WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Some good piece of news tonight while DC and Houston wait it out in the monsoon rain storm up there in DC. The MLS front office sent out this little noticed earlier about the “Columbus incident” and how they are handling it. A very strong stance on the issue…

NEW YORK (Wednesday, June 4, 2008) – Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber issued the following statement today regarding an incident involving a spectator in Columbus at the Crew versus New England Revolution match on May 24.

“MLS and the Columbus Crew have extensively reviewed an incident that took place during the Crew versus Revolution game on May 24 where there is audio of a spectator at Crew Stadium using vulgar language and an unacceptable and offensive racial epithet.

“The review included video posted on the internet, and interviews with security personnel, fans and team officials.

“MLS and the Columbus Crew are working diligently with all relevant authorities, including Club Supporters Groups, to identify the spectator involved. In the event the perpetrator is identified, he will be banned for life from Crew stadium and all other MLS stadiums and events.

“MLS takes enormous pride in our commitment to racial and ethnic diversity and inclusiveness – in our stadiums, on our fields, and in our administrative, coaching and ownership ranks. We categorically will not tolerate this language in any context or setting and are working with all of our clubs and stadiums to ensure that this isolated incident is not repeated.”

Get that? Basically you do it again, and you will be banned for life from a MLS stadium. Fair enough honestly. I think it was a solid stance on racism by the league.

But some will complain that this is not the end of streamers being thrown during the run of play in a game. That will eventually come but this was definitely more important.

So let’s put an end to all of this talk shall we? Lord knows I got tired of seeing sites go back and forth over this. Some of it was comical, pointless, and rather childish by some writers out there. But that’s the internet for you. It did however shed enough light on this subject and it did get the league to look into it quicker than it probably would have normally.

Again, let’s shut up about it and move on. Okay? Okay.

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