Designated Player Rule

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The Designated Player Rule, also known as the Beckham Rule, is the name used for a rule change in the Major League Soccer's salary cap regulations, implemented for the 2007 season. The rule will allow each of the MLS franchises to sign one player that would be considered outside of the teams' salary cap, estimated to be around US$1.9 million ^[1] in 2006 (the amount will be raised for the 2007 season), allowing U.S. teams to compete in the International soccer market for star players. $400,000 would be initially charged to the salary cap, with any remaining salary toward the player being imposed on the individual owner. There are a few players who currently have a salary exceeding $400,000. According to the rule, they will be grandfathered in for the 2007 season. After that, either they would be considered a designated player, or their contract would need to be renegotiated.

There will initially be one designated player slot available to each team in the league. A team can trade their designated player slot; however, no team can have more than two. If a team uses both of their slots, $325,000 will be counted towards the salary cap for the second player.

The rule is informally named after soccer star David Beckham, after he had suggested that he would consider playing in the United States after his contract with Real Madrid ends.^[2]