MLS Discipline announcements, MLS Players Association "response"

[RefIADad]

Quite a day for MLS discipline related to referee matters.

• MLS suspended FC Cincinnati defender (and MLS Defender of the Year) Matt Miazga three games, which would include the MLS Cup Final if FCC wins tomorrow, for illegally entering the referees locker room area. I have copied and pasted the match report and an independent eyewitness account from a New York-area reporter, below this post. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/39008186/mls-suspends-cincinnati-miazga-3-games-misconduct
• The MLS Player's Association then issued a statement basically accusing the officials of lying because they 1) couldn't determine exactly what Miazga was eating when he was entering the locker room, 2) disputing exactly who had to forcibly remove Miazga from the area, and 3) blaming security for Miazga's actions.
  https://twitter.com/x/status/1730278676590125319
• Vancouver head coach Vanni Sartini was suspended five games beyond the standard one-match suspension for a send-off and ordered to undergo a professional behavioral examination for his actions after a first-round playoff game. These actions included Sartini joking about the police looking for him if referee Tim Ford was found face down in a local creek. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/39014879/whitecaps-coach-vanni-sartini-banned-6-games

Here is the match report on the Miazga incident, which was verified to be accurate as the Professional Soccer Referees Association (the union representing MLS referees) provided to reporters covering the Miazga event.

• then standing in the opening of our seating area is Matt Miazga in a blue hoodie holding pizza and a brown folded paper togo food container.
• An Official said, "You can't be in here. You need to leave." He continued to stare at the crew.
• The Official repeated that he needed to leave. Miazga yelled back defiantly, "Why?"
• At that point the crew realized he wasn't going to leave on his own. The Official again repeated, "You can't be in here. You need to leave"
• The Official got up and started walking toward MIazga to attempt to usher him out and kept repeating "you need to leave," "you need to leave"
• Miazga repeats, "Why? Why? I want to talk to the ********ing referee!"
• The crew was very confused initially, as no player is ever in our locker room, but this is when they realized this was a situation in which they needed help.
• Miazga was blocking the hallway to the exit. As an Official tried to usher him to go back into the interior hallway, he stepped back and said, "Don't touch me!"
• At that point the Officials were afraid that he was going to escalate the situation, maybe even become violent, and they felt like they needed to get security.
• Miazga stepped back a bit and an Official was able to walk past him to the door down the interior hallway.
• He opened the door and made eye contact with the Official’s security guard posted across from the locker room and said, "Security! He can't be in here. He needs to leave!", while pointing to Mr. Miazga.
• At that point the security guard entered the locker room, approached Mr. Miazga, stood in front of him, grabbed his arm and told him he had to leave.
• However, Mr. Miazga showed no signs of leaving when the security guard was trying to get him out.
• Mr. Miazga continued to yell and curse at the individuals in the room.
• Then, another unknown individual entered the locker room and forcibly removed Mr. Miazga with the security guard from the locker room.
• As they were leaving the locker room, that unknown individual was heard saying, "What are you thinking going in there?"
• After they left the room, the security guard on the way out apologized to the Officials for allowing the player to enter the locker room.
• The Referee got out of the shower, dressed, and then went out in the hall to ask where the breakdown occurred.
• The primary security guard, who has been there for years, apologized profusely, stating that they had a new person there assigned to the door of the Official’s Locker Room and someone had asked him for help down the hallway momentarily.
• He stated the new security guard was being sent off to write up an incident report for the stadium’s records (PSRA has not seen this, but we assume that MLS has obtained this).
• The primary security guard, on the way out to the vehicles, again apologized repeatedly for the incident and stated he was going to go write up his own notes and report on the incident for the stadium’s records.

This is an independent eyewitness account from a New York-area reporter documenting the event with Miazga. MLSPA is seeking to cast doubt on this report because FCC said Miazga was eating pizza and this report said Miazga had a burger and fries. So basically, MLSPA is using a defense similar to a defense attorney saying his client should be acquitted of driving while intoxicated because the eyewitness said the client was drinking a lot of beer before stumbling behind the wheel of a car while the client was really drinking a bunch of bourbon.

This is the report from the New York reporter:

From JJ Pavlick at Bad Dawg Sports, received November 10th at 1:52pm CT:

Myself and another reporter were right next to the locker room door when Matt walked under the belt barrier looked at both of us, saw the tiny guard not paying attention and entered the referees locker room. He started shouting immediately at whoever was left inside the room. A member of FCC came out of their locker room looking for Matt, that is when my colleague notified them that they need to immediately enter the referee locker room and get Matt out of there. They said excuse me what he repeated Matt went into the locker room for the officials and his screaming his head off. The FCC member then sprang into action entered the room and quickly removed Matt Miazga. The commotion alerted higher levels of security who came over and reprimanded the guard for allowing the player to walk right past them into the room. I just saw the post before kick off and was going to put a piece out on it but I’m just a small fish in the MLS media so I would get overlooked. I mentioned it to a bigger outlet who said they would back me if I put a piece out on it. Not sure who the Athletic spoke with but the only other media present was facing the wall of the FCC locker room and had no clue what happened or who was involved. RBNY media was all in the Red Bull Locker Room media area. I was waiting for Vazquez to interview which didn’t happen because after the incident all of a sudden FCC was running late and needed to get to the airport to catch their charter flight back to Cincinnati. Hopefully this information helps you and the officials out. One of the referees came out after Matt was removed and went looking for the liaison at the arena to report the incident. I believe it was the 4th official but it may have been the center I didn’t get a great look at the referee during the chaos of FCC literally bear hugging Matt out of the room. Red Bull Security never entered the room to remove Matt. The guard was frozen in place with deer in the headlights look on his face. If needed I could even tell you Matt was holding a tray of food with a Half eaten Burger loads of ketchup with some fries if that detail matters. I have no clue how to reach the disciplinary committee to share the eye witness account of what happened. Hopefully this got to you guys in time to forward on.

 

[JBeil]

Predictably social media is full of 'referees need to be accountable' round #155226. Apparently angry players bursting into changing rooms is fine.

 

[RefIADad]

Predictably social media is full of 'referees need to be accountable' round #155226. Apparently angry players bursting into changing rooms is fine.

It’s also fine to joke about a referee being killed by a coach. Just all part of the deal, right?

 

[Southerner In The North]

It’s also fine to joke about a referee being killed by a coach. Just all part of the deal, right?

The accountability argument comes from them not allowing evidence against the referees version of events not entering the dressing room let’s not twist it.