(Reuters) – Major League Soccer and its players’ union have reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the league said on Friday.
MLS had avoided a lockout in June when the players ratified a CBA that included a 5% pay cut to player salaries but in December the league invoked a clause to renegotiate the agreement with the union (MLSPA).
“The agreement, covering the next seven years from 2021 through 2027, is subject to the approval of the MLS Board of Governors and the membership of the MLSPA,” the league said in a statement.
MLS last month said it had offered to pay players 100% of their compensation in 2021 in exchange for an extension of the CBA for two years through the 2027 season.
The two-year extension would allow the league and clubs to recover a portion of the losses incurred in 2021 as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, it said.
The MLSPA, however, had proposed an extension to the current deal through the 2026 season that, coupled with a pact reached last June, would result in over $200 million in economic concessions.
The 2021 season is due to begin on April 3.
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
