MLS: Nocerino’s move to MLS highlights the continued complexity of league rules.

As a noted socialist, Liverpool legend Bill Shankly may have enjoyed the single entity structure of Major League Soccer. Attempting to maintain parity between clubs, it’s complex rules can often lead fans into a minefield of unfamiliar terms such as: allocation money, targeted allocation money, and future considerations.

Still somewhat lacking in transparency, rarely are the terms of a deal ever disclosed by the league or their clubs. Littered with potential problems, one such issue has surfaced during Antonio Nocerino’s attempts to move to MLS this month. In Europe, the Italian could speak to any interested party and conduct private negotiations.

The same cannot be said for MLS. Locked in talks with D.C. United after the club placed a ‘Discovery Claim’ on the Italian, he appeared to lose interest in joining Ben Olsen’s side. Remaining in contact with Nocerino, the midfielder also began speaking to Orlando City, (the home of former Milan teammate and close friend Kaka) only for the league to step in and demand they stop.

This was solely due to United’s ‘Discovery Claim’. A mechanic that sees teams rewarded for identifying talent. A club places a player on their ‘Discovery List’, (they can only choose 7 at any one time) and it means that should another team wish to sign that same player, they must reward the team that holds his ‘Discovery Rights’. However this has understandably proven problematic at times.

When Kris Boyd decided to join MLS he held talks with the Houston Dynamo. Despite the two parties failing to come to an agreement, Houston placed a discovery claim on the striker. At the same time, Boyd’s agent began discussions with the Portland Timbers, managed by former Chelsea player John Spencer. Despite strong interest from the Dynamo, Boyd chose to sign with the Timbers.

The Timbers were then forced to send a draft pick to the Dynamo as compensation, although some could argue the Texans manipulated the system to benefit themselves.

A similar situation presented itself last year with Sebastian Lletget. The then West Ham midfielder was eager to join LA Galaxy, who had spent months scouting and talking to the 23-year-old. Entering discussions with LA, both they and the New England Revolution submitted Discovery Claims at the same time. However because the Revolution were first, Lletget was added to their list.

Eventually securing the midfielder’s signature, the Galaxy were forced to send $50,000 in allocation money to the Revs as compensation. “We had him in camp in Ireland, but due to the issues in our league with actually signing a player, it was made as difficult as possible, but we finally got it accomplished,” a frustrated Bruce Arena said in May last year. “All that was a blackmail job, that’s all it is. Discovery lists should be that you’re pursuing a player and have interest in a player.

“You’re discovering them because you want to sign them. That should be the mechanism but through the years, teams in the league have attempted to use the rule as much as possible to hold back players from other teams. Now it just becomes a sped up blackmail job. Now you get the player, but eventually, you have to pay money for it. We should, in my view, be able to sign players that are outside the league. You discover them, you sign them. It shouldn’t be an issue.”

A report in the Washington Times this week described club officials from D.C. as ‘irate’ for ‘meddling’ with their discussions. Had Orlando wished to negotiate with Nocerino, they would have needed to pay $50,000 in Allocation Money. The initial rights holder would then have to accept that offer or make a “genuine, objectively reasonable offer” to the player in order to move along the process.

For D.C. United the path to Nocerino was clear, and one only they could attempt. While this example has been somewhat convoluted and messy, not all deals involving discovery claims progress in such a way. When Chelsea legend Didier Drogba decided to join the league, the Chicago Fire owned his discovery rights. However the 38-year-old wished instead to play for the Montreal Impact. The sides resolved the matter through a sign-and-trade agreement: Chicago acquired Drogba, before quickly trading him to Montreal for a significant amount of allocation money.

An amicable solution, it remains debatable whether all teams can operate in such a way. The single entity nature of MLS has at times been questioned, with it’s relevance in the context of global soccer often a bone of contention. This latest situation may do little to dampen those arguments, although the future of discovery claims seems equally as unsure.

Furthermore the very notion that D.C. ‘discovered’ a 30-year-old Italian international playing with Milan seems hard to believe . However for purists of the league, it represents a chance to be shrewd. A mechanism rife for exploitation, MLS may need to consider its future in the league. The rapid expansion of Chinese football is affording players a highly inflated salary which the league simply cannot compete with. Add in extra road blocks, such as a complicated discovery claim process, and it could easily see the league lose out on talent, something even Shankly would have rallied against.

Follow Kristan Heneage on Twitter: @KHeneage