MLS PR head Dan Courtemanche called Sunday White to explain league position
In Part 1 of this short series on double-standards, I covered the attacks on Landon Donovan’s decision to publicly support Mexico in the World Cup.
Away from Donovan, those SUM organised Mexican friendlies raise another issue. And this one is perhaps more serious.
The “puto” chant is still fairly vibrant at these games El Tri play in the USA. These are not league games. These are voluntary friendlies.
Who has spoken up? Which MLS player or former pro who was queuing up to pillory Donovan for making money out of El Tri has expressed concern about MLS hosting games where that chant is freely banded about? It doesn’t matter because it is unfair for this burden to fall on the players. MLS owns and profit from the games.
MLS has a very strongly promoted “Don’t Cross the Line Campaign” which it claims:
” … will continue to emphasize the league’s commitment against discrimination and promote an atmosphere of diversity, equality and inclusion throughout the soccer community. Fans are encouraged to pledge their support against discrimination, bias, prejudice or harassment of any kind.”
The campaign has taken action. In recent years players such as Alan Gordon, Marc Burch and Colin Clark have received fines and bans for using an English language homophobic slur.
Chris Billig of LBGT.soccer does not think the Don’t Cross the Line Campaign should ignore homophobia merely because it occurs at international games, explicitly referring to the SUM games.
“MLS and SUM have a responsibility to maintain an environment welcoming to the LGBT community at all of the events they host. This must include a zero-tolerance approach to homophobic chants, especially as the US works toward co-hosting the World Cup in 2026.”
MLS and its franchised clubs do not hold back going after fans who use the Spanish equivalent at MLS games. When the chant raised its ugly head at a LAFC v Sounders FC game in May this year, MLS Commissioner Don Garber made his feelings clear about the chant when he spoke to reporters at half time:
“It shouldn’t happen, and it will stop. We are not just concerned about it. It defies everything we stand for. I’ve spoken to ownership during the game. I have real confidence that it will stop.”
It almost bizarrely was also heard at a Pride Night game at LA Galaxy, which to their credit the club did not try and sweep it under the carpet. That incident not surprisingly put the website Outsports in a very combative mood:
“If MLS is truly on the side of acceptance and inclusion, it must issue a two-step procedure to handle these issues. No more statements, no more scarves. This mandates real action.
The first time during a match any league or team employee, including officials, hears the “puto” chant, the game officials must stop the match. Team or league representatives should address the fans with a warning and ask them to identify anyone who has chanted the slur. Those people must be removed, their game tickets withdrawn, and any season tickets revoked.
After the game re-commences, if the slur is chanted again, the stadium must be cleared of all fans and the match completed in front of an empty stadium.”
While clearing an entire stadium of mostly innocent may seem extreme to some, their anger is understandable.
The site also does not somehow put a ring around El Tri games run by MLS. I am ambivalent on the need to clear a stadium for a league game that must be at some point completed however there is no reason why their suggestion cannot be employed at a friendly. I would even go as far as to suggest that invoking Outsport’s suggested sanction at an international game with 40,000 watching wold have far more impact than doing anything at an MLS game that garners minimal attention outside MLS markets.
MLS is not just more willing to tolerate bigotry where large amounts of Mexican fans’ cash is filling their coffers.
Sounders fan group Barra Fuerza Verde launched a formal protest at Roth’s words
In November 2015, Sounders FC held their annual AGM.
Then Majority Owner Joe Roth referred to Guatemalan star Marco Papa as Nicaraguan. When this a was pointed out, he corrected himself adding that both countries were “cocaine distributors”. As if that weren’t inappropriate by itself, his remarks were in response to a question about Latino outreach.
I wasn’t at the meeting but I recall my cell phone buzzing fairly rapidly immediately he had said it from appalled Sounders fans.
None were more appalled than the Barra Fuerza Verde, the Sounders’ Hispanic Supporters group.
They released a very balanced an thoughtful statement the next day talking of their ‘disappointment’ and ‘disillusionment”.
Sounders PR acted commendably quickly and Roth was forced to apologise.
“I sincerely apologize for the irresponsible comments I made after misidentifying Marco Pappa’s home country at last night’s Alliance Annual Business Meeting,” Roth said in a press release.
“These comments do not in any way reflect my values or what I believe. As our fans know, we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind from any members of our organization, and I deeply regret my poor judgment.”
