Meghann Burke, the executive director of the NWSL Players Association, has called for the abandonment of drafts and trades without consent, two staples of American sports that feel at odds with the global soccer landscape.
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Both drafts and trades are becoming increasingly unpopular in the NWSL and came under fire at different times during the offseason. December's expansion draft was criticized by players and coaches alike for a lack of agency, while Cece Kizer's unexpected trade from the Kansas City Current to the Houston Dash raised eyebrows after she confessed she was not made aware of the move despite her and her fiancée owning a home in the Kansas City area.
"I'm just going to say it -- we should get rid of all drafts. We should get rid of trades without player consent," Burke told CBS Sports. " Yes, teams should talk to players before they trade them. Yes, they shouldn't trade a player without consent. The acquiring team should make sure that player wants to go there and is going to be a productive member of the squad. Those things should happen but when they aren't required, they don't and so we absolutely have to solve that structurally through the next collective bargaining agreement. That's going to be certainly a focus and a priority."
Burke also said that the NWSLPA reaches out to players upon hearing of trades to find out if they knew about the moves.
"I personally, and my team, talk to the players immediately, getting news of what's going on," she said. "We reach out [and ask], 'Hey, how [are] you doing? Did you know this was coming?'"
The NWSL is not committing to remove itself from that mixture of U.S. and European sports structures, though commissioner Jessica Berman condemned trades that leave players "blindsided."
"It would be our hope and expectation that no player would be blindsided. They, at a minimum, should be notified of any decisions that are made that would affect them," Berman told CBS Sports. "As we think about who we are and what we want to be, there is some sort of policy friction around us being like professional sports leagues here in the U.S. and us being a global soccer league, and with respect to being a professional sports league in the U.S., it's quite common for players to be traded without their consent. That's sort of part of the business here.
"We also recognize, and it is also true, that in soccer, that is not standard and so yes, we continue to look at it and at a minimum, for so long as and to the extent that it is part of our system wherein we allow that to occur, we would continue to reinforce to our clubs that it's important that they have a transparent, direct and open communication with players so that nobody is blindsided."
Burke also believes trades and drafts are at odds with the concept of free agency, which is in its second year in the NWSL. While the conversation around trades and drafts are simmering in the NWSL, the union leader said she was surprised other American sports leagues were yet to touch the topic in a major way.
"I don't understand, really, how this hasn't been more of a conversation in football and baseball and basketball because it's still the same," she said. "These are human beings. These are people. They have lives. They have homes. They have families. They have their kids enrolled in school and they have neighbors and things that they've done for years and they live in a community that are really important to them. That's still true for all those athletes. Maybe the difference is that because they're making millions of dollars, they can pivot more quickly in the face of rapid change and our athletes, who are making $37,856 minimum salary this year plus housing, can't make that pivot as quickly and it's a stressful change."
Burke was also critical of trades and drafts as it pertains to the NWSL's standing in the world of global soccer, where it occupies a spot as an elite league but is not short on competition.
"I don't think the draft is serving the purpose that NWSL had it serve early on in the league," she said. "I think we've evolved past that, especially as we see competition from Europe, from Mexico, from now USL. WPSL just announced they're going to have a third-division league. It's a really competitive landscape and I do think that NWSL has to evolve to stay competitive."
