It's weird that Don Garber fined him, and not the league. Garber needs to realize Almeyda is good for this league.
This is probably a stupid question, but can Fisher compensate Almeyda for the fine in any way? It seems like that would be the obvious solution here if it was allowed (although I'm assuming it isn't). That way Almeyda could continue to criticize the league to blow off steam and bring more scrutiny down on the league as a whole. I really hate that leagues have these policies where referees and the league can't be criticized by players and coaches. It's just gross anti-labor behavior.
Aren't Garber and the league interchangeable in regards to this? He fined Almeyda because he violated MLS policy.
Garber, MLS, and the collective owners are all interchangeable by my understanding. So in a sense Almeyda was fined by Fisher (at least partially).
Garber is a bag of crap, and he hates San Jose, my precious. Screw that! The referees apologized to us twice in public for that crap. We got hosed down the stretch with several bad calls. We were either Lost Angesleaze team, or Shittle, or Atlanta, either of the New Yawk clubs, Almeyda wouldn’t have gotten fined, or it would have been one dollar (and an undisclosed amount at that). This is shit. We got screwed over by piss poor biased officiating down the stretch. Full Stop! An opposing player stepped on Espinoza’s head and got no card for it. (Very unintentional.) TT stepped on a player’s leg (also unintentional, and the guy was trying to get in TT’s way). TT got a red card. Sure, it’s different games, but the responses are wildly different. We got one PK all freaking season long. The refs, PRO, apologized for not giving us a second PK twice. Someone in our FO ought to have his foot up Garber’s ass about a yard deep until this crap stops. But some teams are more equal than others, my friend. They hates us, and they wants to gouge our ezzes out! My Precious!! Go Quakes!! F@#$ MLS!! - Mark
Essentially, yes. Fisher is an investor in the league. The league fined Almeyda. However, I'm sure the investors disagree about certain things. If Fisher felt his team or staff were being treated unfairly by the league policy, paying for the fines out of pocket could be a way to fuel his dissent without taking too much heat from the other owners. Not sure how easy it would be to dupe the other owners this way, nor do I know how Fisher feels about that policy. Maybe he sides with the league on the Almeyda fine. Don't know. However, if I was happy with my coach's performance and wanted to keep them happy, I'd definitely be looking for ways to reduce the financial risk of letting them speak their mind. If Fisher doesn't care or doesn't at least try to take the side of the operations staff, it seems like that could lead to a lot of other organizational problems that I'd think he'd want to avoid, since losing that staff would translate into very unhappy fans and even worse turnout than he's been getting.
I read an article in the Italian sports daily la gazzetta dello sport just yesterday on how Garber was going on and on about Zlatan Ibrahimovic. So much for him not having favorites and not being biased.
Imagine that! A sports league commissioner talking up a player who scored 30 goals in his league this last season! Who would expect him to talk up? Eric Cavillo?
I rarely recall Roger Goodell praising any players in the NFL. He even suspended Tom Brady who has been a superstar for almost 20 years. Same goes for David Stern in the NBA or Rob Manfred in MLB. Oh but of course soccer is different....
I have to believe you're leaving out some critical context, here. Even so, Garber talking about Ibrahimovic to an Italian press outfit after Ibrahimovic left MLS to play in Italy shouldn't be a huge surprise. If Mike Trout left MLB to go play in Japan, I have a feeling Manfred probably would comment on it, especially if he was asked.
Didn't Zlatan recently say he's more important the MLS, and now that he's gone Americans can go back to watching baseball? Garber's reported (I'm relying on @falvo's account) slobbering interview with the Italians in such context appears weak and craven. Not a shining moment for the Commish.
First, be skeptical of what people post. Without a link to said report, we have no idea what he said. Second, this is Garber we're talking about. The suckiest suck who ever sucked. And all pro sport commissioners are awful. It's a job requirement to actively mislead the public, cover up any misdeeds for as long as possible, and shameless promote what the billionaire investors want to promote. Not sure why you'd think Garber would have a moral compass of any kind. I'm looking forward to more tirades from Almeyda targeted at the league and its officials in 2020.
Don Garber weighed in on Ibra’s time in mls...don’t really have time to translate it now but I can later on.. basically he is elated that Zlatan went from MLS to Milan even though he is 38 years old. "Ibrahimovic sta per tornare al Milan". La bomba di mercato del ... - Gazzetta
I've seen better Quakes coverage from The Chronicle and SFGate then the Merc! Now that says a lot! For me it's all about The Athletic for MLS/world Football coverage
I don’t follow baseball too much but I can’t ever remember anyone through the years praising an MLB player playing in japan. Same goes for nba players in Europe. Tom Brady’s brother in law Kevin Youkilis went to Japan only for money and no one said a word. The city of Monte Sereno and LOS GATOS loves him though for buying up a beautiful home as well as the LOS GATOS brewery.
This is just further derailing, but Kevin Youkilis was never at any point even remotely close to being the highest profile or best player in the majors. Mike Trout, on the other hand, has been the best player in baseball since he entered the league. If he left for Japan now, when he's arguably at the peak of his abilities, there would be questions about why. I doubt Manfred would gush about the guy, but it would be huge news and a comment from him about it would not be unthinkable. I really wish I could understand your preoccupation with owners and league officials making public statements. It's literally the least interesting (and usually least substantive) part of pro sports. I also wish I knew what the point of your comparison of Garber to the other league commissioners in this regard was supposed to accomplish. Part of Garber's job is to make MLS look like a good destination for players like Ibrahimovic. That means talking up those high profile players that have come and played there. It's incredibly crass, sure, but it serves a purpose for the business. I'll reiterate that this is why I really hate that the leagues bring down the iron fist on dissent from the players and coaching staffs. I assume they have internal channels that you're supposed to funnel your complaints through, but we all know that such channels don't result in anything meaningful ever being done because the league owners have no real pressure to change what works for them. If the public is able to get a more complete picture of how MLS operates, they get to express their opinion and put public pressure on the league for change. Remember, Garber is the propaganda machine for MLS. He does what he can to promote it and works to squash opinion against it. I can't say how founded in reality any complaints from players and coaches are for any given complaint, but for fans to have faith in the product, it's better to allow dissent than stifle it. The NFL has gone through a great deal of problems for very similar reasons, which is one of the primary factors I stopped paying attention to it. My tolerance for that kind of action is a bit higher for soccer because I like it more, but it is finite. My advice to you would be to literally ignore anything that Garber or any league figurehead says. Either it's utter nonsense, or actively devised to make you think something that is very probably not in your best interest.
Again, I’m not preoccupied with it at all. I can actually care less. To believe or assume though that Garber doesn’t play favorites with his AEG lead Galaxy is just naive. Of course he loves them over San Jose. That isn’t hard to figure out. I’m still surprised how any Quakes fan , after what we have all been through , can’t recognize this fact.
Quoted for emphasis. Censoring criticism of officials, especially when it's warranted, only reinforces a fan's inference -- perfectly reasonable unless refuted with evidence -- that things are not on the up-and-up. That is extremely corrosive for a sports league. Some people may be stupid enough to think officiating is always honest and aboveboard. But nobody is stupid enough to think that officiating is honest and aboveboard simply because they don't hear public criticism of it from players and/or coaches. Stifling dissent merely makes it look like there is something to hide.