You have to feel for Sean Johnson.
The fifth-year Chicago Fire goalkeeper has been a standout on a team that has missed the postseason the last two years and since Johnson’s debut in August 2010 has ranged from average to abominable. He’s been trying to salvage his position as the USMNT’s goalkeeper of the future ever since his blunder that cost the Americans a place at the London 2012 Olympics. Rumours continue to churn that more strong performances could see a European club come calling.
Sean Johnson didn’t need anything more weighing on his overloaded shoulders. But for about 24 hours, a few tweets from Goal Canada’s Nick Sabetti suggesting the Montreal Impact were looking to acquire Johnson via one-match “emergency loan” were dropped on him like a piano onto Charlie Sheen.
The Montreal Impact had been preparing for the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League Final against Club America without a clue who their starting goalkeeper would be. Their starter, Evan Bush, picked up a yellow card in the first leg of the final, putting him out of the second leg to due yellow card accumulation and a subsequent failed appeal by the Impact. Their backup goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg, is cup-tied, having played in the competition with Sporting Kansas City during the Group Stage. Their third-stringer, Maxime Crepeau, is out with a shoulder injury.
Add in the fact that Major League Soccer has yet to release updated roster rules reflecting the new CBA (any time, for the umpteenth time, please and thank you) and you’ve got more fun than Woodstock.
Scratch that. You’ve got more fun than a Jermaine Jones blind draw, or a retention funds bear hug given to Matt Besler and Graham Zusi, or any other shady player acquisition mess in MLS’ history.
What makes this one so special you ask?
Well, unlike the other two cases I mentioned, this one doesn’t just find loopholes in the rules. It prints out the rules and cut holes in them with scissors. Holes almost as big as the one Jon Busch’s mouth makes in the GIF of the Week:
Because of previous incoming USMNT stars like Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley, we were well aware with Jones of the “Designated Players of a certain threshold – as determined by the League – are not subject to allocation ranking” clause as written in MLS’ 2014 Roster Rules. There’s no mention of how said players are to be allocated (or, just as controversially, what criteria the league uses to set the threshold) that follows.
MLS’ stars, especially the young ones, have always tried to leverage moves to Europe. The fact that owners want to keep them around until the price is right isn’t earth-shattering news either. And even though the 2014 Roster Rules say nothing about “retention funds”, they do say that allocation money can be used “to re-sign an existing MLS player, subject to League approval”.
It doesn’t matter what the fancy names for the shady mechanisms are. The rules are as clear as the skies above Liverpool. So like owning a collection of katana, it might look bad, but there’s nothing in the rules that says so.
That’s not the case for a one-game emergency Sean Johnson loan to the Montreal Impact.
For starters, the Roster Rules say that any player acquired via intraleague loan must be 24 or younger. Johnson’s 25.
They go on to say that intraleague loans must last for the entire MLS season. The one game in a Sean Johnson loan deal wouldn’t have even been an MLS match. And even if the loan were to be more than one match, any chances Johnson had at moving overseas in the summer would have been crushed (or would have happened in another very shady manner).
As many fans were quick to point out on Twitter, the Impact’s rumoured push for Johnson might as well have been extended to Dempsey, Bradley, Kaka, Robbie Keane, and any other big name/MLS Best XI member. For all I care, the Impact (and Major League Soccer) could have called up the members of the 2014 All-Star team, given them their kits from that game back, and slapped a fleur-de-lys over the axe.
For the record, if you’re wondering what a potential 2014 Roster-Rule and current Injury Report-compliant “Montreal Impact Emergency Loan XI” would look like, here’s my best shot (the rules also say teams can’t loan out more than one player, hopefully I didn’t make any slip-ups)
I understand the significance of the occasion. It’s the first time MLS has come this close to winning the continental championship in its current format since Real Salt Lake blew it in 2011 after getting a draw in Mexico in Leg 1.
The league didn’t want that history to repeat itself. But considering that that was an RSL side shortly removed from an MLS Cup and boasting a top-drawer goalkeeper, and that THIS is a Montreal side that for the last two years has been awful domestically and has an empty net, the odds weren’t looking good.
*Note: The Impact acquired Indy Eleven goalkeeper Kristian Nicht on Tuesday night. At 6’5”, their net is no longer empty, figuratively and literally*
But were those odds really worth the Johnson debacle? Chicago sure thought so. Even in MLS’ non-transparent state, the $75,000 in allocation money the Fire were said to be asking MLS for in exchange for a one-game Sean Johnson loan is clearly a boatload of dough.
Had it gone through, the rulebook would have literally been thrown out the window. The “Emergency Call-Up” would be no more, and the league-wide emergency player pool would be out of work. Club commitment and job security would be a thing of the past. If the Impact win this thing and move onto the FIFA Club World Cup, you could bet your house that their equipment manager would be the only person on the current side that would get on the plane to Japan.
The Mexican fans may have beer bottles, laser pointers, and the willingness to camp outside of opposition hotels and be loud all night. But an eye for an eye (seriously, those pointers CANNOT be fun to look into) makes the whole world blind, no?
If this really was some means of retaliation by Major League Soccer, it was sickening. If this was supposed to give fans of the Impact and the league hope, it missed the mark more than that Eddie Johnson penalty kick in 2012.
The Sean Johnson loan saga should never have been. Major League Soccer needs to learn how to play by the rules, or at least play by the rules that the public are made aware of.
Making the public a bit more aware by putting out the most up-to-date version of the rulebook would be nice too. Just saying.
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