So Diego Costa got 8 games in Spain for insulting the referee's mother. Yet this guy almost took a fan's head off and almost started the MLS' own version of Malice in the Palace and he gets, essentially, a VC or SFP red card suspension in Europe (three games). Remarkable.
The real joke is MLS continuing to make the starting point for SFP and VC send-offs one game. If the standard was three games like in England, then an additional two games would make it a five game suspension. Three games for what Kaku did is ridiculous. He's REALLY lucky the fan wasn't seriously injured, and his suspension is half of Dempsey's suspension for ripping up a notebook.
3 games is a joke and an insult. As pointed out, this isn't even in line with things like the Howard incident, much less Clark or Mullan.
At first I thought it was three brought up to five. Its only three? As a RBNY fan, I'm tickled, but that is way too lenient. I was expecting between 6-8.
Unlike most other professional leagues, MLS still sets the standard bar for VC and SFP reds at one game. The supplemental discipline is added to the one-game suspension. I'm not sure about the other "big four" European leagues, but England's standard VC/SFP punishment is three games. Now I believe that England's punishments can extend to any FA-sanctioned games, so a player receiving a straight red for VC/SFP in the Premier League can also miss Carabao Cup or FA Cup games. Since MLS is not as intertwined with USSF as the EPL is with the FA, I think they couldn't do something similar. I do think VC/SFP needs to be two or three games to be more in line with the punishments in England. That would hopefully crack down on some of the bad stuff we see in the league.
Any discussion of the lack of the three-match auto-ban for SFP/VC is a distraction, in my opinion. It should have nothing to do with what happened here. Kaku indiscriminately assaulted a fan with a ball, striking the fan in the head and reportedly leaving him bloodied. The outcome could have been so much worse. The punishment doesn't fit the crime, period. If you want to introduce a bunch of mitigating factors and assert he was actually just dissenting and he meant to hit the sign board and he apologized, etc.... fine, go ahead. But those types of factors should be bring an otherwise lengthy suspension down to the 8-10 game range, in my opinion (whereas a premeditated attack should be something like a season-long ban). Debating two additional games on top of the auto one-match versus two additional games on top of the traditional auto three-match is accepting MLS' apparent position that this was slightly worse than your average straight red card. It wasn't. It was a lot worse.
Agreed. MLS has made this equivalent to Tim Howard's "your mother" insult which, come on. Yes, both involved interactions with fans but "sticks and stones" here. There is no legitimate way to defend this as anything else than a complete failure by the league and RBNY.
I don't disagree at all. The penalty should have been 8-10 games, as I've stated before. Unfortunately, the realistic thought process of many disciplinary committees is to take the "standard punishment" and tack on additional punishment on top of that. It's not right, but it's often reality. It's lazy thinking to dole out punishments like that, but it is what it is. This penalty just screams "Two games of supplemental punishment on top of the standard red card punishment." That's reality, regardless of whether it's the right way to think about it.
Interesting take on this from Twitter. How many games would he have gotten if he had smashed the ball and hit the AR (intentionally or not)? Months, right? Why is a fan any different? Arguably hitting a fan could be considered worse.
If a plausible argument was made that he did so unintentionally? I bet two games. That's where the evidence points for me.
Didn't that happen a few years ago? I can't remember the details, but I thought a guy blasted AR1 after a close in/out call. He got a caution, iirc
I wanna say it was Brek Shae? Which is funny to me cause a couple years later he was sent off for saying "******** off" to the center ref I believe.
A statement from our organization about the insufficient response by @MLS to the Kaku's reckless actions.#NoOtherClub pic.twitter.com/mkTV1AJjEh— The Cauldron (@KCCauldron) April 25, 2019
It was Shea and he was suspended three games. He was not carded in the game. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2012/05/17/shea-suspended-three-games-kicking-ball-referee
So turns out that the MLS did follow their precedent. 3 games for kicking the ball at the AR, three games for kicking it at a fan. Obviously both are pretty lame.
Those of you who thought Kaku's suspension was on the light side should also know that that suspension was, at the end of the day, at Don Garber's sole discretion. DisCo gave him their decision the Monday after the incident.— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) April 29, 2019