Vancouver Whitecaps happy to compete with Toronto FC for Canadian talent

Vancouver Whitecaps are happy to compete with Toronto FC - and possibly Montreal Impact - for future MLS talent in Canada.

Whitecaps co-owner Jeff Mallett says Vancouver supports a free market system.

"There are no [Canadian] territories established on the player side of things," Mallett told kelowna.com. "Will that change? It's under discussion, but we're big believers in may the best programs win. We are proponents of an open market."

Toronto FC has certain MLS rights over the whole of Canada, which will obviously change in 2011. But to what extent is negotiable, and those negotiations will not be easy.

Two Toronto FC Academy players — midfielders Russell Teibert, 16, and Kevin Cobby, 17, moved to the Whitecaps residency squad last year.

"We believe that good players will make good choices and that limiting that in any form could lesson the quality of all programs," said Mallett.