Chicago Fire sign de Leeuw, Philadelphia Union receive Allocation money

The Philadelphia Union may not be able to cash in on Zlatan Ibrahimovic should he come to MLS, but that hasn't stopped the team from profiting from the Discovery process altogether. Michael de Leeuw was one of a number of player shown in the picture of the Union's supposed Discovery List last week.

Today, de Leeuw was signed by the Chicago Fire from Dutch Eredevisie club FC Groningen and included in the Fire's announcement was this,

Per the league's Discovery Process conflict resolution mechanism, the Fire acquired the right to sign de Leeuw from the Philadelphia Union in exchange for $50,000 in General Allocation Money.

Regardless of your feelings on the current discovery process, it would be foolish of the Union not to take advantage of it while they can. By putting a name on a list, the Union picked up a tidy little sum of allocation money that can be stashed away for later.