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Dealing with Dempsey: MLS commissioner Garber weighs in on discipline decisions
MLS commissioner Don Garber said the nature of Clint Dempsey's actions in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup game last week compelled the league to issue him a three-match suspension.
Dempsey reached into the pocket of referee Daniel Radford, pulled his notebook out of his front pocket and ripped it up on the field during extra time of Seattle's 3-1 defeat to Portland last Tuesday.
MLS found itself thrust into the middle of the non-league incident due to a section in the U.S. Soccer Policy Manual prompting professional league members to act in instances of referee assault or abuse.
Garber eventually signed off on a three-match suspension on Friday after league officials determined Dempsey's actions constituted referee abuse, not referee assault, under the terms of the policy. He cited the general language used to define referee assault -- an offense that carries a minimum six-match suspension as well as a period of ineligibility from all competitions, according to U.S. Soccer policy -- as the reason why the league selected its particular course of action.
"Discipline is hard," Garber said after New York City FC and New York Red Bulls completed a press conference ahead of their match on Sunday. "You never can win. The league is always in a lose-lose because you have a multitude of constituencies. All we can do is interpret the rule. The rule very specifically said that assault required physical violence. We did not determine what Clint had done as physically violent. It was really bad. He shouldn't have done it. He apologized, the club apologized."
In a separate ruling handed down on Thursday, the Open Cup Adjudication and Discipline Panel suspended Dempsey from Open Cup play for two years or six matches, whichever penalty is greater.
The exact nature of the conduct and the particular nature of the policy provisions left MLS to grapple with fitting those actions into its own disciplinary code. Garber said the league reviewed previous suspensions as it weighed how to discipline Dempsey for his actions.
"We have to live by how that decision lives within precedent," Garber said. "We can't get caught up in emotion. We can't get caught up in Internet chatter. We can only make a decision based on the rules and how that decision will fit into long-term precedent. Trust me when I tell you, when we're making a decision, we have coaches, their agents and the [MLS Players'] Union picking up something from five years prior and asking us how it is consistent with that decision."
MLS' decision to impose a three-match suspension consigned Dempsey to the sidelines for the defeats against San Jose on Saturday and Philadelphia last night. He will also miss Sounders FC's visit to Portland on Sunday (live, 7:00p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports Go).
Garber said he also addressed the incident and the decision to assign Radford -- a referee who has only served as a fourth official in MLS matches -- to the match with PRO general manager Peter Walton. He reiterated that MLS holds no sway over referee assignments and voiced his support for Walton ("I hope he stays forever," Garber said) and his decision to test emerging referees in Open Cup play.
"We have to have our referees be tested," Garber said. "The way to do that is in competitions like the U.S. Open Cup. I understand it was a rivalry match. I understand it's in a small venue. My guess is that if he was to make that decision again, he might rethink it. But, at that time, it was the right thing for that official. Things got out of hand. Things got out of hand in Champions League finals, too. It is what it is. It's a long-term project, the PRO program. Sometimes, you have to take a little pain. That referee might turn out to be our referee of the year five years from now."
