NSR: Katai Situation Discussion

Dunno how discussion about marriage can fit into roster thread, it shoulda be somewhere in non-soccer related topics. It's hijacking.

 

I read some of her original posts i could find (most or all of them have been taken down, but Serbian websites re-posted them), to be precise she was specifically referring to looters in LA, with disregard to their skin color.

 

No. She literally posted pictures and words with "black" in them. Very targeted.

 

Should this statement be condemned?
“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

 

I think there’s 2 major factors in Katai’s removal.

1). The timing. The posts came out something like a day after the Galaxy made their statement clear on where they stand regarding the issue of police brutality. If they didn’t act quickly and decisively their statement would like empty and hollow.

2). They needed to make an example out of someone. This may fall more into the hands of MLS and the Players Union than the Galaxy. I think collectively they wanted to make a statement that there is zero tolerance for any racist behavior and Katai was the first person to cross the line.

Obviously there’s a complicated area where HE didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m guessing the FO sat down with him and gave him some options and they agreed to part ways. I haven’t seen any hard evidence but there’s been a lot of talk that Katai refused to wear the pride work jersey last season for the Fire. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just going to be easier for all parties involved to just move him on to somewhere outside the league.

 

More on Katai:

https://www.nationalreview.com/corn...-aleksandar-katai-over-wifes-instagram-posts/

The last line tell me the author knows nothing about MLS salaries

 

Wow, that young guy is a grandson of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

 

Saw the last name, but didn't realize they were related.

 

Well, that last name is very rare, and guy is from Vermont (where older Solzhenitsyn resided).

 

My guess is that Katai at least somewhat shares his wifes views. But I don’t know that for sure. So I would not have fired him automatically on basis of his wife’s tweets. If I were boss I would have had a long talk with him and he would have to really convince me that he didn’t share his wife’s views. Part of that interview would be asking him to make TV spots (LAG sponsored) and community outreach and show more than lip service in the fight against racism in soccer and in the world. If he hesitated about publicly joining the fight and was unwilling to go beyond making a social media post or reading a prepared statement — well then he would be gone.

But he should have at least been given a chance to prove his wife’s views weren’t his own. And maybe that did happen. I hope so. The guilt-by-association path can be a dangerous one.

 

He did : Katai responded with his own Instagram post, “These views are not ones that I share and are not tolerated in my family.” Katai went on to say, “I understand that it will take time to earn back the support of the people of Los Angeles.” This tells me either LA told him to apologize or he did it on his own. Regardless they still canned him. My question is, If this was Chris Klein's wife does LA Fire him?

 

I think it'd be a much, much bigger scandal for the Galaxy if it was the wife of a long-time executive saying that sort of thing.

 

Posts are easy and the absolute minimum a person can do to get out of hot water. They are almost auto-written these days. (Hell, I just got an apology email from the CEO of CPI and I don't even know what he did!) That's why I would have asked Katai to go beyond that. And if he really isn't racist he wouldn't hesitate to do so.

 

Anyone here good at spoofing accounts??

 

Obviously not ironclad proof but it’s pretty damning. Based on what Sapong said Katai is either a racist at worst, a bad teammate at best. I’m glad he’s gone.

 

This makes me wonder if we took him on with a “you’re already at strike 2” sort of deal as a reclamation project since he’d warn out his welcome in Chicago.

might have been in his deal that any embarrassment and you’re out.

just a guess.

 

For the last several years, FIFA, USSoccer and MLS, have been publicly condemning both racial and sexual orientation discrimination. From what has been posted here, it appears that Katai had issues with both in Chicago. I can easily see him having a league HR file with behavioral issues before he got to the Galaxy.

 

It’s worth noting that the Galaxy would have had to gone through the Players Union to terminate the contract. I’m guessing they had enough that the Players Union wouldn’t stand up for Katai.

 

I think they somehow bought out his contract, hard to see how employee could be legally terminated for the words/actions of his relative.