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Just hours before Major League Soccer’s 29th season began in Fort Lauderdale, MLS commissioner Don Garber criticized the Professional Soccer Referees Association for its approach to collective bargaining. He also gave the league’s perspective on its role in the US Open Cup, saying MLS has been “supporting and subsidizing that tournament for a long time.”
The Professional Referees Organization (PRO), the group that manages match officials in professional leagues in the US and Canada, blocked referees, resulting in MLS using replacement referees in the interim after that members of the referees union voted overwhelmingly to reject their leadership’s tentative plan with PRO. for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) by a 95.8 percent “no” vote.
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Garber said he did not recall a union rejecting an agreement that had been negotiated by its elected leaders and questioned whether the negotiation and voting that led to the lockout in the days before the start of the season was “intentional.”
“They (PRO) reached an agreement with the PSRA before the start of the season, and their members did not support that agreement,” Garber said. “I don’t remember in my almost 40 years in the sport that there has been a negotiating unit that has reached an agreement and then its members do not support it. Very disappointing. The process, in my opinion, was intentional or there was a disconnect between members and their elected negotiators. So I’m hoping they can come to an agreement. We are prepared. “It’s not the way MLS expected to start a season, but you can’t really negotiate with an entity that, in my opinion, has not negotiated fairly with the PRO.”
Union members and other supporters protested outside the MLS and PRO offices in New York and also protested in the Dallas area on Wednesday before the opening match between Inter Miami and Real Salt Lake in Florida.
Garber said he couldn’t predict when the lockout might end because “we don’t even know what they’re looking for, because we agreed with their elected representation.”
“My hope would be that they would have come and told us what officials were looking for that their elected representatives couldn’t deliver, rather than wasting time protesting outside our offices and doing whatever else was necessary. to cheer everyone up,” Garber said. “I have been through countless labor negotiations since I have been commissioner. We extended the negotiating window several times, which was requested by the PSRA, and suggested a no lockout or strike clause, but they rejected it. So today I sit here, not quite sure what the next step is.
“I’m sure at some point they will let PRO know what their expectations are and we will have to manage that process.”
When asked again what he thought might bring the parties together, Garber said that from his perspective it was difficult to give an answer.
“It’s pretty hard to predict what a solution would be if you don’t even know what you’re negotiating,” Garber said. “So I think it almost seems like this was intentional. I don’t know how you get to a point where there’s a work stoppage and you don’t know what you don’t agree with. “That’s frustrating, I imagine it’s frustrating for the fans, it’s certainly frustrating for us, but we’ll see how it plays out.”
Garber also addressed questions about the league’s participation in the U.S. Open Cup in the future.
MLS announced in December its intention to use its MLS Next Pro teams in the Open Cup, only to have that request rejected by US Soccer. However, in recent weeks, reports have indicated that MLS is still looking for ways to decrease its participation in the Open Cup.
Sources told The Athletic on Wednesday that only eight MLS teams are expected to compete in the 2024 Open Cup tournament.
The US Open Cup, founded in 1913, is directed and managed by the US Soccer Federation. It includes teams from all levels of US soccer, from the amateur level to the lower divisions of US soccer and up to MLS.
Garber began a response about the tournament by rejecting the idea that MLS does not support the lower divisions, specifically the USL.
“We’ve done a lot to support the pyramid,” Garber said. “If it weren’t for the second MLS teams participating in the USL when they relaunched, I’m not sure the USL would be where it is today. And we would have been more than happy to stay in the USL if they hadn’t asked us to leave. That’s why I want to put our commitment to the lower professional levels of soccer in the United States into perspective. Our investment is in MLS Next Pro, something that is almost unprecedented in professional soccer, as a league could launch 30 to 35 teams that are developing players who will ultimately participate in the US national team, which which will help plant our first teams on time. That’s a huge investment in the pyramid. But the question is, ‘Does that investment have to be with another league that ultimately we probably don’t have the best relationship with?’ Certainly not because of our actions.”
Garber said the league is dealing with schedule congestion, not only because of the Leagues Cup, a tournament it created with Liga MX, but also because of the CONCACAF Champions Cup and summer tournaments coming up in the coming years. three years: the Copa América, the Club World Cup. and the 2026 World Cup.
Garber said MLS has “committed to participating and to what level is yet to be determined.”
“We will continue to do everything we can to support the US Open Cup, but we will not do it in a way where the entire responsibility for making that tournament work falls on Major League Soccer,” Garber said. “It needs the support of our federation, they have committed to showing more support in that regard. It has to make more sense for our players and our clubs. “Right now we are subsidizing that tournament.”
(Photo: Omar Vega/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)