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Marmol Resolution Looming

The Lider Marmol saga appears to be close to a resolution. The Paraguayan midfielder is expected to learn where he will play in MLS soon now that the league is negotiating a contract with Marmol’s representatives.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, MLS is set to negotiate a salary with Marmol. The total of the offer is unknown but the Chicago Fire will have the first chance to sign Marmol for the price set by MLS. If the Fire is unwilling to sign Marmol for the price set forth by MLS then the Red Bulls will have a chance to sign him.

League officials would not confirm whether this was the arrangment being made for Marmol but the 22-year-old free agent told SBI that he thinks his status cuold be resolved as early as this week.

"This is not a comfortable position for me to be in, not knowing what club I will play for," Marmol said after Red Bulls training on Thursday. "I just want an answer because I have been without a team for a long time and, as a player, that isn’t a healthy situation to be in.

"It’s a surprising situation for me to be in because I’ve never been in a situation like this before," Marmol said. "On one hand it’s good and on the other hand it’s not. It’s good to have two teams want you but at the same time I want something decided soon because it doesn’t sit well not knowing where I will go."

Marmol did not state a preference as to which club he wants to play for, though his presence in Red Bulls camp seems to suggests he is more comfortable with New York.

"For me, the two teams are good and, whether it’s New York or Chicago, I will try to do the best I can and give my all," Marmol said.

Marmol spent Thursday at the Giants Stadium practice bubble rehabilitating a hamstring injury he suffered in Austria. He is expected to join the Red Bulls on their trip to Charleston, South Carolina for the Carolina Challenge Cup.

Comments

  1. Discovery claims are stupid teams should be free to sign players that want to play for them. Its these type of stupid league mechanisms and rules that make this league so mickey mouse sometimes. Waiver drafts, Superdrafts, discorvery claims, Allocations, We need to get away from being so American sport league centric and do things a little differently. Raise the cap sign players who want to play for you. End of story

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  2. FYI…

    “According to International Federation of Association Football, soccer’s governing body, a match can start with a minimum of seven players. If a player is sent off (for a red card or two yellow cards) and the team is reduced to six players, the match would be abandoned by the referee and play would end.”

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  3. also on the concacaf v. Olympics stuff: the us has massive Olympic leverage, if they so choose, us companies and sponsors provide over thirty percent of Olympic revenue, the tv rights alone for the us are larger than any continent in toto. Us tourists buy more tickets to events (and hotel rooms, souveniers, etc) without NBC, coca-cola and mcdonalds, the games would be unrecognzably small. Something will work out. FIFA cares a lot more for he us market than panama, and so does the IOC.

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  4. Signing a player simply to keep them from a rival? Why that is unheard of in professional sports! Why I bet that Real Madrid would never pursue a player just because Barca wants him, or vice versa, right?

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  5. MLS and pathetic administration with regards to players…spot on.

    This has to change and I suspect it will…only when the new player contract is negotiated. Even though it’s a clear joke, MLS will use it at the table as one of their “concessions.” I hope the union laughs in their faces for that attempt. they should.

    The US is relatively powerless with regards to C’CAF. Warner is in complete control and Blatter backs him becuas ehe needs him. If Warnar hasn’t been fired and prosecuted for what he has done already throughout his reign, nothing will happen here.

    For all the hate for Blatter, he has supported the game here big time. Without him we probably still don’t have a paying TV contract. Fact. He forced ESPN/ABC to sign a deal with MLS if they wanted WC rights. They (ABC/ESPN) didn’t really want to do this. Thank Sepp for that.

    Warnar is a crook. Eberyone knows it, but nothing can be done. The way it is.

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  6. Kpugs stop dealing in your dreamland. This is the MLS and how it is. JCO knew the rules before he invited him to camp. He also knew the fire knew about him since he did bring him in when he was thier coach. In essesnce JCO screwed the poooch on this one, prolly should have pushed it sooner for a contract before inviting him to camp or not bring him in until the discovery claim was over.

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  7. Marmol hermano, si vienes a Chicago, bienvenido seas. A ver si nuestros jefes aca quieren pagarte lo que tu mereces bajo el contrato, son un poquito codos 🙂

    Miracle how he initially was supposed to be out until the day after the transfer window closes, more than a month from now … but now he is well enuff to travel with the team?

