Just a few hours ago Major League SoccerAs the 29th season began in Fort Lauderdale, MLS commissioner Don Garber attacked the Professional Soccer Referees Association for their approach to collective bargaining. He also provided the league’s perspective on its role in the US Open Cup, saying MLS has “supported and subsidized that tournament for a long time.”
The Professional Referees Organization (PRO), the group that manages match officials in the US and Canadian professional leagues, locked out the officials, resulting in MLS using replacement referees in the interim, after the referees’ union membership voted overwhelmingly to reject the tentative plan of its leadership with PRO. for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with a 95.8 percent “no” vote.
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Garber said he could not recall a union rejecting a deal that had been negotiated by its elected leadership and questioned whether the negotiations and vote that led to the lockout in the days before the start of the season were “deliberate”.
“They (the PROs) reached an agreement with the PSRA before the start of the season and their membership did not support that agreement,” Garber said. “I can’t remember in my nearly 40 years in the sport, a bargaining unit reaching an agreement and then their members not supporting it. Very disappointing. The process, in my opinion, was either deliberate or there is a disconnect between the members and their elected negotiators. So I hope they will be able to reach an agreement. We are prepared. It’s not the way MLS was hoping to start the season, but you can’t really negotiate with an entity that, in my opinion, hasn’t really negotiated with the PRO fairly.”
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 game between Inter Miami AND The real Salt Lake in Florida.
Garber said he was unable to predict when the impasse might end because “we don’t even know what they’re asking because we agreed to their elected representation.”
“My hope would be that they would have come and told us what the officials wanted that their elected representatives were unable to do for them, instead of spending their time protesting outside our offices and to do anything else. to get everybody up,” Garber said. “I’ve been through countless labor negotiations since I’ve been commissioner. We extended the bargaining deadline several times, which was requested by PSRA, and we suggested a no-lockout clause, no kick, they turned that down. So (I’m) sitting here today, not quite sure what the next step is.
“I’m sure at some point, they’ll let PRO know what their expectations are and we’ll have to manage that process.”
Asked again what he thought could bring the parties together, Garber said that, from his perspective, it was difficult to give an answer.
“It’s very difficult to predict what a solution would be if you don’t know what you’re negotiating,” Garber said. “That’s why I think it almost seems like this was intentional. I don’t know how you get to a point where there is a work stoppage and I don’t know what you disagree on. That’s disappointing, I’d imagine it’s disappointing for the fans, it’s certainly disappointing for us, but we’ll see how it plays out.”
Garber also addressed questions about the league’s participation in the ongoing US Open Cup.
MLS announced its intention to him in December use his MLS Next Pro teams in the Open Cup, only to have that request denied by US Soccer. In recent weeks, however, reports have indicated that MLS is still looking for ways to reduce 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, which was founded in 1913, is run and managed by the US Soccer Federation. It includes teams from every level of US soccer, from the amateur level to the lower divisions of American soccer and up to MLS.
Garber began a response to the tournament by dismissing the idea that MLS is not supportive of the lower divisions, especially the USL.
“We’ve done a great deal in supporting the pyramid,” Garber said. “If it wasn’t for the second MLS teams participating in the USL when they restarted, I’m not sure the USL would be where it is today. And we’d be more than happy to stay at USL if we weren’t asked to leave. So I want to put into perspective our commitment to the lower levels of professional soccer in America. Our investment is in MLS Next Pro, which is almost unprecedented in professional soccer, that a league can launch 30-35 teams that are developing players who will eventually be participants on the US national team, who help in deploying our first teams on time. This is a great investment in the pyramid. But the question is, ‘Should that investment be with another league that we ultimately don’t have the best relationship with?’ Not of our own doing, by the way.”
Garber said the league is dealing with schedule congestion, not only from the League Cup, a tournament it created with Liga MX, but also because of the CONCACAF Champions Cup and summer tournament coming up over the next three years. Copa AmericaClub World Cup and World Cup 2026.
Garber said MLS is “committed to participating and at what level is yet to be determined.”
“We will continue to do what we can to support the US Open Cup, but we will not do it in a way that the entire responsibility for the operation of this tournament is on Major League Soccer,” Garber said. “This needs the support of our federation, they have pledged to show more support for this. It has to make more sense for our players and for our clubs. At this point we are subsidizing that tournament.”
(Photo: Omar Vega/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
