It’s simply incredible. I’ve seen enough Miami shenanigans first hand to recognize when something is clearly being made up as it goes along. The entire inter miami franchise has been flying by the seat of their pants since Beckham decided the only available town he wanted to open a team in was Miami. The league has been bending over backwards for the Mas-Beckham monorail ever since. The only smart move they’ve made is hiring Chris Henderson from Seattle. Like you said, they’re actively serving punishment for salary cap violations and they’re doing it again, except this time with a player so valuable that MLS will just change the rules for them. Their roster is garbage because they bet everything on getting Messi and keeping enough dry powder to sign as many of his bros as he wants. Henderson has a roster of young runners because he knew if they do get Messi, he and his boys aren’t running and MLS is a league where you’re going to have to do a lot of running. They’ve basically been doing everything, from construction permit approvals to sponsorships, selling the vision that Messi would come, and damn if they didn’t pull it off. It’s so gloriously Miami (borderline fraudulence that they end up getting away with). I love this league.