Competition Guideline Changes

Today MLS announced some changes to their competition guidelines. The new guidelines were voted on and approved by the MLS Board of Governors during their meeting before MLS Cup 2007 in Washington DC.

The big part of the announcement in regards to the Wizards, is some changes to Eddie Johnson's classification with the team. As we found out back in November, Eddie Johnson will not count as a designated player again next season if he is still with the Wizards.

The MLS Board of Governors ruled that Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson and Carlos Ruiz, who had high-salaried contracts with the League prior to the adoption of the Designated Player rule, will not occupy a Designated Player roster position for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. These players will, however, become their individual team's financial responsibility to the extent their actual salaries exceed their budget charge.

Basically, the way I'm reading this, is that while Johnson will not count as the Wizards DP, the Wizards could still find themselves paying more of Johnson's salary. Currently the Wizards pay only the $400K, league max for Johnson. The way it sounds, under this guideline, all of Johnson's salary will count against the Wizards cap. And any amount that the Wizards are over the cap due to Johnson's salary will cause the team to have to pay those overages. At least that's my understanding of this change.