ESPN posted a message about how Miami International uses lineup rules to register De Paul.

MLS teams must comply with the league's salary budget regulations. The amount is between 11.105 million and 13.855 million US dollars depending on the team's lineup composition and qualifications. Each team has three "designated players" (DP) places. The mechanism sets the salary cap of a single player to $743,750, which actually allows the club to pay three players far exceeding the salary cap.

The league allows the use of "allocated funds" to convert DP contracts into ordinary contracts, but the contract amount of the three DP players in Miami International (Alba, Busquets, Messi) is too high and unable to operate, resulting in the team being unable to free up DP places for DePaul, who has an annual salary of $12 million.

To this end, Miami International's management proposed an innovative plan to sign DePaul on loan until the end of this season, and then transfer to a permanent transfer in 2026. However, according to the league's regulations, the club must submit a written proof to the MLS, promising that no private agreement was reached on the buyout during the loan period. A person familiar with the matter revealed to ESPN: "No mandatory buyout mechanism shall be set except for the automatic trigger clauses recognized by the league. Such important transactions require the club to provide certification documents." The preset standards of the "automatic trigger buyout clauses" in the league are different, such as a player's appearance rate of 66% can be triggered, but another source confirmed that the personal terms of the four-year contract of DePaul have been reached, which means that Miami International must free up DP places by 2026. Busquets' contract expires in December, and its DP position is likely to be replaced by De Paul.

Although Miami International boss Jorge Maas previously told ESPN that the door to renew Busquets is still open, the two sides have not started negotiations. If Busquets stays in the team, Miami International may provide him with a non-DP contract, and his annual salary will drop sharply from $8.775 million in 2025 to less than $1.74375 million.

Some insiders pointed out that Miami International is playing around with the rules: "This is a legal loophole, showing the creativity of management in building transfer clauses. MLS likes to call these rules "guidelines" rather than hard regulations, and Miami International happens to be good at using guidelines."

Insiders also mentioned past cases of the league, such as Los Angeles Galaxy was punished in 2022 for violating salary regulations in the 2019 season, and Miami International itself was also punished for similar issues in 2020. The source added: "There is rules game in every league. The stricter the rules, the more loopholes are exploiting. Miami International is creating its own gameplay."