Photo by Robert Hanashiro/USA TODAY Sports
By CAITLIN MURRAY
The end of Chivas USA is near.
A Major League Soccer dispersal draft to determine the fate of players from defunct Chivas USA is set for Nov. 19, the league announced Friday.
MLS will hold a random weighted draw next Friday to determine the draft order via an envelope method. This year’s playoff clubs will receive a single envelope and non-playoff clubs will receive two envelopes.
All 20 MLS franchises participating in the 2015 season will be eligible to participate. Orlando City SC and New York City FC, both set for their league debuts next year, will be weighted as non-playoff clubs.
The news of the dispersal draft comes as Erick “Cubo” Torres — surely the biggest prize to claim from the remnants of Chivas USA — told reporters he expected a decision on his future by Dec. 15. Torres will not be included in the dispersal draft.
“I’ve felt very good there,” Torres said Friday of Los Angeles when asked about his future. “The league and team has treated me very well in general. I’ve felt very comfortable on and off the field. It’s a source of pride that the league wants to keep me.”
Torres scored 22 goals in 44 appearances for Chivas USA and has started earning regular call-ups to the Mexican national team. Reports had indicated Torres is worth more than $1.5 million per year to MLS officials trying to keep him in the league. Chivas had previously said they wanted him to leave MLS and stay with their first team in Mexico.
“I have no doubt that I will return,” Torres said of his hometown in Guadalajara, Mexico. “I don’t know if it will be in January or inside four or five years with more experience.”
The Chivas USA dispersal draft will not be public, being held on a private conference call with clubs, who will have one minute to make a draft selection from the available players. The draft ends once all clubs pass on selecting a player.
MLS clubs that acquire dispersed Chivas USA players will take their selection at their full 2015 budget charges and options must be exercised, including all associated transfers or loans. If a team selects a player in the dispersal draft but leaves him exposed for the expansion draft set for Dec. 10, that player can be selected by Orlando City or NYCFC then.
Players not selected during the dispersal draft will be available for the league’s re-entry draft.
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What do you think of the dispersal draft? Which picks would you like to see? Where do you think Torres will end up?
Share your thoughts below.
Can’t wait for Hollywood stars fc or Hollywood united or Los Angeles city stars
What happens to the Chivas academy? The Chivas wikipedia page says “As part of the club’s cessation of operations, Chivas USA’s academy will also cease to exist following the 2014–15 academy season”. Too bad they cannot do something with the academy.
It is scheduled to close in June 2015, though both the new ownership and Garber have said that a new academy will be set up “very soon”. Certainly, it woud be in the new club’s interest to do so.
Some of the players may find homes elsewhere in the meantime, but I expect most of them to transition into the new organization’s academy (which may very well end up being an extension of the old Chivas academny, which had a fairly good reputation.
Whine of the week….Because commenters on soccer blogs dont view the draft, it isnt fair and 16 or 18 teams let themselves get taken to the cleaners.
Get over yourselves people.
Yeah, I said it.
So, the player everybody is interested in won’t be part of the “dispersal draft”?
Where is he going? Is it going to be an open and fair process?
Stop laughing.
MLS never misses a chance to pull off some shady deals. They make FIFA look right down ethical.
Shady indeed, but I’m currently enjoying MLS – where anyone one of eight teams could win the cup – more than the BPL or Bundesliga, where they can already start putting Chelsea’s and Bayern’s names on the respective trophies…yawn.
In the defense of the MLS I would assume that they are trying to convince Torres to stay with the league. If they are trying to do that then sticking him on another terrible team probably isn’t going to be their best selling point.
+1 Now we are getting somewhere.People have their heads turned around quite backward about what the dispersal draft actually is.
Torres is not subject to the dispersal draft because MLS does not currentlyown him, as Northzax has said below. Attempting to exercise the league’s $7.5 mm option and force Cubo to play for a team of their choosing is a slippery slope at best– it would probably turn into a PR disaster for MLS if Cubo or CD Chivas chose to challenge it.
Putting an unwilling Cubo into the dispersal draft plays right into Vergara’s hands, who would love to have the option nullified and retain the rights to Cubo free and clear. The only way MLS keeps Cubo is by giving him a fat contract and letting him choose (more or less) where he wants to play.
The reality is, any of these players could likely request they be excluded from this process and MLS probably wouldn’t challenge them. For the majority of these guys, this is for THEIR benefit… they are out of work because the terrible club they played for failed. Hopefully, somebody will pick up their contracts and they can continue having a job in MLS.
Kennedy is the only guy in this group that anybody actually wants, but even he is not DP quality. If somebody wants him, they can send a few hundred thousand bucks in the direction of the team who wins his rights, and they will have him.
He’s not under contract. He was on loan, MLS reportedly has a 7.5m option on him, if they can convince him to sign. H
I think it’s unfair to compare MLS to FIFA. MLS breaks its own rules or makes up new ones so it can do what it wants. That is not nearly as bad as the outright corruption, bribery, vote buying, etc., that has gone on in FIFA.
Of course MLS’ shady deals can’t be compared to FIFA ‘s. MLS It’s a much smaller organization. Multiply MLS ‘s shady deals by 209 (the number of FIFA’s members) and what do you have? You have FIFA.
This is not way no build an organization. If this is how they act now what makes you think they will stop when the league gets to be worth a couple of billions like FIFA?
They won’t. Even if they do, you’ll still have a league built by lies and shady deals.
At the end of the day, FIFA’s dealings don’t affect the product on the field like MLS does. By favoring some teams above others MLS breaks the main rule of a sporting the organization….. Fairness.
“Multiply MLS ‘s shady deals by 209 (the number of FIFA’s members) and what do you have? You have FIFA.”
Ridiculous. Honestly…. totally ridiculous. I actually love this comment because it is so hare-brained and bizarre. Comment of the year, maybe.
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Will the club order at least be made public? Or is this one of the “super secret” blind draw, as in Garber lays down the law?
What favored team needs a GK? Expect them to pick first. Sounders maybe? Galaxy are set with Penedo. Or could see NYCFC somehow end up first since Orlando already got Hall.
I would imagine it’ll be done by record with the two expansion teams at the top. That’s how they do the allocation order every year as far as I know so it would make sense to do this the same way.
Nope. According to reports it’s a blind draw. Playoff teams get one chance, (ball, envelope whatever) non-playoff teams and the expansions get two.
It says right in the article you just read: “MLS will hold a random weighted draw next Friday to determine the draft order via an envelope method. This year’s playoff clubs will receive a single envelope and non-playoff clubs will receive two envelopes. … Orlando City SC and New York City FC, both set for their league debuts next year, will be weighted as non-playoff clubs.”
What AcidBurn was asking is if the results of the blind draw to determine pick order will be made public, and I’d assume so. But who knows with MLS.
I hope Sporting KC can nab the top spot and get Dan Kennedy. Kronberg is awful and Andy G who is serviceable isn’t championship caliber as well as injury prone.