Changes are Coming to the Domestic Status of Canadians in MLS

MLS, Canada Soccer, and U.S. Soccer have agreed to changes to the designation of homegrown Canadian MLS players.

As of the 2017 season, homegrown Canadian players will be considered domestic players at all MLS clubs. This is a change to the existing rules relating to domestic and international roster spots, opening the door for Canadian players to be considered domestic players on U.S. teams, instead of taking up limited international spots.

MLS, Canada Soccer, and U.S. Soccer announced on Wednesday that any player who meets the requirements to qualify as a Homegrown Player as a member of an MLS club academy, or has met similar requirements as a member of a Canadian Approved Youth Club, will count as a domestic player. The policy comes with a couple of caveats, namely:

The player must have become a member of an MLS academy or Canadian Approved Youth Club in the year prior to turning 16; AND
The player must have signed his first professional contract with and MLS club or their USL affiliate.

A Small Step

This updated policy is a small step towards addressing the huge disadvantage faced by Canadian MLS players. Under the existing rules, American players on Canadian teams count as domestic, but Canadian players on American teams are designated as international.

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This means that Canadian players are competing for international spots on every American team (eight spots per team, although spots can be traded between teams). And on the Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact, and Toronto FC rosters, Canadians have to compete with American players for domestic spots. The end result is a massive under-representation of Canadian players in the MLS.

Canada Soccer president Victor Montagliani has been outspoken about the need to address this disparity:

"“It is always going to create a glass ceiling when a Canadian passport makes you a second-class citizen in a league where three of your teams play. Until that is dealt with, it is always going to be a challenge to put the Canadian flag equal to the American flag in MLS.”"

The argument has always been that treating Canadians as domestic players in the U.S. would violate U.S. immigration law. Apparently no one has pointed that out in the USL, Canadian citizens playing for American teams are considered domestic. No one seems to have been arrested yet.

The three Canadian teams all provide strong markets with well-attended teams, and are clearly a boost to the league. These rule updates come at a time when Toronto FC have just become the first Canadian team to reach the final of the MLS Cup, smashing Canadian soccer viewership records. An average of 1.4 million people watched the second leg of the Toronto-Montreal Eastern Conference Final, breaking the record for Canada’s most watched MLS game in history. The previous record was set the week before during the first leg.

Nine Canadian Players Affected

While the rule change is a step in the right direction, it’s hardly going to have a huge effect at this time. MLS released a list of the players whose status has changed. There are nine players on the list, and they all play for Canadian teams:

Jean-Yves Table (Montreal)
David Choiniere (Montreal)
Quillan Roberts (Toronto)
Jordan Hamilton (Toronto)
Alphonso Davies (Vancouver)
Marco Bustos (Vancouver)
Marco Carducci (Vancouver)
Russell Teibert (Vancouver)

The new rules are simultaneously ridiculously strict and vague. Canadians who got their break at academies abroad, like Junior Hoilett and David Edgar, would not be considered domestic players. There’s a good breakdown at aftn.ca about the impact of the new rules on specific players.

At the same time, the reference to ‘Canadian Approved Youth Clubs’ is vague. MLS is still working on defining what those clubs are.

Generation adidas Canada

The league also announced that the Generation adidas program is coming to Canada. MLS will work with Canada Soccer to identify top Canadian talent and sign them to Generation adidas contracts. Generation adidas Canada players will be made available to MLS clubs each January through the MLS SuperDraft. Their salaries do not count against the salary cap until the players graduate from the program.

The new Canadian Premier League, due to start in 2018, may help produce quality players of the Canadian team. Nevertheless, providing more roster spots for Canadian players in MLS should go a long way towards making the league feel like a joint American-Canadian league, rather than an American league that happens to have some Canadian teams in it.