Ok should make an interesting debate. I never really knew much about the 'draft' concept until i discussed a possible move for beckham to America. He then told me in the MLS the players are drafted to a club. I think this is to make it fairer. Recently a premiership manager, possible Boothroyd said this should be the case here. Basically what would happen is that players would be purchased by the league and then drafted out to clubs. It would make the league far fairer but would it be a good idea? Personally I think it would only work if every european league did it as it would undoubtably lead to english clubs doing worse in europe. I think it is a no no.
Football could learn so much from the way the American sports are run. It's so much fairer to smaller teams and is so much more structured due to the cap restrcitions etc.
It would completely cripple football. Youth academys would be made redundant, investment in facilities would plummet, football would become a game of lottery as to who got who.
<div class="quote_poster">dan Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">It would completely cripple football. Youth academys would be made redundant, investment in facilities would plummet, football would become a game of lottery as to who got who.</div> Find out more about how the NBA works and you'll see it's the best run system in world sports.
<div class="quote_poster">dan Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Please explain...</div> NBA Draft: Basically the young players come from college (used to come straight from high school but now come from minimum of one year of college basketball) and they enter the draft by a certain date. then, the lowest-ranked 15 teams get put into a lottery with a certain amount of "balls" allocated to them, dependant on their final position in the league. The bottom team gets the most and 15th lowest gets the least. After that, it goes in rank of how far teams progressed in the play-offs. Then the teams draft the players. In theory, the worst teams get the best young players to build around but sometimes good players drop lower in the draft as teams fill their needs at certain positions rather than just drafting the best player available. Teams can trade picks with other teams but that usually involves players as well. Draft is split into two rounds, with the players picked in the first round given a guaranteed contract of a pre-specified amount (runs from around $5m for the high picks, then graduates down to about $2m for the lower picks in the first round) then the second round is only a partially-guaranteed contract. The first round players don't have to play for the team, but cannot play for any other team in the league until they have honoured the contract or had their rights traded to another team. Cap Space and contracts: Teams have to adhere to a very strict set of guidelines with Cap Space. The current figure for the league cap is $54m dollars per season. The teams can go a certain amount over that but start to incur a pretty steep luxury tax if they pass that figure. There's also a maximum contract that a single player can have which stands at about $22m. The team cap rises with inflation etc obviously. The players contracts can run to a maximum of 5 years. Veteran players (10 years +) also get a minimum salary of $1,000,000 per season. Trades: Trades are based around players and draft picks but can also involve "cash considerations" (basically, money off the salary cap. This doesn't happen very often). There's no financial powerhouses like Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona etc. You want a player from another team, you have to trade one of your players for them. Obviously, teams won't trade bad players for their good players so trades are usually fair. Free Agency: Works the same as when a footy players contract runs down. Players can go to the highest bidder or where they want to go. Teams are restricted by cap space though. Teams under the cap can only offer however much they have until they reach the cap figure. Teams over the cap can offer the league minimum contract of around $500k, a Low-Level Exception (LLE) or a Mid-Level Exception. The LLE is around $1.3m and the MLE is around $5m. Both exceptions are valid for one season, then the player can have the contract extended as per negotiations with the franchise. These exceptions can also be traded but rarely are. Any more questions class?
