To keep other teams from signing him, no? Particularly early in the year, when there was still hope he would recover, if all they had was a handshake agreement to cover the costs of his rehab, another team could easily have signed him had they known he was available.
You really missed the point. It's not that Kreis was untruthful about an injury, it's that he put out a report on a player not signed to the team. Teams are only supposed to comment on their own players, in any sport. It is a big difference that you're not opening your eyes to.
That's nothing new to us. We advertised with Lampard while he was signed to MCFC and even used pictures of him 'signing' a contract that wasn't a contract.
But that's the point, and Lampard reinforces it, that the club conducts PR (GJ)/Marketing (Lampard) that is not accurate and serves another, unpublished purpose. If it didn't, they wouldn't do it, because it's extra work and nobody in this business world does anything without an end goal/compensation.
Your example is still off-base, because as far as fans go, where they got the extra international spot is secondary since MLS approved it. That's completely different from the team commenting on a player's health/status as if they're part of the team when they legally are not. That's also different from insinuating a player has transferred to the team and subsequently loaned out when they were never signed at that juncture.
Holding rights and having a contract though are two different things - I'm sure the team would have signed him if he overcame his injuries, but the pressers all made it seem as if he was a full-fledged member of the team but that he was not ready to play matches, and that was not the case. Hell, he was even signing autographs at Adidas with the rest of the team - That's a farce if I've ever seen one, and having his signature on a shirt really muddies the object. Any other team in any other sport that held a players rights but didn't have them signed would never comment on them from a "status of ready to play or not," they would comment that the player is not part of the team and therefore cannot be considered for selection.
"If NYCFC or Orlando City SC selects a Supplemental Roster Player, it must offer him a Senior Roster position and he must remain on the Senior Roster as of Roster Compliance Date."
