. Milan in 1948 really wanted to sign a different player but Juventus was after him also, and when that chap changed trains in Switzerland, lo there was the Juventus agent with a fat contract so he signed and got on the train to Turin. Milan were a bit annoyed but contacted Nordahl’s agent and Nordahl came and tested and was signed, but he said “I am nothing without Gren and Liedholm” so Milan acquired those also. Their nicknames in Italy became “Il cannoniere”, “Il professore” and “Il barone”. Liedholm stayed in Italy, became a legendary manager (many of today’s top managers trained under him) and when he died all Italian players wore black armbands in his honor. The guy who changed trains in Switzerland is totally forgotten. Today we have the web, e-mail and Twitter and heaven knows what. If Juventus and Milan could pull such stunts 65 years ago ….

  • Kernel Thai

    There r a lot of questions that need to be answered,
    1. What’s the difference between getting allocated a blank slot (WNY) and a player out for the season (Seattle/Chicago)? Answer…they r the same.
    2. R the allocated players joining their teams in June getting paid for a full season and if not where is that money going? Answer should be back to the teams.
    3. If allocated player arent treated like free agents in trades or pay why r they treated like free agents when they need to be replaced? Answer…they shouldnt be…it should fall the the feds to supply the promised number of players not pass the problem along to the teams.

    • Steglitz49

      1. At the time of allocation, was it known that those players would be out for the season?

      2. One assumes that the players who have contracts at other clubs get paid by those clubs till they join their NWSL teams.

      3. In principle yes, but what sort of contracts did the DPs sign with their federations? There ought to have been clauses relating to and dealing with indisposition, injuries and natural events (eg pregnancy). Without knowing how those contracts were structured, it is all speculation.

      4. Since no team gets relegated, at least not in the first season, it really is a bit of a storm in a tea-cup, is it not? In most European leagues 2 teams get relegated though the French relegate 3 teams. In the NWSL coming 2nd or 8th is all the same: losing. And, there is neither a Cup nor a CL to worry about.

      • Kernel Thai

        4. Yeah but everyone really wants to get off on the right foot. Everyone want s be competitive out of the gate to take advantage of being the new thing.

        • Steglitz49

          No-one has tried to do what the NWSL is attempting in the set-up phase. Of course, there will be teething problems. The NWSL must try to put a positive spin on each event, instead of fans whining and winging that life is not fair.

          Well understood, it is easy to put a positive spin on getting pregnant but how does the PR-bureau handle injuries? Or, going after the foreign coin? That is why we have PR-companies and marketing experts. That is their job.

      • http://www.phasedma.com Anthony

        You keep talking about relegation. That just isn’t going to happen. No US league that I know of does that to begin with. For other leagues like… *Maybe* MLS/USL it would make sense, but for the NWSL? Not a fat chance. You need teams that are financially strong and for that reason alone you don’t want to mess around with relegation. You would have teams going bankrupt left and right…. Meanwhile the relegated team would crush the lower league and always win the championship.

        • Steglitz49

          Given the size and population of Canada, Mexico and USA, they ought to be able to have 8 leagues of 8-12 teams each, maybe ultimately 16 leagues of 8 teams. While the NWSL is in the growth phase relegation is not necessary.

          Why the European and south-American FAs went for the structure of a league with relegation coupled with a domestic cup competition a soccer historian would need to explain. Presumably it was modeled on how England ran its game, but the model clearly fitted everywhere otherwise a different one would have been created.

          Relegation creates excitement at the bottom end right up to the bitter end. Relegation is often a disaster for those being sent down, both on the men’s as well as the ladies’ side. Ladies’ teams often go bankrupt or bounce back the next season (those are usually the ones belonging to a wealthy men’s club).

          It could be argued that men’s soccer got destabilized when tons of money entered the European leagues about 20 years ago. UEFA chose to walk on the leash of Capital instead of taking a leaf out of the NFL’s book. The net effect is that men’s soccer is dominated by a dozen wealthy teams. Sadly, ladies’ soccer seems to be going down that route also.

          • http://www.phasedma.com Anthony

            Let me be clear that I’m not strictly against relegation. I think the concept is interesting at the very least. My problem is (and I think we are on the same page) the NWSL is in no condition to even consider that type of system at the moment.

            You clearly know what you are talking about when it comes to soccer and I find your commentary extremely engaging, but I think you are extremely ambitious of the immediate potential of soccer in North America.

            I don’t think North America could support 8 men’s leagues much less woman’s. Just look at the mess that is the USL/NASL. If we can’t figure out our 2nd and 3rd levels of soccer leagues without pathetic infighting how are we supposed to figure out the 4th, 5th and beyond leagues? And MLS has NO desire to even consider relegation. Why? Their terrified teams like Rochester would get in without paying the 10s of millions for a expansion team. Not only would they lose out of the money, but they would tick off the ownership’s of teams that did pay that money… Because frankly Rochester would eventually move up and established teams would move down. MLS just is not, and never has been strong enough to keep the “strong” teams in the league. Take the embrasement of the 99 US Open Cup. MLS had already been heavily burned by Rochester previously and they still managed to blow the final game. Anyways. I’m rambling.

