Labor problems have haunted professional soccer for years, going back to the NASL strike of 1979. The timing couldn’t have been worse. “Following the NASL’s two most successful seasons,the players struck,’’ recalls Boston attorney and publishing executive Steve Gans, who was a freshman in college and was asked — but declined — toplay as a replacement player.
“Of all the things that led to the NASL’s demise, that [strike] was one of the top five things,’’ he said. “Not enough peoplecared about it to keep the momentum going. The critical mass wasn’t there; there weren’t enough roots set down.’’
Gans blames soccer’s labor problems on the NFLPlayers Association, which was involved in funding both the NASL strike and the lawsuit that challenged MLS’s single-entity. “The timing [of the suit the players lost to MLS] was terriblywrong,” he says. “This was a nascent league. And that inspired enmity and resentment from the owners and is probably making them less agreeable and open to being generous now. Again, that wassomething that was antithetical to the progression of soccer in this country.”