MLS: Summer transfer window will be wild
The financial implications of COVID-19 are just beginning to hit home. In football, they will entirely change the nature of the summer transfer window, including MLS.
The COVID-19 pandemic will have impacts untold. Even at this early stage, it is clear that the world over will change as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. And football, despite being so often distanced from normal life, will not be any different.
The most impacted area is expected to be the transfer window. These are the areas in which teams most lavishly spend, and, after losing revenue for three-plus months, teams have less money than ever to invest in such ludicrous prices.
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This will extend to Major League Soccer teams, too. MLS, to its credit, is one of the most financially prudent leagues in world sport. Players are paid on time, contracts rarely go unfulfilled, and clubs are sensibly run with extremely wealthy owners. However, while MLS has been well-run and the teams apart of it have huge financial backing, clubs will still be impacted by an extended period with no revenue, as any organisation in any industry would be.
And the transfer market, which is a place that MLS teams have made massive strides in recent years, will change as a result, starting this summer.
FC Dallas head coach Luchi Gonzalez discussed the changes to the transfer market that will come as a result of COVID-19. He explained how there will be plenty of grey areas.
“FIFA and MLS and the leagues are going to try and do what’s fair,” Gonzalez told mlssoccer.com. “I think there will be a lot of exceptions this year, I think every league will have a lot of exceptions with FIFA. You have player transfers, maybe some clubs are going to want to hold a player because they didn’t get to fulfil their last few months of their contract. You’ll get some interesting disputes, I’m sure. I don’t see this being some black-and-white thing.”
There are so many spinning plates that it is impossible to predict. The first decision to make in if, when and how the current season returns, and that goes for every country in the world. You cannot have a European summer transfer window when the Premier League is still playing but Ligue 1 has finished, for instance. And if some seasons are extended, what happens with expiring contracts, players on loan deals, the injuries that these players then might suffer before they want to look for a new team.
These are the grey areas that Gonzalez highlights, and while it is especially pertinent for European leagues whose calendar revolves around the summer transfer window, it will be impactful for MLS too.
For example, take Jurgen Locadia, who is currently at FC Cincinnati on a six-month loan from Brighton which will expire on June 30th. Does the loan deal automatically extend? What happens with his contract with Brighton? Can Brighton legally sell him on a permanent deal when Cincinnati only got two games out of his loan deal? And what about all the fees involved?
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The summer transfer window, then, and likely the many transfer windows after that, will be utterly changed by the coronavirus. MLS — and football around the world — will not look the same for a long time.