(Miami) MLS fined Inter Miami, owned by David Beckham, $ 2 million for paying French player Blaise Matuidi over the maximum salary he was subject to last year.
“The American Football League imposed sanctions on Inter Miami, who violated the directives in terms of salary conditions during the 2020 season, regarding Blaise Matuidi and (Colombian) Andres Reyes,” the authority’s statement said.
“A $ 2 million fine was imposed on the club and another $ 250,000 was imposed on co-owner Jorge Maas. In addition, Paul McDonough, the sporting director of Inter Miami at the time the crimes were committed, was suspended from all positions until the end of the 2022 season,” as specified. .
While this fine is a record at MLS level, none of the players affected by these rule violations have been sanctioned.
The association opened an investigation in March into Matuidi’s salary conditions when he registered with Florida club in August 2020 from Juventus Turin.
It follows that the club did not respect the regulations, by not categorizing it as a “specific player”, that is, those, with a maximum of three players per team, who may be paid more than the maximum set by MLS. Who happened to be the Mexican Rodolfo Pizarro, the Argentine Matias Pellegrini and Gonzalo Higuain at Inter.
So Matuidi was part, like the rest of the team, of the players whose pay conditions are subject to TAM (Target Allocation Funds) status, that is, those whose salaries are regulated. According to the rules of the 2020 season, he should have earned a minimum of $ 612,500 and a maximum of $ 1.6 million.
Obviously, this does not correspond to his status as a star in the team (with Higuain) and even less to being the world champion with the Blues, who was crowned 2018 in Russia. However, the MLS investigation proved that Matuidi was getting more money than he should have been getting.
For this season and the following season, Florida has changed the status of the former Paris SG, who is now one of the “designated players” according to the rule nicknamed … “Beckham’s Rule”.
It was established in 2007, to allow the Los Angeles Galaxy to recruit the former Real Madrid superstar, as he has also benefited from bonuses well beyond MLS standards.
