MLS labor tactics frustrated players
Major League Soccer and its players came away with a sense of accomplishment after reaching a new collective bargaining agreement in February as the league was heading into its 25th season.
“I think coming out of February both sides felt good,” Seattle Sounders FC player representative Harry Shipp said. “It was this productive partnership where we took 18 months to figure out what was going on, what both sides needed, and we really worked to make common ground.”
Those positive vibes — from the days before the coronavirus outbreak essentially shut down organized sports around the globe in March — are largely gone for MLS, at least when it comes to the way players feel toward the league and ownership.
The MLS Players Association ratified a revised CBA this week that will allow play to resume this summer with a tournament in Florida, but the union did so with bitter feelings about the strategies used by the league. Specifically, players are upset about the league’s threat of a lockout that would have left them without salary and benefits during a pandemic that has had a devastating economic impact.
Commissioner Don Garber acknowledged he was the one who threatened the lockout in the hope it would push the players toward an agreement. He said the league is set to lose
$1 billion because of the coronavirus.
“We were open,” said Atlanta United FC defender Jeff Larentowicz, a member of the union’s executive board who has been in the league since 2005. “We wanted to make a collaborative process. We wanted to make it something that was good for everyone in an incredibly difficult circumstance.
“To make that threat on the heels of them asking for collaboration and an open discussion to find a way to get through a difficult time, it really doesn’t sit well with me at all. I’m not one to hold grudges, and it’s a difficult process, but it’s going to take me a bit of time to get past that myself.”
Players were already concerned about leaving families behind and sequestering themselves in Florida — likely for most of July — to play in the full-league tournament that will restart a season suspended after just two games for each team. That doesn’t even touch on the concerns about the coronavirus or the measures players and others will need to take to protect themselves from the virus when play resumes.
Nashville SC player representative Daniel Lovitz said it was shocking to hear the league was threatening a lockout. He equated it to being put on a “24-hour shot clock” to accept the league’s offer.
“Obviously, we were able to avoid that,” Lovitz said. “But nonetheless, it was a scary truth to look in the eyes.”
Galaxy cut Katai
LOS ANGELES — Aleksandar Katai has been released by the Los Angeles Galaxy after a series of alarming social media posts by his wife, Tea.
The Galaxy announced their decision to “mutually part ways” with their new Serbian winger Friday in a one-sentence news release.
Tea Katai made the posts on her Instagram story earlier this week, and the Galaxy angrily condemned them as “racist and violent” on Wednesday. The posts included a photo with a caption written in Serbian urging police to “kill” protesters, another referring to protesters as “disgusting cattle” and a third sharing a racist meme. Aleksandar Katai disavowed his wife’s posts late Wednesday night, saying the “views are not ones that I share and are not tolerated in my family.”
Galaxy fans immediately reacted with wide online calls for his dismissal. On Thursday, the same day the team met with the 29-year-old player, a handful of fans gathered by the David Beckham statue outside the club’s stadium holding a banner reading “No Racists in Our Club” along with a circle and a red line through No. 7, Katai’s uniform number.
Katai signed with the Galaxy on Dec. 31 after playing the past two seasons with the Chicago Fire. He had been participating in voluntary individual workouts this week with his teammates at their training complex in Carson.