What We're Reading
Garber aims to end obscene chants
- Sporting News, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 12:46 PM
In an interview with Brian Straus, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that obscene chanting must stop.
"... As I attended the game
on Wednesday at Red Bull Arena," Garber said. "While the crowd wasn’t what we would have liked it to have been (for an afternoon match that was marketed heavily to youth and families), the
(“You Suck A**hole”) chants (popular at stadiums around the league when the opposing goalkeeper takes a goal kick) were far louder than they would be during a Saturday night at a sold-out
match.
"That is just infuriating to me. It’s just so uncreative and ridiculous, and we need to stop it. Our broadcast partners don’t like it. When vulgarity is going over the
air, it’s an issue with the FCC and we’ve got to stop it. (New England Revolution president) Brian Bilello stopped it in New England, and I really appreciated what the
Midnight Riders did. They weren’t happy about it, but I looked to that as I sat with Sunil Gulati at the (Red Bulls) game and I said, 'How’d you stop it in New
England?'
"He said, 'We sat down with them and said, "You’ve just got to stop."' They need to stop it in New York, and they need to stop it in a handful of other markets. And if they
don’t stop it, we’re going to have to find a way to eradicate it from our game. We can’t have young kids in stadiums listening to vulgarity. No other league would tolerate it. No
other public event would have it and we can’t tolerate it in Major League Soccer."
