Who cares about All Stars, let’s talk Rule 5 and Futbol
Posted on | July 16, 2009 | No Comments
The All Star game was two nights ago. It is a mockery of baseball and I will not watch it until we have a new commissioner that realizes that it should not decide which league has home field in the World Series. The whole thing was made boring and self-serving by ESPN in the mid to late 90s, something I realized when I was a pimple faced teenager watching Brett Boone, bat flipping second base douchebag, a one time All-Star yak it up with Harold Reynolds or some equally idiotic ex-ball player.
As my own futile rebellion against this destruction of the Midsummer Classic, I cannot even watch the Home Run Derby with sound without going insane, is to subject the two readers of this blog to a simple analysis of MLB’s Rule 4 and 5 draft and how it relates to football (which on this blog is used instead of soccer). Since, most people don’t know about either of these rules or football, I also see this as a public service – rebel with a cause if you will.
Let’s start with baseball before getting into third rail of sports commentary. The Rule 4 draft in June of amateurs – high school and college – is the straightforward acquisition of young talent. Most draftees are signed to minor league contracts and placed in the minors to develop their abilities, with a very select few signing major league contracts immediately. The Rule 5 draft in December consists of teams picking minor leaguers not on a team’s 40 man roster. The 40 man roster is the 40 guys that have a major league contact with the team, as opposed to a minor league contract. The club can only have 25 men up at the Major league level at a time, with the other 15 in the minors, typically Triple A. Because these 15 reservist have a major league contract, which provides them certain rights over a minor league contract, the team can quickly bring them up to the majors, as needed.
Players selected in the December Rule 5 draft must serve on the 25 man roster for a minimum of 90 days which is a lot given baseball players get maybe 5 days off a month. There are a few more rules concerning releasing players to waivers, etc. but you can read more about that here. The purpose of the Rule 5 draft is to create a market for younger players who are not amateurs and not on a 40 man roster (everyone on the ‘teh Interwebs’ says Rule 5 prevents teams from hoarding younger players, the size of the roster and the need to perform every year prevent that, Rule 5 is creating a market just as Rule 4 does with amateurs).
Essentially, its a way for players to get up to the majors if they’ve hit a glass ceiling in their current organization, for teams to fill out any offseason needs before they start planning for the Rule 4 – typically pitching, defense and speed – and for Major League Baseball to stay competitive at both the major and minor league levels – people do go to see minor league games, who can afford a $1250 Yankees ticket.
In football, on the other hand, there is an open market for players during a league ‘transfer windows’. There are preseason and mid-season transfer windows by country/league association. During these times, clubs can purchase a player from a team for a transfer fee, which in many high profile cases, exceeds the value of the new contract that player signs with the purchasing club.
Interestingly, the players contract from the club he is leaving is terminated and a new contract is drawn up with the purchasing club – not the case in MLB and I believe all US sporting associations. The transfer fees are not always paid in cash at the time of transfer, for example they may be paid as a percentage of future transfer fees received if the purchasing club sends the player off to another club or via a friendly match where the selling club books all ticket receipts. Footballers are scouted and signed into training clubs, which are somewhat like minor league clubs, and until they are 18, their transfer is made difficult by FIFA regulations but still entirely possible. Once they turn 18, the player may be transferred between clubs in the UK, EU, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, and South America. All the while clubs that have contributed to the footballers training and football education are compensated through clear FIFA regulations.
Basically, the clubs are compensating each other for the time they have put into the player and theoretically for the future value of the player – meaning the player isn’t getting paid fair price for his athletic contribution, the equivalent of his high school coach is cashing his checks. On top of this, player protections are few and far between as far as my research can tell. “An established professional [footballer] who has, in the course of the season, appeared in fewer than ten per cent of the offi cial matches in which his club has been involved may terminate his contract prematurely on the ground of sporting just cause.” What the hell does ‘established’ mean? It’s not defined in set of regulations where I found it (here.)
It seems pretty clear to me that footballers are poorly compensated and receive few rights which entitle them to the playing time they deserve. The clubs that find and train them are well compensated and done so promptly – no later than 30 days after a player registers with a new club does that new club have to pay training compensation to the players former club(s). This system will keep the current structure of a few top teams, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Milan, Inter, etc. – let’s call them the aristocrats – while supporting but never giving any upward mobility to the smaller clubs – let’s call them Parisian waiters.
Rule 4 and 5 don’t give power to the players, teams still have a lot of the bargaining power and can ultimately just drop a player to waivers. Worst case, with a Rule 5 draftee where they must pay the team they are drafting the player from a $50k fee, if player clears waivers (meaning no team added the player to their 25 man roster) then the original team gets the player back for $25k. Not a lot of risk, but risk management is kinda what Rule 5 is all about. That said, the Rule 5 ball players end up on a major league roster, playing in the big leagues in a big league ball park. Once they complete their 1 year mandatory service they are free agents deciding their own fate. Far better than being shipped around the globe like cattle.
FIFA needs to work on creating more fluid markets for the world’s footballing talent. This transfer system is aristocratic, old world trickery. The world seems ok with this, but football is getting big in America and “we don’t tolerate that type of shit in America, sir!” I suggest starting with eliminating the transfer system by allowing something like the Rule 5 draft with tiered and structured ‘transfer’ payments depending on the age of the player. I’d like to see players get a chance to prove their worth on the pitch and I’d definitely like to see some wizardly general management putting together competitive teams to face off against the sexy CR9 and Kaka who are sure to dominate in Real Madrid.
By the way, great book on the topic of Baseball and Football(soccer) is National Pastime by Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist.
Tags: Andrew Zimbalist > Christian > Christiano Ronaldo > ESPN > FIFA > Kaka > Midsummer Classic > National Pastime > Rule 4 Draft > Rule 5 Draft > Stefan Szymanski
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