FCB Miami: Obstacles for Barcelona's MLS bid

author: Jack Bell
source: New York Times
date: 11 December 2008
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com





It is better than even money that Barcelona’s joint bid for an MLS expansion team in Miami will win approval in March, but the Spanish club might want to consider some potential pitfalls of such a move.

Barcelona’s bid, in concert with the Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure, is widely believed to be among the favorites for one of the two teams that are scheduled to begin play in 2011. Barcelona officials, however, have made it known that they would be prepared to jump in a year earlier if the opportunity arose. Earlier this year the club signed a strategic partnership with MLS, which may bring the club to the United States this summer and could provide other benefits.

There have been some questions about Barcelona’s motivation for entering a team in MLS. And there are two things peculiar to the American league that might give pause to Barcelona and its partner.

First, there is a widely held notion that Barcelona and other European clubs are “interested” in the United States market only to sell jerseys. There is some truth to that, but in Barcelona’s case, officials have made clear that any new team in Miami would not, in fact could not, wear the club’s famous blue and red jerseys; not to mention its many other permutations.

The blue and red jersey worn by the club in Spain, in Europe and around the world, is under contract to Nike, and MLS is a few years into an exclusive deal with Adidas. Would the new club even be able to sell the Spanish team’s jersey at its stadium on the campus of Florida International University?

Second, Barcelona’s chief executive Joan Laporta said the day the bid was announced that the new club would be able to benefit by using players at Barcelona academies in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico; hoping to showcase the young talent and possibly sell players on to European clubs. But how would the club get around the single-entity system where MLS owns all player contracts?

Changes may be made to the league’s structure, salary budget and perhaps the designated player rule when MLS and the union that represents its players negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement at the end of 2009. There is no telling how long it will take or what changes would be made.

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