USL office decides to play hardball instead of soccer

Our tiny little corner of the World Wide Web is all a twitter because the USL office has emailed players under contract to Miami FC, Carolina, and Minnesota that their contracts have been voided. This information was broken by Brian Quarstad at Inside Minnesota Soccer.

It seems that these three ring leaders of the TOA group have not paid their fees for the 2010 season by the September 1st deadline. The TOA owners are still locked in a battle for the future of division two soccer in North America with the USL owners. Now it appears that the USL is firing not just a warning shot at the TOA members, but rather a kill shot.

From my limited understanding of the legal issues involved, I don't see how the USL office can take the action of voiding contracts. If these clubs are still in existence (which they are) then even if they leave the USL, contracts with their players are still valid. Players might be able to sue the clubs to get out of contracts if the teams end up some where besides the USL, but that would have to be sorted out between those players and the clubs (and a court).

Oddly, Vancouver and Montreal have been mentioned as members in good standing and have paid their dues for next season. I don't know that I would believe the USL office on this one unless they showed me a cancelled check from Joey Saputo's bank account. What is the USL going to say? One of these two teams is likely to be the USL 1 champion this season, it would be a tad bit embarrassing to screw over those two as well.

So what does this mean for the Rowdies? Who knows at this point. Until I get an official statement from the owners, I don't know where the team stands. I sense that the Rowdies are holding off on any other announcements (stadium, coach, kit) until this matter is resolved.

Stay tuned for more developments.

***UPDATE****

Thanks to Brian Quarstad's digging, I would like to make a correction. It seems that the Whitecaps and Impact have also missed the league's deadline for paying their fees for 2010. As I suspected, the USL can't punish their future champion. The drama will no doubt continue.