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  8. why isn’t anyone considering the poor fans if Cuba has to forfeit? There must be dozens of people who bought tickets to the two remaining games, maybe as many as fifty!

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  9. The fact that this type of situation even exists in the first place–that alone makes the administration of this league a complete joke.

    Guys targeting Onionsack..in a way you are right. But it is the pathetic administration of this league that makes it possible. This shouldn’t be happening, period. We shouldn’t even have to discuss the morality of it, because this set up simply should not exist within the sport of soccer.

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  10. @Onionsack

    I highly doubt the fire will sign this guy and let him sit on the bench just because RB wants him. You don’t pay a guy a crapload of cash to have him watch games. Unless of course you’re the LA Galaxy…

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  11. Doesn’t CONCACAF have to respond to the situation with Cuba regardless of what ‘Cuba’ wants to do?

    The group is now ‘unfair’ given that the US will have essentially played a different tema in a round robin than the other two opponents.

    Two disclaimers:

    A) I’m guessing they should but won’t – the ulitmate call is good ol’ Jack warner’s after all.

    B) If the US wins both its remaining games it wins the group so ti really doens’t matter that much. But, isn’t it Gulati’s job to raise holy heck on behalf of the US regardless?

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  12. Onionsack:

    Soccer is a business. If signing Marmol makes Chicago a better team by addition or by trade, why wouldn’t they do that?

    This wouldn’t be the first time a player was signed, drafted, or traded for with the intention to unload him somewhere else in the near future. It’s part of the game, and part of any league I’ve ever been a fan of.

    I don’t see what you’re getting so excited about.

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  13. Fuego you heartless biatch, you would sign this poor guy that is desperate to get hi scareer back on track with someone simpley to be a prick a-hole. Sorry but you dont play games with people’s career just because you have some personal grudge with a 3rd party. Its extremely unprofessional.

    If chicago wants him then they should sign him if not then don’t. This idea you want to just sign him so you can use him as a bargaining chip in an angry tug of war with another club then just shop him off like a slave is disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourself you piece of ****.

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  14. fair point, but i think the team played the other night like they already have the spot, similar to what happened to England in the Europe, I think we’ll get our act together and make the olympics and frankly this Mexican team doesn’t scare me too much even if we do have to play them in the semis

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  15. Metrosct – are you sure about that? The Fire offloaded a ton of salary cap space in the offseason with the retirement of Armas, losing Guerrero to SJ, trading Curtin to Chivas, and Wanchope retiring. I believe the Fire can still fit a max player into their current roster. On top of that, the Fire need help in less areas than RB does and can afford to spend more on one player than Red Bull. The higher Marmol’s deal with the league, the better it is for the Fire.

    If the owner, Andrew Hauptman, is still pissed about the poaching of JCO and the subsequent tampering with Conde, then I expect Marmol to land with the Fire. If the Fire want to move on and minimize any potential disruptions, they’ll probably swing some sort of deal and allow Marmol to play for RB.

    If I were running the Fire, even if I didn’t really want Marmol, I would still sign him and either deal him to RB myself or shop him around the league. An asset is an asset and the more you have the better you are. (maybe this is the reason why I always blow away my wage budget on FIFA Manager – it’s not cost-efficient to be 3-deep at each position in your RESERVE team)

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  16. “i think its the idea that we automatically get second if we play poorly is how we tied cuba in the first place, we have to earn our way to the Olympics nothing is a given”

    froboy – I think it was a given that the U.S. was expected to get to qualify for the Olympics before qualifying began. I’m simply pointing out the fact that the tie to Cuba will be much more damaging if the Cubans forfeit their last two.

    RS – Cuba came with 18 players – 7 defected – and Linares has to sit the next one, so I suppose they can play the game starting out down a man.

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  17. Ives,

    If you had to guess, how much would you expect Marmol’s annual salary to be? While not really up to date on the Fire’s cap position – it seems like RBNY is in a better position to meet his demands.

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  18. i think its the idea that we automatically get second if we play poorly is how we tied cuba in the first place, we have to earn our way to the Olympics nothing is a given

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  19. Two more Cuban players defected last night. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but if Cuba has to forfeit their final two games it means the U.S. has to win their final two games to secure a first-place finish. Then again, if Mexico doesn’t get their act together they might finish in second, as well.

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