League Turns a Blind Eye
Imagine this: You’re driving down Michigan Ave. on a busy Friday evening. Traffic is heavy, and you’re already running late.
You see the traffic lights ahead changing soon, and you zoom by quickly as it goes from yellow to red.
PHOTO: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch/USA TODAY NETWORK/Imagn Images
About 30 seconds later, a police officer pulls you over for “taking a red.” Upon the officer explaining what you did, you carefully explained that you did not take the light and made it past the intersection way before it changed from yellow to red. The officer believes you for a second and decides to check the squad car dashcam on the spot, which was turned on and recording. After a lengthy review, the officer does verify that you did indeed beat the red light and lets you off with just a warning. Whew! What a relief.
But hold on! Just a couple days later, imagine receiving a ticket in the mail. You open the letter and read the details. The city claims that “upon further review from one of our city street cameras, you committed a traffic violation by taking a red light.
The city violations committee has signed off on the violation and ticketed you for the infraction.”
Incredibly absurd, no?
Last Saturday, Brian Gutierrez was shown a yellow card for a potential elbow to Crew’s Yevhen Cherberko. Initially, Referee Fotis Bazakos had called it a foul on Guti. However, shortly after the play, VAR Sorin Stoica appears to have called down to Fotis to take a second look at the play. After a few minutes of reviewing the play on Guti for violent conduct, Bazakos decided to show him a yellow card.
Just a few days later (earlier this week), the MLS Disciplinary Committee came out and said that the incident was worthy of a red card and reversed the call, which, again, had a lengthy VAR review during the match. Gutierrez will now miss the Fire home opener tomorrow and serve a game suspension. Now, I am not sitting here saying it wasn’t a legit elbow thrown or that it didn’t deserve a red card, but please.
Make it make sense!
What is the point of a center ref reviewing a play mid-game and making an executive decision (as they are required to do) but then having an entirely different group review plays days later and reverse calls? Is that what we’re doing now? Is that going to be the protocol moving forward in MLS after every single weekend fixture?
What’s the point of VAR then, and furthermore, what’s the point of having a human being literally assigned to VAR duties for each match?
To be completely honest, I probably wouldn’t be so bothered by the final decision if it took place at any other time of the year. However, it was extremely annoying to see Lionel Messi say and do whatever he pleased after his match on Saturday and pretty much get away with it. Did he appear to throw any elbows? Not necessarily; however, he did act way out of line by approaching referees after the match and arguing for quite a while. After the referee showed him a yellow card, Messi turned around again and continued arguing with the officials. He also appeared to have put his hand on the neck of an NYCFC’s assistant coach and gave him a bit of a shove after he was finished arguing with the refs.
Oh, but none of that was deemed “violent conduct,” right? None of that deserved a second yellow, right? The same MLS Disciplinary Committee that reviewed Gutierrez’s play 2-3 days later had nothing to say about Messi’s post-match shenanigans, of course. Instead, the league fined him an “undisclosed amount simply.”
Are you kidding me? Seriously?
As an avid Chicago Fire viewer, I’ve seen multiple matches where the Fire specifically have gotten the short end of the stick regarding officiating calls and even VAR reviews. Never have I seen MLS come out a couple of days later and address the incorrect calls against the Fire. I understand the MLS and the US Open Cup function as separate entities, but let’s talk about the obvious foul on Gutierrez inside the 18 by the Dynamo goalkeeper during their encounter in the 2023 Quarterfinal matchup in the US Open Cup.
The Fire were losing 2-1 at this point, and in the 52nd minute, Gutierrez dribbled past the keeper and was completely wiped out. A PK call could have impacted the game tremendously, and the Fire could have found themselves in the semifinals of the Open Cup. That’s just one instance I can recall from the past couple of seasons where post-game play reviews were non-existent in favor of the Fire.
Moving forward in this 2025 season, watch for instances like the couple we saw last weekend.
Watch closely how the league seems to only pay attention to certain things, certain plays, and certain players, whether in a good light or bad.
It’s no secret that there’s an emphasis and focus on Inter Miami (I didn’t even bring up the entire match reschedule Miami received recently due to cold weather Messi did not want to play in) from the league.
From a business perspective, I get it, but the beauty of MLS over the past couple of decades has always been the league’s parity.
Lately, that seems to be rapidly changing for a number of rea$ons.
PHOTO: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch/USA TODAY NETWORK/Imagn Images
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Categorized:Fire