WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Today’s big story seems to be how New England and Houston players are handling the prize money to tomorrow’s SuperLiga final. Well, MLS Commissioner Don Garber spoke out against the players in their efforts to pool the winnings from tomorrow’s final.

“That’s not something that is permitted in the CBA [collective bargaining agreement], it’s not something we are going to allow and something, should they decide to do, we will have to manage it the way we would manage any other violation of the collective bargaining agreement. I believe we have got great players who have strong levels of integrity and competitive spirit, and I believe they will play this game the way they play every other game. … We will pay the prize money as it was originially dictated as determined by MLS ownership. If there is something we determine is a violation of the CBA, we will address it.”

Sounds to me like the next round of CBA discussions are going to be mighty interesting. It also sounds like the players will be taking a big time stand against the league to get what they want.

Also, for those who you who’ve asked where the “million-dollar” payout all goes to…Donny G spoke on that too:

“It goes to the club owner. It’s no different from a NASCAR tournament where the team owner wins prize money and the team owner has a driver under contract, and whatever his agreement with that driver is is what that driver receives. … What I have found very frustrating is that this has been positioned as the league misleading the public by saying that the prize would go to the players. We never, ever implied that the players would get the one million dollars. The winner is the team. The club gets that million-dollar prize, and then we have an agreement as to what that share would be to the players.”

What do you all make of this news?

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