Confused? You’re not alone

By: Melissa | September 26th, 2008

The Fairgame blog got a little help interpreting the International Draft by conducting an interview with Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. The interview does shed some light on a few things but at the same time… doesn’t. We do learn that no German players were part of the draft because the players are under long-term contracts (with their clubs? with their national team?) and their national team coach requested they stay in the country through 2011. Ok, fair enough. But when the Fairgame blog asks Antonucci how much contact, prior to the draft, WPS clubs had with each player, and if the clubs knew the players were even interested in joining WPS, the response was… uh….

Lauren Gregg, former assistant U.S. National team coach, is an independent consultant for the league and teams on player’s availability and contract situation. She was available to teams as an advisor up until the very last moment of the draft selection.

I remember reading that Gregg was in Beijing with many of the WPS coaches so it makes sense that she was available to advise, except I don’t think that was actually the question they asked. And after reading Elaine Sun’s post summarizing reactions from the Japanese media to Wednesday’s draft, it appears, during the Olympics, there were some discussions between players’ agents and the league, but nothing (at least according to the Japanese players drafted) between the players/agents and any interested WPS teams. Ok, granted, I’m getting this info from someone attempting to translate the news articles to English AND a few weeks ago, Peter Wilt wrote in his blog, during the Chicago/Red Bulls game:

In the [Red Stars] suite were several Red Stars investors and a star forward interested in playing for the Red Stars. i can’t say who it is, but she’s not from the United States and we’re interested in her as well.

So I would hazard a guess that teams did have at least a few opportunities to determine if an international player is open to a move to WPS. And from reading the reactions from the Japanese players selected, the players are flattered to be picked and are waiting to hear from the clubs – but they also have other offers. So now the question is, will the WPS contracts be more enticing than what the players already have? And what about the USWNT players allocated earlier this month? What are their offers from WPS and would they in fact find more lucrative contracts if they went abroad?