Leagues interfering with players’ speech can be a dangerous road to go down. While that’s sometimes been seen with remarks on off-field issues the league determines to violate their code of conduct, with criticism of officials’ on-field performance, or with players violating specific policies mandating they appear before media, it’s unusual to see a league threaten punishment over criticism of the league’s scheduling or format decisions.
According to a report from Mexican journalist Luis Castillo, relayed and translated by Michael Battista, Major League Soccer is threatening to do just that. That would be with a $25,000 fine to players or coaches who criticize their Leagues Cup format, which sees their teams taking on Liga MX clubs.
The Leagues Cup tournament began in 2019 but was greatly expanded last year to include all clubs from both of those leagues. That’s made many upset, especially around MLS’ corresponding decision to try and no longer have its full teams take part in the U.S. Open Cup, instead sending affiliated MLS Next Pro teams. (After a fight with U.S. Soccer, a compromise has eight MLS full sides and 11 MLS Next Pro teams in the U.S. Open Cup, with eight of the nine teams that qualified for the Concacaf Champions Cup not taking part there at all.)
The Leagues Cup approach has led to a lot of criticism. It’s also led to PR efforts to try and make this a thing, including a “ manifesto ” ad campaign this week. The success of those remains to be seen, but they certainly haven’t knocked out all the criticism. But now, at least as per this report, MLS is set to punish “anyone involved with a club” who criticizes the Leagues Cup.
The basic rationale here is somewhat understandable. Yes, these players, coaches, and others involved with MLS clubs are being paid by MLS (which, after all, is structured as a single entity ). MLS would prefer they don’t criticize an event half-planned by MLS (and one that was at least partly done to give them some more and more valuable TV rights; the Leagues Cup is included in their overall global Apple TV+ deal, but it is also sublicensed linearly to Fox and Univision ). In many corporations, publicly criticizing a deal made by the corporation would not be acceptable.
But the rules there around sports have usually been different. Yes, there are certain things generally understood to be off the table (or, at least, on the table, but with a corresponding fine) for players and coaches. Those include criticism of officials , skipping mandated media availabilities (not in MLS if your name is Lionel M. or L. Messi , though) leaving them early or implementing bizarre interview qualifications , publicly demanding trades without a reporter/”sources” go-between, directly violating a code of conduct with off-field remarks or promotions , and more. And most of that’s somewhat understandable; officiating criticism and skipping negotiated media availabilities should come with a price tag so those aren’t just done as a matter of habit, and given that leagues and teams are associated with players, well-off-field remarks from players that specifically violate a code of conduct and damage the league’s reputation can be seen as worth punishment.
Despite that, criticism of a league overall, or a specific decision from a league, feels different. And it feels usually allowed. Every week in the NFL comes with stories of “Player X rips turf playing surface!” or “Player Y complains about games on short rest!” or “Player Z objects to plan to expand season !” Many MLB players have weighed in on that league’s various rule changes and playoff format changes. And around the NBA’s recent launch of their In-Season Tournament (perhaps the most comparable to the Leagues Cup situation), lots of its players chimed in, and not always in a positive manner. And nothing specific has appeared to have been reported on “Critics will be fined” with any of those leagues.
This is just this one report at this point, and we haven’t seen the league try to fine anyone over this. And maybe it will come to nothing. But a league’s approach to different scheduling and formats does feel like something that’s in bounds for criticism from players and coaches. And yes, the league might not like that. But they’re probably better off allowing that to happen than setting up a potential Streisand effect from prohibiting that speech.
[@MichaelBattista on X/Twitter; image from Leagues Cup on YouTube]
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