David Beckham’s Inter Miami ‘violated budget rules’ to sign France World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi

David Beckham’s franchise Inter Miami have been found guilty of breaching Major League Soccer budget rules with the signing of World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi.

The France international joined the club from Serie A side Juventus on a free transfer on August 13, with Miami claiming they used targeted allocation money for the signing.

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According to MLS squad rules announced by the league on March 1 last year, each team is allowed two high-priced designated players whose wages exceed the league's salary cap, plus a third if there was a $150,000 payment to the league split among the other sides.

At the time, the 33-year-old was not announced as a designated player but instead billed as being signed with targeted allocation money (a TAM deal).

However, an investigation by the MLS has since discovered Matuidi was paid above the limit for a TAM player, $1.6125m in 2020, and therefore should have been classified as a designated player.

Inter Miami already have their full quota of designated players though - Matias Pellegrini (signed from Argentinas Estudiantes in July 2019), Rodolfo Pizarro from Monterrey (signed on February 17, 2020) and Argentina forward Gonzalo Higuain who also joined from Juventus on September 18, 2020.

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As a result, the club have violated the designated player limit as the team already have three designated players in addition to Matuidi during 2020.

MLS have said the final results of the investigation, including sanctions, will be announced in due course.