Knowing Roth’s politics as I do, I totally accept he was genuine and probably mortified at how his ill-judged attempt at comedy had backfired.
But where was MLS? Gordon, Burch and Clark all apologised but they were still fined and banned for three games.
Roth’s faux-pas was not however the worst example of MLS allowing the powerful a different amount of leeway to players and American fans. They received no formal call to action and can justifiably claim ignorance of the incident.
The case of Dino Costa last year was a more egregious example of one rule for the rich.
Costa was a broadcaster on Portland radio station 750 The Game. They held broadcasting rights for Timbers matches. In June 2017, Dino Costa advocated running over Black Lives Matter protestors. You can forget the stereotype promoted by shows like Portlandia, Oregon that the place is populated by granola crunching hipsters. Portland and Oregon have a serious and troubling number of white supremacists.
However, Costa was not satisfied with that and decided to bring his attention to soccer and the Timbers. In a bizarre rant on his show, he attacked the presence of the gay rights rainbow flag at Timbers games:
“Why is it people feel the need to show up at Timbers games… and wave a flag that identifies their sexuality?… The homosexual and lesbian community throughout the world wants to be accepted as normal, as just like everybody else… Then why the need to show up at Providence Park or any stadium, ballpark, or arena anywhere in the country and wave the—what do they call it? Gay pride flag. Why? What is up with that?…
“I’ve been to two Timbers games, and at both Timbers games, plenty of those flags were being waved. Why? Why aren’t you waving a Timbers flag?… What is the purpose of this? To show up at a game to wave a flag to let people know you live an alternative lifestyle? Is that what this is about?… If there was a heterosexual flag and I showed up at Providence Park and waved my heterosexual flag… Would anybody look at me sideways? Cross-eyed? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.”
The flags were to commemorate the massacre at the Pulse, an Orlando gay club where 41 people had died.
His comments touched a raw nerve among a fanbase that ranks amongst the most progressive in US sports but he then went on to twitter to bait and argue with gay fans, and their supporters. At this time, Costa was still on the payroll of the station that had broadcast rights to MLS matches in Portland.
His comments about running over protestors rankled further when shortly after Hether Heyer an anti-Nazi protester was killed in Charleston when a car ran over her as she was protesting against a far right event.
The Timbers PR also got ahead of the story issuing a statement that distanced themselves from his views but nothing further:
“The Timbers have and will always stand for tolerance, acceptance and diversity, and we understand the reaction that many of our fans have had to some of the offensive and insensitive views and opinions expressed on The Dino Costa Show.
“In no way do we condone those views, as they go against our fundamental values and beliefs as a club,” the statement read.
Needless to say, some Portland fans were less than satisfied with the inaction; and more so that the station still broadcast their games and Costa’s views on the same wavelength.
One was Sunday White who decided to take matters into her own hands and ask MLS what they were going to do about Costa. On June 15th 2017, she wrote to JoAnn Neale, MLS Chief Administrative & Social Responsibility Officer, who runs the PR side of the “Don’t Cross the Line” campaign, and asked for a clear statement of MLS’ position and intended action:
“Fining your own players for homophobic language made in the heat of a match is easy, but Costa was sat at his desk and deliberately and cynically chose to use this language. MLS has been rightly lauded for its Don’t Cross the Line campaign.
To me Costa’s words seem like a clear breach of your diversity policy as laid out on your website. I hope you agree and I would like to know what the league’s position is.”
The “Don’t Cross the Line” is usually not so publicity shy. Ms Neale replied the next day with a template “the matter you reference below will be investigated” email.
Sunday waited. After 11 days, Ms Neale had not updated her on the investigation. Unwilling to see the matter swept under the carpet, Sunday asked for an update on June 27, writing:
“Thank for your email on June, 15th. I would like to know what progress your inquiries have made. Given how quick you are to act on it when one of your employees utters a homophobic term, I was hoping for swifter and more supportive action.”
She then was surprised by a phone call at work, not from Ms Neale, but from MLS Head of Communications Dan Courtemanche. He told her how sympathetic he was but that MLS were not going to do anything.
“I was very surprised not to receive any written reply firstly as I had sent a written message. It seemed mildly discourteous and just a little inappropriate.”
It should be stressed firstly that this is normal PR Department protocol; to phone a journalist and try and placate them with sympathetic words to kill the story but put nothing in writing.
