By Ridge Mahoney
Senior Editor
Soccer America Magazine
Teams are using allocations and the corresponding moneys through new rules adopted by MLS.
Teams can use allocation money to re-sign players and can trade chunks of allocation money in the same manner as draft picks, players, and salary-cap space. They can also trade allocation slots as well as portions of same.
Allocation-money maneuvering delayed the announcement that U.S. international Greg Vanney would go to Dallas as an allocation, as well as the Galaxy trade of defender Danny Califf to San Jose, which has ample allocation money as well as room under the salary cap.
According to sources within the league, D.C. United tried to acquire allocation slots/money from several teams to acquire Vanney but was unable to do so. San Jose was interested in Vanney and had the necessary allocation money and salary-cap space but ranked behind Dallas in the allocation order. The pecking order of allocations for a U.S. player coming into the league was confusing enough that FC Dallas wasn't sure for a time if its allocations were ranked second and fourth or first and third, depending on what Chivas USA did with one of its expansion allocations and what value the league's competition committee assigned to FC Dallas for the departure of Cory Gibbs to Feyenoord. The allocation was split and a portion was traded to Los Angeles, which used it to acquire Guatemalan midfielder Guillermo Ramirez.
Chivas dropped down the list by trading an allocation to the Galaxy for Jesus Ochoa and the rights to Antonio Martinez. The Galaxy, which had initially passed on the opportunity to sign Vanney, eventually traded that allocation to Dallas.
Chicago is also in the mix, with the transfer of Damani Ralph to Russian club Rubin Kazan swelling its allocation coffer, which still contains the DaMarcus Beasley replacement allocation. It has run the rule over numerous players, including German strikers Alexander Zickler and Fredi Bobic, and Moroccan midfielder Mustapha Hadji.
The Fire used a portion of its allocation money to re-sign Ante Razov before trading him to Columbus. An allocation can be split by team into as many as three portions.
The Galaxy had been shopping Califf around the league — Kansas City and LA had talked for weeks — and is still offering up Jovan Kirovski. San Jose obtained Califf by trading a portion of an allocation — as it had done in the Ricardo Clark trade — in exchange for Califf.
Allocations are valued as minor (worth roughly $100,000) and major ($300,000) and ranked by the MLS competition committee. Teams can combine their allocations to obtain a single player, which wasn't permitted until last season.