The Donovan Rule

I've written before that I don't like the idea of Juan Sebastian Veron as a replacement for Christian Gomez. Because Gomez is a proven commodity as the best player on this team. Maybe Veron will be even better, but in my opinion, probably not.

Well all reports are indicating that Veron is close to signing with DC (for something around $15 million?) and that negotiations with Gomez are not going well. We've all seen this coming a long time, but it's scary to think that at this point its probably greater than a 50% chance that this will come true.

Gomez wants more money, and is considering playing in Saudi Arabia or some crap to get it. Well I think we can all respect the desire to earn more money, but why can't DC pay him more? If Veron is worth $15M, we don't think Gomez is worth $1M if that’s what would keep him here?

But then the problem becomes the salary cap, and the Designated Player rule. And that's where my problem with the whole situation lies. The DP rule was originally written to say that each team would be allowed one DP, but that all players currently earning over $400K would be grandfathered in for the 2007 season. Now that has been extended to 2008? What that means specifically is that the LA Galaxy are allowed to fit both David Beckham's and Landon Donovan's salaries under the cap, essentially having two designated players. But a team like United is only allowed to have one DP, because Gomez wasn't earning more than $400K before 2007. So now they're not allowed to pay him more than that.

The DP rule is nicknamed the Beckham rule. Can we nickname the 2008 extension the Donovan rule?