Sunday however was far from satisfied. In fact, she found his attempts to assuage her patronising.
She expressed her feelings in an email to us:
“I was at work, and as usual, I was away from my desk; getting paged for a call in the mid-morning was odd. Even more odd that the person calling was Dan Courtemanche.
He provided a quite well rehearsed, rubber stamp sympathy statement to the effect of; ‘sorry you feel bad about bigoted and homophobic insults directed at an MLS supporters Group, but the Don’t Cross The Line department was not going to publicly comment’.
After a series of emails with a growing CC list, this was insulting and frustrating. It came over as a self-serving, mansplaining, placatory, and half-assed tone. The head in the sand approach was insulting and aggravating.”
It wasn’t just the failure to address the issue that irked White, but the attempted lack of accountability for a campaign so often keen to blow its own equality trumpet:
“Why not reply to me in writing and include all those cc’ed so local supporters, club employees and other MLS supporters that were following this could see that MLS stood by their word? I provided ample opportunities for his staff to do so.
“That he called to try to placate or power me into stopping with the inquiry is insulting to my intelligence and my ability to observe their two-faced lies.”
The experience has altered her view of the campaign.
The “Don’t Cross The Line” campaign is just Vaseline smeared over a dirty lens to make the image fuzzy and pretty. It’s a smokescreen for MLS to allow the upper management and wealthy sponsors feel better, but it is just a damage control department; a farce.
“The only line they care for is the one that makes an s into a $.”
A gay rights flag hangs from Sunday White’s Capo’s nest in Portland
Photo: Jenny Neill
Because she was at work and had little time to take on board the quick fire of Courtemanche’s explanation, she emailed back and asked him to put the reasons for inactivity in an email.
She never heard back and both Timbers and MLS did nothing.
The two were let off the hook eventually by Costa’s employer Alpha Media who fired him shortly after the Charleston killing.
Meanwhile Sunday is still waiting to find out what MLS thinks and why the wealthy like Costa and Roth can cross the line at will.
Billig is curious as to why the ‘puto’ chant at SUM games is overlooked when MLS is in a position to stop it, and will speak out when it happens at MLS games.
The selectivity of the Don’t Cross the Line campaign is to be fair nuanced.
I admit bias as a supporter of gay equality and longstanding opponent of bigoted chanting, especially from the Old Firm in my native city of Glasgow. This site generally refuses to cover them and Scottish club football for that reason.
Adam McCabe is an out footballer who writes a column on this site called The Gay Footballer.
Recently in his home city of Atlanta, the individual who was chosen to represent Atlanta United in the MLS Community Works MVP competition selected the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) as his charity/service of choice. McCabe noted:
“FCA has a history of homophobia, with even one chapter in Texas having their leaders sign a “purity statement” against homosexuality to be apart of the organization. It was a slap in the face for Atlanta united and MLS to accept him as a finalist, literally following the Soccer For All campaign they did in June for Pride month.”
He is just as sceptical about MLS’s real motives for progressive campaigns:
“I found that many of MLS’s social campaigns feel more like a ‘check of the list’, rather than an actual desire to make change in the football world. They put just enough effort for a campaign to come together, but the second that special month or match is over, the cause supported is thrown to the side and forgot about.
“Furthermore, there is no consistency when it comes to holding teams accountable.
While most teams in June held a ‘Pride Match’, Atlanta United promoted the game as ‘Unity Night’. While the stadium was covered in Pride Flags and made it clear how a majority were perceiving the theme night, Atlanta United’s efforts mirrored those of MLS. Commit just enough to say we did it, but don’t support it 100% outright.”
The base principles of the Don’t Cross the Line campaign are sound. However if you conclude that its principle aim is for MLS to coat itself in self-serving PR rather than eradicate bigotry as Sunday has reluctantly done so, you have a right to be disappointed and ask questions.
Doubtless Dan Courtemanche at MLS will disagree with much of this article. This site offers him and MLS the right of reply. Written this time because some times a soothing PR phone call can just backfire.
As I mentioned, I fully support the stated aims of the Don’t Cross the Line project. In my view writers, both in the sporting and political field, should call out their own side for double-standards more than they call out those they disagree with.
In Part III, I am going to do just that and point out some double standards from a campaign I publicly supported, the MLS to San Diego campaign, whom I publicly spoke up for at a City Council meeting last year.
