[GaNgStA kEeKs]

With the permission of another forum(http://www.mlsboards.com/). I have been able to pinch this useful information from them. Check out their site for more information - helpful bunch.

As many new members are coming to the boards, I figured I'd write up a topic with some helpful links and information to members who are not familiar with Major League Soccer.

Major League Soccer (MLS) currently has 12 teams, and was established in 1996. The league is broken into two conferences, the "east" and the "west" based on each teams geographical location in the United States.

A Major League Soccer team consists of 28 players: 18 players on the Senior Roster and no more than 10 players on the Developmental Roster. All the players are eligible to play on game day regardless of which roster they are on. A Developmental player is a player who is under 25 years of age and they do not count against a team’s salary budget. Each team can have up to 4 foreign players (25 years of age or older) on there roster, which are players that are not US citizens and do not hold a green card. These players count towards the Senior Roster. Youth Internationals are players who are under 25 years of age and can count towards the Senior Roster of the Developmental Roster. Youth International spots can be traded unlike other roster spots, either of a temporary or permanent basis.

Instead of using “money” like many other leagues do, MLS teams use players for trade between other MLS teams. They may also use allocations which are given out by the league. An allocation is equivalent to money, but because all players sign with the league and not a certain team allocations are used. Each allocation has it’s own unique value. Allocations can be used to acquire players inside and outside of the league.

Unlike some leagues in the world, winning the league is not a large achievement. But rather, the biggest achievement an MLS team can receive is winning the “MLS Cup” which is the end of the season cup played by the top 8 teams in the league, the top 4 from each conference. Conference Semifinal series are conducted under a home-and-home, aggregate-goal format, with single-game Conference Championships determining the MLS Cup Finalists. In total there are 3 rounds of the playoffs. Regardless of if you finish 4th in your conference, or first anyone has a chance of winning the cup and receiving the biggest achievement for the year.

Currently, unlike many other leagues, MLS is a tight league. One week can change your position, in some cases you can drop from 1st to last within a week, and it has happened before.

Below are some resources you can use:
http://www.mlsnet.com - Official MLS website
http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/about/rules/ - MLS Rules
http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/mls/history/ - MLS History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer - Wikipedia entry for MLS (very helpful)
http://www.mlsboards.com - MLS Forums, which you’re viewing now
http://www.mlslatest.com - Great news site for MLS
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/mls/fantasy/ - Official MLS fantasy game