mls

Had anyone ever played the mls leagues and if so how does it all work ie rosters etc?

I'll repost something I put up in a different thread:

I'm an American and none of the rules seem all that weird to me. And you can release players, you "Waive" them. That releases them from your team, the only effective difference is that other MLS clubs can - if they want to - immediately take on his current contract. Like say I waive Bob Midfielder who is on a 3 year, $30,000 a year contract. If someone else in MLS could use him they claim him off waivers and he keeps his 3 year, $30,000 a year contract with his new club. If no one in MLS wants the player he "clears" waivers and can renegotiate a contract with any club - in or out of MLS.

A third or so of the way into the season though you'll pass a "contract guarantee date" which means even if you waive a player beyond that point that $30,000 would still count against your salary cap as if he was still on your team for the rest of that season. So get your team straight before that date happens. It's kind of like a registration window that closes.

This reflects the idea that the players are owned by the league as a whole first, then 'assigned' to a team. That is the basic thing you have to keep in mind when managing MLS. MLS is one entity with franchises that share players. That's why there's a draft to distribute youth talent, that's why there's a waiver wire, that's why players can be traded "straight up" for each other. Keep that in mind and the rules start to make sense.

Download the FM North America EDT though, it adds a lot of lower league American teams (including tons of colleges and universities where most American youth players still come from - not soccer academies) and really improves the quality of players in the draft.

So in short:

* Players can be acquired through transfers - though your budgets for making them will be small. Getting veteran players off free transfer is an effective strategy here.

* Players can be acquired or disposed of through the Waiver Wire. Which, as described above, is a list of players no longer wanted by their team but still owned by the league.

* Players can be acquired or disposed of through trades for draft picks (more on that in a second), international or DP slots, or each other.

* Players can be acquired through the MLS Draft - which is how the nation's youth players are distributed to MLS teams.

In addition:

* The draft happens once a year, and it distributes youth players from lower domestic divisions to MLS teams. Teams draft in reverse order of points. Worst first, and so on.

* Rosters are much smaller than your typical European team as there are no reserves and no youth teams. When I play MLS this means I tend to play a Starting XI, a rigid 7 man second team rotation, and have a handful of talented young players who I keep in my squad and get as many starts as possible. This is meant to prevent one team from hoarding too much talent from the others, but human players will still end up with a superior club in a reasonable amount of time.

* There is a wage cap in the league with two exceptions. For Designated Players (like David Beckham) only $400k of their total salary counts against the cap. Anything beyond it is "extra." Also, Developmental and Generation Adidas (Youth Players) contracts also do not count against the cap. So talented Developmental/GA players are very desirable.

* For the Designated Player slot, on the squad page where you'd normally ask your Assman for a Team Report or Team Talk Feedback, under where you'd also ask for Loan Reports is an option to have him do a Designated Player report. Do this frequently and you'll get an idea of who is out there who would accept a DP offer from your club. As for who to get, someone who touches the ball a lot - like an Advanced Playmaker - is a very solid choice. Examples I've had are Tomas Rosicky (in the second year usually), Emmanuel Adebayor (honestly no idea how I swung that one. Year fourish), Fernando Gago. If you use FMScout and want to try your luck for DP players beyond your Assman's recommendation, search the world for players of 145+ PA who are listed as Backups or No Longer Needed, once you find one who will take your offer, add his Reputation numbers to your search and narrow it down again. Then you'll have a pretty long list of options.

* Finally, buy South American and African players if you're going young. European youths are too expensive for you. An exception in one of my games is Lacina Traore, who I brought in to backup, learn from, and eventually replace Brian McBride for the Fire. So basically... poorer countries are where you want to get players from. Otherwise you probly won't be able to afford them.

cheers have much better understanding!

I didn't realise that you could get your ass man to do DP search!! I keep searching for players and hoping their quality is enough to offer DP contract but either the board don't feel he is good enough and so I can only offer normal contract or they are asking for so much my board limit it. Also, I thought all the DP contract didn't count against wage cap?

I'll try and simplify it a bit more for those more used to managing in other leagues.

Player contracts (4 types)

Senior: This is your main contract for most of your squad.

Designated Player (DP): A star player contract (eg Beckham at LA Galaxy). You may have 0, 1 or 2 of these players depending on trades as you can "sell" your slot for the season to another team.

Development: These are like youth contracts with fixed salaries. Younger players upto around 23yo may accept these contracts.

