MLS Draft Rules

Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league that plays in North America and is overseen by the United States Soccer Federation. The first season took place in 1996, with 10 teams in the league; the league now boasts 16 teams. The season starts at the end of March and finishes in late October with each team playing 30 games. Every off-season, the league holds a draft for college players to be recruited by MLS teams, and the league has specific rules governing this process.

  1. Eligibility

    • The MLS draft requires that players first be determined eligible to participate in the draft before being picked by a team during the draft. Prior to the draft, draft-eligible players are invited to the MLS player combine, which allows the players to demonstrate their skills to potential teams. The activities involve a series of tests, like speed, dribbling and passing, which they are then scouted on. Players who no longer attend college have to be nominated by a MLS team to be entered in the draft. The MLS draft review board then determines whether these players can legitimately enter the draft and be eligible to be signed by teams after being selected.

    Draft Selections

    • Draft rules state that the selection process be in a certain succession, starting with the first six draft picks by teams that did not qualify for the post-season and beginning with the team with the lowest amount of regular season points, states MLSdraft.com. The team with the lowest amount of regular season points (statistically the worst team in the league) is given the first choice of draft-eligible players that year. MLS does this to provide weaker teams with new talent to bolster their chance of making the post-season and to spread the talent around the league, rather than concentrating it in a few dominant teams. The remaining draft positions are determined by teams eliminated in each round of post-season play, with the teams with the lowest regular season points being first to choose.

    Unsigned Draftees

    • In every draft, there are a number of players who are drafted, yet don´t sign contracts with the team that drafted them. According to MLSdraft.com, these players are placed on a list called the "College Protected List" for one year following the initial draft period. If they are still not signed after this period expires, then the drafting team loses the right to sign them, and the player has to go through the drafting process all over again. This time period is meant to give both the player and the team substantial time to work out a first contract.