TODAY’S TALKER

MLS teams navigate league’s ‘no political display’ policy

Major League Soccer’s new policy that bans political displays at matches is stirring controversy in the Pacific Northwest, where supporters’ culture is often intertwined with politics and social issues. The Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers have banned signs and flags with the “Iron Front” symbol, which they say has become appropriated by some in the loosely structured antifa movement, at times in the context of violence.

The symbol of three arrows pointing downward and to the left dates back to an antiNazi paramilitary organization formed in Germany in the 1930s. Supporters’ groups maintain the symbol represents opposition to fascism and persecution — a human rights issue, not a political stance. The league’s new fan code of conduct, implemented this season, prohibits “using (including on any sign or other visible representation) political, threatening, abusive, insulting, offensive language and/or gestures, which includes racist, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist or otherwise inappropriate language or behavior.”

MLS president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott said the league worked with all of its teams to devise the policy. “I think it was the belief of the league and the clubs that fans are at our games to enjoy the game and that there is a place for third-party political organizations or groups to express their views, but that place isn’t within our stadiums,” Abbott said.

MLS is the only U.S. professional league among the top five with a code of conduct that expressly bans political signage.