Toronto FC: Major breakthrough means player lockout should be avoided

Toronto FC and the rest of the league’s players reportedly won’t be locked out, after a significant step in negotiations regarding a modified collective bargaining agreement.

Just 24 hours ago matters looked bleak for Toronto FC and the rest of Major League Soccer’s players, with the owners set to lock them out. Fortunately for everyone concerned, cooler — and more importantly smarter — heads now seem to have prevailed.

As first reported by ESPN‘s Taylor Twellman, there has been a major breakthrough in negotiations between the league and the MLSPA. As a result, there is now optimism — albeit still cautious at this stage — that a lockout should be avoided.

Twellman added that just one more detail needs to be agreed between the two sides. After this point, the modified collective bargaining agreement can then finally be formally approved.

In truth, we should have never gotten so close to a lockout happening in the first place. It was only because of the stubbornness of the league owners, in contrast to the players association’s genuine and flexible approach to negotiations.

The prime example of this was the official release from the MLSPA on Sunday, which read like a positive sign that negotiations were going well. In their wisdom however, the league rejected the counter proposal and said the players association had already received their best offer.

It was such an obstinate decision, best highlighted by the owners’ proposal to use a force majeure clause if five teams suffer an attendance drop of 25 percent from the previous year. What made this so asinine was that the players association did not have a similar proviso as part of the offer.

As per ESPN‘s Jeff Carlisle however, the league has now softened their stance. Apparently there was some division between the owners in respect of the language of the force majeure clause.