CHICAGO (Jan. 15, 2016) - The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) has announced a new Player Allocation Process for the 2016 season, which will provide an equitable mechanism for distributing the rights to new Unattached Subsidized Individuals to teams in the league.
An Unattached Subsidized Individual (USI) is an Individual whom a Federation has designated as a potential Subsidized Player (formerly referred to as an "Allocated Player"), but whose rights are not currently controlled by an NWSL club. In addition, a Subsidized Player whose rights have been relinquished by their current Team will also be designated as a USI.
Teams will be provided the opportunity to select Allocation-Eligible USIs on a rolling basis, in accordance with the following processes:
USIs will be made available for selection by Teams after the NWSL is notified by a Federation that a USI is available for allocation.
The USI will be awarded to the Team that selects them, except in the event that more than one Team requests the USI, in which case the Team with the highest Allocation Ranking will be awarded the USI.
The Allocation Ranking Order will be determined by the reverse order of finish of the prior NWSL season, taking playoff performance into account. The final ranking spot(s) will be provided to the Expansion Team(s).
Allocation Ranking Order:
1. Boston Breakers
2. Sky Blue FC
3. Western New York Flash
4. Portland Thorns
5. Houston Dash
6. Washington Spirit
7. Chicago Red Stars
8. Seattle Reign FC
9. FC Kansas City
10. Orlando Pride
Once a Team uses its Allocation Ranking to select a USI, it will drop to the bottom of the Allocation Ranking Order. Teams may trade their Allocation Ranking, provided part of the compensation received in return is the other Team's Allocation Ranking. At all times each Team is assigned one Allocation Ranking.
The Allocation Ranking Order will reset following the current year's Championship match. Until the conclusion of the current season, each Team's Allocation Ranking can only be adjusted by acquiring a USI via the Allocation Process or through a trade with another Team.
The complete text of the Allocation Process will be made available on the NWSL website prior to the start of the season.
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a 10-team Division-I women's professional soccer league featuring national team players from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. The clubs are the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Houston Dash, FC Kansas City, Orlando Pride, Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit and Western New York Flash.
Based in Chicago, the NWSL is supported by the Canadian Soccer Association, Federation of Mexican Football and the United States Soccer Federation. For more information about the NWSL, log on to the league's official website at NWSLsoccer.com.