            So with the above in mind you are suggesting that the women’s side can do any better? I have no desire to give woman’s soccer anything but praise but… We can’t even keep a league going for more than 3 years for crying out loud. The fact is these leagues need strong owners like Dan Borislow (with bullet proof contracts), Joe Sahlen and MLS ownership’s. Not strong teams, and certainly not 1 or 2 strong teams. If you have a strong owner you will get a strong team. I also think having both the Reign and Sounders is a huge mistake… You just don’t need the amorosity that creates in the same city.

          • Steglitz49

            Thank you for your kind words.

            Women’s pro-soccer the world over is an artificial activity in that it is subsidized. The sources of subsidy vary from country to country. Rarely, wealthy private individuals give the ladies’ teams substantial amounts of money. Local government provide some funding because it is seen as a good thing for girls to do sports. Finally, following Lyon’s and PSG’s lead, wealthy men’s clubs in Europe are increasing their spending, though, to be fair, Arsenal always subsidized their ladies. In France and the UK, the government has put pressure on the men’s teams and FAs to help the ladies, again under the good for the girls umbrella.

            In America there are no wealthy men’s teams able to help. Also, one can imagine that they are concerned of competition for the same pool. The strength in women’s soccer NTs of USA and Canada is essentially based on the NCAA and high school systems. This, of course, puts a bit of a spanner in the works for running a pro-league, which in Europe and Japan essentially consists of 18-28:years old ladies with some older players. Nevertheless, to run a pro-league for women, a source of basic funding is needed because the ladies’ version of soccer does not make money. Attendances in Europe and Japan are low, and seem sensitive to external economic variation, presumably because the money comes out of the family budgets, not from the excess money that single men aged 20-35 have compared with women.

            Nevertheless, globally the world needs a vibrant NWSL. How that is achieved is a nice problem to have. At the end of the day women’s pro-soccer is a product that has to be sold. If nobody buys it, the system will go out of business, as it did twice before. Maybe time to think in new patterns. Also , to think that 8 teams can satisfy the desires and aspirations of young women in a region with about 400 million inhabitants seems disconnected from reality.

          • http://www.phasedma.com Anthony

            8 teams for 400 million people? I see where you are going with that. However how many of that 400 million are real fans? I’m not talking about people that watch the World Cup or Olympics, or *maybe* a victory tour. I’m talking about the people that would watch a over seas game on TV.

            I don’t think that the percentage of people that would watch women’s soccer outside of home markets is big at all. I agree though that 8 teams is not enough if only because of geographical traveling issues.

            But putting a bunch of teams in LA and Vancouver doesn’t solve the problem of getting a ton of fans from non league cities to watch. Okay… Maybe a little, but not anywhere near enough. Plus the NWSL only has room for 3 more teams with their current model, which is to put a large amount of talent on each team (3 NTers per team – 1 for WNY / 2 = 3.5). Each team needs at least 2 NTers I think anyways.

          • Steglitz49

            I do not know what the way forward is. If I did, I would not be typing in these comment fields. I would be out there earning the big lolly!

            2-3 years ago, it looked like ladies’ football was a Pacific rim sort of thing. Today, that is no longer so. UEFA has managed to estalish the CL as a most coveted team trophy. Well understood, European lady soccer players want UEFA to run a Cup-Winners’ Cup also. That is, probably, pie in the sky at the moment.

            A NWS 64 team knock-out competition would mean one team per USA state + one per Canadian province + some from Mexico. Maybe go for a 128 team format straight away. The FA Cup can be the model if you do not think that the CL format will fit the bill. Cup competiton gives space for giant killers. OK. Travel is an issue. Solve it!

            I doubt if the franchise model can work for ladies’ football. A sport that does not make money can hardly fit a franchise model. Of course, USA, Canada and Mexico can field reasonale teams based on varsity and high school teams but USA has not won the World Cup since 1999 and Canada never. In soccer, the Olympics have not cut any ice since 1948. The only ladies Olympic soccer tournament that anyone might possibly remember is Sydney 2000 — but then the Sydney Olympics were magical.

  • Gretel

    Mr. Jeff, I have a question, when the article talks about

    “Nor can the league predict the Ongoing uncertainty surrounding U.S. goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris When Mexican defense and will be available Alina Garciamendez.”

    you mean, that if they start or not the season with DC? that’s the main uncertainty? but Ashlyn Harris then be incorporated with the team, right? as expected to do PInoe

    I am interested particularly the situation of Ashlyn Harris…. Thanks