This is a former FIFA from Nicaragua who has lived in Maryland or Delaware for awhile, working amateur matches. I've kind of wondered why he's never been on the radar.
Two things can be true at once. And if my first cryptic post here precedes the tweet in question, perhaps it's possible that... actually, nevermind.
I also saw this assignment get “announced” on Facebook by [some Nicaraguan referee group] a couple days ago - well before PRO was public about it.
At the end of the day, PRO is assigning that crew — regardless of where they got a list of possibly-willing-to-work officials from. Same as they’ve done with all US-based games.
Wonder what uniforms the Canadian replacement referees will be wearing? It surely is whatever is the equivalent of OSI for all CSA referees? My guess is Nike? Or will they wear OSI?
Which is odd because USSF isn’t assigning US matches. But, again, PRO needs to be concerned about immigration law and where it dissects with labor and employment law. So they have to say this.
PRO changed the center referee for today's Inter Miami vs. Orlando City game from Guiherme Ceretta to Jamie Herrera, less than 2 hours after photos came out of Ceretta in a Miami kit.PRO says "conflict of interest".@MLSRefStats brought photos to light https://t.co/cpFmb4ae7B— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) March 2, 2024
I was just thinking about the irony of PRO not releasing assignments until just before on the day of the game to prevent the inevitable flood of messages to the replacement referees. If they waited until even closer to kick off, this research wouldn’t have been posted in time to make a switch. That would have been so bad if this got released during the match or right after. How on earth does Geiger and everyone at PRO not think to ask every replacement referee if they have any conflicts? Pretty bad administrative oversight for such a large organization.
One might argue that the timing of the news today equates to a show of good faith. There has been at least another one, done privately, during this whole saga.
You mean another referee removed for a perceived conflict? I don’t see how the referee himself didn’t think to self report. This guy is Brazilian right? Imagine a similar scenario in Brazil with their referees and the game actually happens, the referee would likely end up dead afterwards.
With that type of logic and that many upvotes it makes a good case of why to avoid Reddit in general.
Not quite. PRO used someone on a preseason match and had him scheduled to referee as a replacement in the regular season. But Google revealed an off-field problem that would have been just as bad for the league, if not worse, than if today's referee took the field (I mean, it would have been objectively worse... but given the attention anything Miami/Messi gets, probably not worse from a media standpoint). Anyway, individuals inside PSRA learned this and, ultimately, PRO was given a heads-up. Obviously PSRA is researching these individuals as names come out. It doesn't seem like the same can be said for PRO.
I cannot take credit for this point, but someone else pointed out that it would seem unlikely PRO is able to monitor or vet the betting activity of any of these individuals.