Federal Court Judge George A. O’Toole has dismissed the heart of the players’ antitrust case against Major League Soccer and upheld MLS’s “single entity” defense. O’Toole granted partial summary judgment, ruling that it was not unlawful for MLS to require that all players be signed by the League, not individual teams. “MLS is what it is,” said O’Toole in his 23-page decision. “As a single entity, it cannot conspire or combine with its investors in violation of [the antitrust laws], and its investors do not combine or conspire with each other in pursuing the economic interests of the entity.” The principle of any conspiracy case is that it takes two to tango. O’Toole’s ruling is that there is only one party here. Other leagues have looked upon the MLS case for precedence in the future construction of league organizations. “We are enormously pleased by the Judge’s ruling,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said. “We have been confident from the outset that the League’s business structure was not only lawful, but the most efficient way for a professional soccer league in the country to be organized. For three years we have believed that our players’ concerns should be resolved through negotiation, rather than litigation. We very much hope that in light of the Judge’s ruling we can put this dispute behind us and work with our players — our most important asset — to grow our sport and expand its attractiveness throughout the United States.” “Judge O’Toole’s decision is a major precedent in sports law because it concludes that single entity leagues such as Major League Soccer cannot be sued as conspirators under the antitrust laws,” said Michael A. Cardozo of Proskauer Rose LLP, the New York attorney who represents MLS in the litigation. Proskauer Rose has represented most of the country’s major sports leagues, including the NBA, NHL, WNBA and Major League Baseball. It has played a prominent role in various disputes, notably NBA and NHL antitrust litigations, the suspension of basketball star Latrell Sprewell and most recently the suspension of Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker. The remaining claims in the case, on which MLS did not seek summary judgment, relate to a minor dispute over licensing rights, the charging of so-called “transfer fees” for players whose contracts have expired (a practice in which MLS has never done), and MLS’s 1995 Division I certification by the United States Soccer Federation and are scheduled for trial in mid-September 2000. The case was originally filed in February of 1997.