Please tell me, if anyone can, how Commissioner Don Garber plans to elevate MLS to a “destination league” without actually signing players to MLS contracts? Or what the plan is to make MLS a “world player” by 2022 when right now in 2015 “The Soccer Don” allows the league to be used as a way to bypass FIFA contract regulations? You cannot be a player when you are a pawn.
I understand that Garber has to look at MLS as a business and I get the need to make money in a business, therefore, I can imagine how difficult it would have been to turn away a $100 million payment for the rights to put a team in the center of the New York City market. However, a commissioner who is looking out for the best interest of the league does not fall for the same scam twice, no matter how well lined his pockets can get.
At the same time the league office was sloppily trying to clean up the mess of Chivas USA, they saw green and became suckers once again.
There is no justification for allowing NYCFC to announce the signing of Frank Lampard with the club when in fact the contract was for Manchester City FC.
Commissioner Garber cannot claim ignorance of the situation and expect to be exempt from responsibility when it is his job to be in the know.
I sympathize with the frustration felt by the fans and supporters of NYCFC at the fact that Lampard will not be on the pitch as promised but I am far more outraged at the way the league so willingly allowed itself to be used in this farce and continues to remain nearly silent on the matter.
This matter is far bigger than a single player. The story is not just about how this fiasco affects NYCFC on the pitch. This story is about a fraudulent campaign to sell a new club to a city that did not need one.
New York already had a soccer club. Despite having a New Jersey address, just like their NFL counterparts, the New York Red Bulls represent New York. And truthfully, they do so rather well.
There was never a need to bring a second team to the New York market, simply an opportunity. But instead of taking notice of the numerous red flags, such as: the failed two team strategy in Los Angeles, the failed association with Chivas Guadalajara, the lack of a reasonable site for a stadium in the city limits, the enormous potential for the new club to be seen as a feeder for Manchester City, et cetera, et cetera…. The league did what it always does under Garber and took the quick cash.
So, MLS puts a team in New York City and instantly, they attract Frank Lampard. Hooray! Except they have yet to actually secure a permanent home in the city and Lampard was attracted to Manchester.
Now what do we do? Garber took the money. The team is set to begin play. The scam is out in the open. How does the league go about saving face?
For starters, Garber has to go. Now. Not after his contract is up. Now. Garber has to be shown the door because the league cannot be taken seriously anymore with him at the helm. The league will never gain or maintain respectability if its commissioner continues to show such terrible judgment and refused to learn from past mistakes.
What trust can be gained at the collective bargaining table when the negotiations are happening with someone who just used the league to help perpetrate such a gigantic fraud?
It has become abundantly clear that Garber’s goals are simply in place to manufacture instant cash and there is no vision for the future of the league. No more trying to dissect his press conference non-answer answers about league transparency, his track record is pretty clear. From Miami to Chivas/LA FC to NYCFC and the constant push for expansion markets and their hefty upfront fees, it is pretty transparent (if you’re looking for an MLS buzzword in 2015 by the way, that one might be the ticket) that his time as commissioner needs to come to an end.
It is not my intention to cast Garber in the role of some vile ne’er-do-well out for his own greed or even as an incompetent leader incapable of running the league, but simply stated his style of leadership is no longer needed. The league has advanced beyond his capabilities.
Although his words are always speaking to the future of the league, Garber’s actions are consistently short sighted and beneficial only for that moment. While that may have been the tactic needed to keep the league afloat when he took over the office of the commissioner in 1999, it is no longer the case.
MLS has been struggling to find its footing in the world of professional football for too long to allow a scandal like this to go unanswered. The outrage from the fans and the mockery of the league stemming from this debacle should be more than enough motivation to execute change.
MLS needs to show not just the football world but its own fans that it will not stand for being made a pawn in some other clubs machinations and that it believes itself to be the destination league it wants others to perceive it as. What stronger statement can be made to that effect than to show the door to those that allowed this farce to proceed?
And what of NYCFC? Certainly the difficulties securing a permanent stadium deal have not been helped by this. Folding the team is not an option but transfer bans and sanctions might be in order. Those of course would only combine with the outright lies spoken in promotion of the club to quicken NYCFC’s decent into the abyss of failed experiments and folded clubs.
Anyone up for a two year hiatus and rebrand? I thought not.
With a new long term television contract secured and a new CBA pending, this offseason was one of pivotal importance to the league in terms of establishing long term profitability and sustainability. With his actions, or inaction, Garber has proven that he is not capable of securing the type of CBA necessary to ensure the development of this league any further.
The surprising lack of foresight shown in all of this by the commissioner’s office is systematic of the type of decision making that will always undermine any progress the league makes. Such as, allowing the best domestic talent to be wooed away from MLS by better paying jobs in non-athletic fields or simply remaining unpaid in college to wait for better offers overseas (for more on that check out this recent piece by LWSC writer Eric Walcott http://old.lastwordonsports.com/2015/01/03/the-mls-super-draft-is-not-so-super/) while making contract exemptions for older European league stars searching for more playing time in the twilight of their careers. Is it any wonder the league has to fight against the notion they are a retirement league?
Is there any hope to move away from that moniker if the powers that be remain the powers that be? Garber screwed up on the biggest stage at one of the biggest moments for the league. I do not trust him to clean up the mess.
There are plenty of smart, driven, and committed people to be found in the ownership groups and management teams of the MLS clubs that could be promoted up to lead MLS into its newest era. The strategies and missteps of Garber are no longer required.
It would be best at this point if neither Lampard nor Garber were a part of MLS going forward.
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