Brand Me A Euro-Snob, But

By Nigel Reed CBC Sports

D-Day looms for Toronto FC
I have to confess it all seems wrong to me.

Brand me a Euro-snob if you will, but after four years in Canada I’m still having difficulty getting my head around the Major League Soccer draft system. Or at least the part of it which dictates last year’s worst team gets first pick of this year’s emerging talent.

The 2009 MLS SuperDraft takes place in St. Louis on Thursday and while I can appreciate the need for an expansion team, in this case Seattle, to get first go at the best of the collegiate graduates, I can see no value in rewarding last year’s failing teams by allowing them to enlist the best of the rest.

Of course, I understand why this tradition is maintained on an annual basis – the idea being the best rookies join the worst teams to make them better and thus preserve something of an even playing field across the league. The principle has its merits from a perspective of fair play, but it also seems to me the previous year’s winners are somewhat punished for producing what every fan wants – a winning franchise.

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