FM / MLS Help

[Bea-Arthurs Hip]

I am a FM Novice. Been playing a while and finally understand the basics of the game by playing a few year career in League Two of the English Leagues.

Anyway, now I want to take the plunge into an MLS career. I know next to nothing about the rules of MLS or players and from what I can tell FM does not reflect everything correctly.

In FM is there a hard sallary cap?

Is there a maximun number of non-US players you can have on your roster?

Where do MLS teams pull majority of their talent from ?

Lastly, if I start as an "American" and have a succesfull career. How possible is it for me to get a High profile job in the English Leagues?

Any other FM-MLS input is appreciated.

PS - I just got the Fox Sports Soccer Channel and i can honestly say that I am now hooked on this sport. I found myself watching MLS and ULS games over the weekend over baseball games..Never thought this day would come and it is all thanks to FM.

[Mr. Wednesday]

As far as the "real" rules of MLS go:
* There is supposedly a hard salary cap. However, that includes a max salary per player, and they find ways to get around the individual player salary ceiling when they feel the player warrants it -- notable examples being Landon Donovan and Freddy Adu. Only the max salary counts against the cap, as the overage tends to be classified as "endorsements".

* There is a maximum of three "senior international" players on a team, where "senior internationals" are 25 or older and non-citizens. Due to U.S. law, a player holding a green card is classified as an American for roster purposes.

* The rules for acquisition of talent outside of the annual draft are Byzantine and seem to tend to get twisted to produce the outcome that the powers that be "want" with some regularity (although this is not always the case, see the allocation of Danny Szetela).

* MLS gets the majority of its talent from the U.S. and CONCACAF.

This may have a very limited bearing on the implementation of MLS in FM.

[illinifan999]

For your last question about starting as an American here has been my career.

Started at Rosenborg in Norway. Won the Premier Division a few times, performed well in Europe.

After 3 seasons, Marseille in France offered me the job. I took that and I won a Champions League and a couple First Division titles.

After 3 seasons there Real Madrid in Spain offered me the job. I went there and after 7 seasons of First Division titles, and a couple Champions League title and Man Utd fired their long-time manager, so I applied for it and got the job. Now in my first season with them.