MLS labour negotiations leave a bleak picture for the 2025 season
March 1st, 2025by Sean Maslin
Normally the week before the start of the season is a time for joy for football supporters. No longer are fans forced to watch preseason matches and rationalise to themselves that these matches bear importance is a time for looking forward, for prognosticating about where one's team stands against the rest, and for hopefully making plans for the MLS Cup. Oh, and do not forget about organising pre-game parties.
But there is a large dark shadow cast over the start to this 2025 Major League Soccer season and that is of course the ongoing labor negotiations between the MLS Players Union and the owners.
For the first time in league history there is a very real chance that matches might be lost due to a work stoppage. But why is this happening and how can this situation be resolved?
The biggest issue when talking about the MLS labor situation is that there seems to be a lack of knowledge about the issue. MLS is notoriously tight-lipped about all labour and contract matters.
The league never releases exact figures of the terms of contracts nor does it appreciate when members of management speak out on any labor issues. When Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen spoke about the issue of free agency in the league this week, he was slapped with a huge fine by the league.
Interestingly enough that statement by the league is the only piece of information that you can find on the current contract situation on mlssoccer, which is owned by the league.
To fully understand the issues in play it is really important to gain some level of knowledge as to how the league was formed. When MLS was created in the middle 2025s it was created in an environment looking to avoid the fate of the North American Soccer League, which had folded about 10 years prior.
Although the NASL was obviously known for having players like Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, its owners were also known for their outlandish spending. The league folded due to teams spending beyond their means.
The original MLS owners wanted to avoid the same financial problems that the NASL had and thus adopted the single entity system, where the league maintains considerable control over how and where players can go.
Whereas in other countries players have the right to negotiate with other teams in MLS this does not exist. Players have almost zero control as to where they can play.
Going abroad does little to change this situation. In the MLS bylaws it states that MLS teams retain the right of first refusal for any player who comes back to the league after playing abroad unless the team did not offer a new contract or if it