Generation Adidas: The MLS give these contracts each season to around 10-15 of the brightest talents in the draft. You can't offer these contracts but you take them over when you draft the player. Very similar to a development contract except the players normally earn more.

Team

The first difference you'll notice is that you don't have a youth or reserve team, you only have one squad.

During the off-season you can have as many players as you like but you need to cut your squad when the season starts to meet squad rules. Any players not included in your squad when the season starts are waived and leave your team (like a free transfer).

Main Squad Rules

* You can have a maximum of 24 players but only upto 20 on a senior or DP contract. To have the full 24 at least 4 must be on a Dev or GA contract.

* There are limits to the number of international players you can have.

* There is a wage cap but Dev & GA contracts don't count towards it while only a part of your DP contract(s) does.

Other Main Differences

* The Draft - This is instead of of your youth intake at the beginning of the season except the players can be upto around 23yo. There are four rounds and you get to pick one player in each round (unless traded away). You then agree a contract with them and they join you. Young players you spot/scout playing for amateur clubs in the USA/Canada can't be signed until they have been through the draft.

* Waivers & Waiver Draft - When squads are cut down excess players are "waived" (free transferred). If a player you want is waived you can apply to take over their contract immediately. If several clubs are interested the player goes to the club with the higher pick in the waiver draft and that club drops to the bottom of the "pick list" A few weeks after you finalise your squad there is a second draft containing all the players that have been cut from squads.

* Any player you sign after the initial squad selection date can join your team but you immediately have to cut/waive another player to keep within the squad rules (Presuming you are already at your limits).

Transfers

* The MLS own the player contracts so take a cut (33%?) of any player you sell. I think they also pay for Dev & GA contracts but I'm not 100% on that.

* Instead of a transfer budget you have an "allocation fund" but it works in the same way.

* When you buy/sell a player to another MLS team you can also trade players, DP slots, international player slots & draft picks as part of the deal.

Have you been able to offer players to other clubs for allocation or picks? The only option I have is to offer players for a DP slot

No, that feature hasn't made it into the game as of yet.

Word of advice- if you plan on playing more than one season of MLS, you'll want to download the FMRTE to make the draft viable. Typically, I take the first 15 players (the ones selected as Generation Adidas players) and give them either a. a high starting CA (typically 100-110) or b. a high PA if they're below the age of 20 (145 or so.) For the rest of the players, I usually pick an additional twenty or so and give them CA/PA ratings in the 90+/130 range and adjust their attributes to give them a realistic chance at playing for an MLS squad- it's not uncommon to see a DC with 7 acceleration, 16 balance and 13 pace...with 6 strength. As a final touch, I'll look at the foreign players available for the draft and give them ratings around the 85/120 mark to help build some of the international squads (Zimbabwe and Nigeria seem to pop up alot in the draft.)

Have you been able to offer players to other clubs for allocation or picks? The only option I have is to offer players for a DP slot

Currently, this is all you can do. If you do this and a team comes back with an offer, you can't adjust it to include draft picks/players/international slots.

No, that feature hasn't made it into the game as of yet.

Word of advice- if you plan on playing more than one season of MLS, you'll want to download the FMRTE to make the draft viable. Typically, I take the first 15 players (the ones selected as Generation Adidas players) and give them either a. a high starting CA (typically 100-110) or b. a high PA if they're below the age of 20 (145 or so.) For the rest of the players, I usually pick an additional twenty or so and give them CA/PA ratings in the 90+/130 range and adjust their attributes to give them a realistic chance at playing for an MLS squad- it's not uncommon to see a DC with 7 acceleration, 16 balance and 13 pace...with 6 strength. As a final touch, I'll look at the foreign players available for the draft and give them ratings around the 85/120 mark to help build some of the international squads (Zimbabwe and Nigeria seem to pop up alot in the draft.)

Downloading FM North America's EDT also helps with this because it adds a bunch of teams in addition to making the lower leagues and college teams playable.

Is there a link for the FM North America's EDT.. I did a google search and couldn't see it..

Thanks for the help everyone, it was killing me that I couldn't offer my players to other teams before their contract was up for draft picks.

Is there a link for the FM North America's EDT.. I did a google search and couldn't see it..

Thanks for the help everyone, it was killing me that I couldn't offer my players to other teams before their contract was up for draft picks.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=201026