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MLS’ Discovery Rule is attracting plenty of attention because of the dispute between Orlando City and DC United over the dealings with Milan midfielder Antonio Nocerino. DC United has a discovery claim on the player and were attempting to negotiate with him until it emerged that Orlando City had offered him a contract worth about 22% more annually. Orlando City had already been fined when Adrian Heath made public overtures about wanting to sign Sporting Kansas City’s forward Dom Dwyer, and if they are found guilty of tampering, more fines and other penalties could be in the offing.

Before delving into the usefulness of the rule, it is important to understand why the rule exists to begin with. MLS is still a single-entity league with artificial limits imposed on salary. The rule was created to prevent bidding wars between MLS clubs for players in which the salaries would go over market value as determined by the league since they control the contracts. In times gone by, this was necessary in order to keep clubs above water on salaries so they weren’t paying players far beyond what they were worth in a world where salaries were rapidly escalating without end. And it is only natural to assume that many in the league expected disputes over discovery signings to be minimal and kept in house, too.

The Discovery Signing also served a useful purpose in maintaining league harmony. Single-entity structures only succeed if everyone is (mostly) on board, and the rule allowed for owners to limit their investment in a calculated manner while keeping everyone on board and content. Owners also owned multiple teams at the time of the rule’s creation, so the number of mouths to feed was dramatically smaller than it was today. The owners at that time also had much deeper hooks into the league than some of the news owners today, including and especially Orlando City’s brass.

So this controversy is about a rule that may have run its course that has pit an MLS “legacy” franchise against an expansion team from last season that has a history of ruffling a few feathers. And while the rule can be considered draconian, there are restrictions on it. Discovery claims are not permanent, and each team can only have seven of them at a time, and these lists are not public. However, teams would be made aware of them if they made a discovery claim on a player that was already on another team’s list, as is the case. After a certain amount of time, another team can purchase the discovery rights for $50,000 in allocation money if the club who holds the rights doesn’t make an “objectively reasonable” offer. Is DC United’s offer of $700,000 per year over two years “objectively reasonable” compared to $900,000 per year over two years? Only MLS can make this decision. If it is, then DC United holds all the cards and Nocerino could effectively be held at ransom if he doesn’t want to play in Washington.

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Disputes over discovery signings are usually resolved without much incident and often go unpublicized unless the player in question is one of some stature, such as Didier Drogba last year (Chicago held his rights, which were then bought by Montreal). Usually the league office steps in before disputes like this become public, but this instance is extenuating particularly because Orlando City is involved. Whatever the resolution, what does this say about this particular mechanism for signing players? Is it going anywhere?

The long and short answer: No. MLS is still a league with artificially deflated salaries and all player contracts are owned by the league, so they still have a vested interest in preventing bidding wars for players exactly like Nocerino. If you take the league’s spin at face value, they are still losing money, so this is a business decision in which they have a vested interest in. Whether that is true or not is up for debate, but as the player’s union did not try to remove the discovery signing from the recent CBA, it is still there, and figures to remain there even though the league can change the rules on a whim.

In effect, MLS may say this is the exact sort of situation the rule was designed to prevent, and therefore is working perfectly. In a warped way, that is 100% correct. Nocerino has stated that he wants to play in the United States, and before the news of Orlando City’s offer to him was made public, it seemed that he was content with playing for DC for the salary offered to him.

MLS’ roster rules are an entangled web of mystery, riddles and enigmas. The Discovery Rule is one of the many, and even though this is the one that’s getting the press today, tomorrow it could easily be another rule.

The league has designed everything this way for a reason, and even if it stifles a free market, their plans are working perfectly.