NEW YORK, NY – Major League Soccer will hold the 2011 MLS Expansion Draft via conference call on Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2 p.m. ET.
The League’s 19th team, the Montreal Impact, will select 10 players during the 10-round draft.
Each current MLS club will have the opportunity to protect 11 players from their 2011 roster.
Generation adidas players (who will not graduate at the end of the 2011 season) and Homegrown Players on the team’s Off-budget Roster are automatically protected and do not count against each team’s 11 protected roster spots. Designated Players do not have to be protected unless the player has a no trade clause in his contract.
Clubs must submit their protected roster to MLS on Monday, November 21. The protected rosters will be made public later that day.
Expansion Draft Rules
• MLS Clubs may protect 11 players between their On-budget and their Off-budget Roster. If the Player’s contract expires at the end of 2011, he will still be considered part of the club’s roster.
• If a club protects a player, it is not obligated to exercise the player’s option. It may renegotiate subject to terms of the new CBA.
• If a player retires, he will not be a part of the club’s roster, but his club will lose its right of first refusal to him should he ultimately decide to play.
• Players on a club’s Off-budget Roster, other than Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2011 MLS Season or Homegrown Players on a Club’s Off-budget Roster, will be part of the expansion draft.
• Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2011 MLS Season and Homegrown Players on a club’s Off-budget Roster at the end of the 2011 MLS Season are automatically protected (Clubs do not have to use a protected slot on them).
• Clubs are restricted in the number of international player(s) that they may make available. Clubs may make available a number of international players equal to their total number of international players minus three, provided that if a club has three or fewer international players it may make available not more than one. (See table below).
• For purposes of this expansion process, for US-based clubs, any non-domestic US player would count as an International and, for Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps, any non-domestic US player or non-domestic Canadian players would count as an International.
• Designated players are NOT automatically protected (i.e., clubs must choose whether to protect such players and if such player is not protected, he will be available for selection in the Expansion Draft). However, if the Designated Player has a no-trade clause in his contract, then his MLS club must protect him and he will count as one of the 11 players who may be protected.
• Once a player has been claimed from a team’s non-protected roster, that team is eliminated from the expansion draft and may not lose any further players.
• Rounds: The expansion draft will be 10 rounds.
(Source: Major League Soccer)
Tweet
