The alleged bidding war for AC Milan midfielder Antonio Nocerino is reportedly getting very very nasty.
Steven Goff of The Washington Post reports MLS has ordered Orlando City to cease its efforts to sign Antonio Nocerino because D.C. United holds his discovery rights. For Orlando City to sign Nocerino, the team would first have to negotiate compensation with D.C. United using allocation money to acquire his discovery rights.
This is a convoluted machination of the MLS collective bargaining agreement and the single entity style of MLS’s pay structure. Essentially the discovery rule allows teams to claim the rights of overseas players should they want to come to MLS. The discovery rule prevents the situation that may be occurring with Nocerino.
Essentially, as Ty Rothschild of Parramore Pundits writes, D.C. United called “dibs” on Nocerino and what Nocerino actually wants to do does not matter. There are reasons for this to exist, but with MLS continuing to grow they increasingly seem archaic and hurtful to the growing league looking to add talent and become more relevant internationally.
The MLS pays the salary of every player in the league outside of designated players — such as Kaka — and so putting in a reserve rule like this prevents bidding wars from taking place and essentially preventing the MLS from bidding against itself. There is also an interest in spreading the talent available out across all the teams in the league.
MLS has put tight controls on player movement — internal free agency began only this offseason.
D.C. United put the discovery claim in last week, but Orlando City quickly became a favorite with several international outlets reporting Nocerino preferred and had already agreed to a deal with Orlando City ahead of the international transfer window closing Monday. Nocerino was teammates with Kaka at AC Milan, so the preference to play with a friend and former teammates makes sense.
Even Adrian Heath had made comments regarding Nocerino.
D.C. United, according to the report was “irate” and is considering filing a tampering charge against Orlando City on this matter. Unless compensation is negotiated and agreed to, D.C. United will hold Nocerino’s rights when he enters MLS.
Of course, MLS, in its infinite wisdom and consistency, has helped broker deals to take players off discovery lists before. Last year, Didier Drogba was placed on Chicago Fire’s discovery list, but he preferred to play for Montreal Impact. A deal was negotiated and Drogba ended up in Montreal last year.
The same may very well happen with Nocerino in Orlando.
Nocerino is a midfielder who would likely move into the spot currently occupied by Kevin Molino to Kaka’s right. Molino and Nocerino could play either left or right midfielder. So there would be something of a logjam. And even though Nocerino is currently on AC Milan, he has played sparingly and has spent much of the last few years on loan to other Serie A and Barclays Premiere League teams.
This is a mess of a situation at this point and could cost MLS a quality player at the end of the day. Or MLS could try to broker a deal as the league has done before and let things quietly resolve themselves.
Convenient that you left out that Nocerino was close to signing with DC before Orlando intervened. If Orlando had actually followed league rules (ie notifying the league office prior to engaging in any player talks), DC would have already finished signing the player.
Had not read anything to say that they were close to a deal. Regardless of who benefits, it is a silly rule that prevents players from going where they want to go. Orlando City should have followed league rules, absolutely. But the whole situation is just silly. Only can happen in sports.