da pinnacle： MLS' usage of replacement referees – due to their pool of officials being locked out – is making the league look like a laughing stock.

da bet esporte： Ahead of the 2024 MLS season, commissioner Don Garber gave an extensive interview to the S, reflecting on the arrival of Lionel Messi and speaking on the excitement of the growth of the league. 'Messi Mania' has arrived, as fans from all over the world tune in to watch the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner compete against MLS' finest.

There's a brewing issue that threatens to ruin the league's reputation, however, and it has nothing to do with Messi, and rather everything to do with Garber and the league.

In the commissioner's interview, he said “It’s easy and somewhat lazy for reporters to just write about Messi," when speaking about coverage of the league. The hypocrisy of his statement was dumbfounding, considering that MLS has made the Argentine the face of their league, the face of their streaming platform and is the reason they experienced exponential growth on every single level possible in 2023.

In 2024, though, not only have Garber and MLS backtracked on progress with a player of Messi's caliber competing, they've done so with the most important pool of representatives available to them: their referees.

On February 18, the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) locked out their pool of officials, the Professional Soccer Referee Association (PSRA), over an ongoing dispute regarding a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Without a CBA, the PRSA is unable to perform their work duties, and the two sides have since clashed multiple times at the negotiating table – with neither willing to budge.

Without their pool of officials, MLS brought in a group of 'replacement referees' to take over match duties – from the pitch to the touchline, and into the VAR room. Now, three weeks into the 2024 campaign, scrutiny is rising across the league as a result of performances from substitute officials. Meanwhile, the PSRA, MLS, and PRO are seemingly refusing to come to an agreement over a new CBA – and as a result, the lockout will continue.

For the sake of MLS' growth on the international stage, for the level of play required to compete in a league where the world's greatest-ever player resides, they cannot afford to continue down this path any longer. Players are becoming fed up, missed calls are effecting matches and fans are becoming irate as the world watches on

If MLS truly wants to be known as a powerhouse league, if they truly want to be a 'pathway to Europe' for young stars while recruiting foreign talent at the same time, they cannot subject themselves to criticism like this so easily, and instead need to hop off the high horse, own their actions, and pay their officials.

USA Today Sports How did we get here?

Ahead of the MLS season, which began on February 21, the league, PRO and PRSA's bargaining committees had actually come to a tentative agreement over a new CBA. However, when it came down to the PSRA members themselves voting, 95.8 percent said "NO" on the ballot.

PRO had offered the PSRA a five-year CBA with "significantly improved pay and benefits for all parties". The PSRA responded with immediate rejection, claiming that the deal lacked "improvements to travel, scheduling and other quality-of-life issues."

As a result of the rejection, PRO locked out PSRA officials on February 18, and the two sides have yet to find common ground. Instead, a pool of officials from the USL, MLS NEXT Pro, NCAA collegiate soccer and competitive youth levels have been drafted in to take charge of MLS games, with none having ever refereed a match at that level before.

Since the lockout began, the two sides have returned to the bargaining table on multiple occasions, but have failed to find an agreement, despite the presence of a federal mediator. In fact, after their first bargaining session with the mediator failed, PRO then notified the PSRA that their previously rejected February 13 contract offer would remain on the table until midnight on March 11.

In a memo obtained by after the meeting, MLS executive vice president, Nelson Rodriguez, shared that the league, alongside PRO, would lessen their offer on the table to the PSRA if they do not accept the terms actively presented to them.

The two sides, then, are actively at a crossroads, and neither is willing to back down.

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In the same memo, Rodriguez shared that MLS executives have so far been "pleased with the performance" of officials. This comes despite two incredible errors across weeks one and two, while an additional memo from Rodriquez asked commentary teams to not "belabor the point" when it came to the replacement officials.

Rodriguez continued, sharing that in the eyes of the league, the officials performances so far "align with the professional standards observed in the past seasons, maintaining consistency in officiating quality.”

However, the PSRA disagreed, pointing out multiple inefficiencies in performance. In response to the memo obtained by , PSRA President Peter Manikowski claimed via email that certain criteria in matches under PSRA officials versus the substitute referees were far different – and not in a positive way.

“There are hard metrics to look at such as the number of video reviews in a weekend (14 last week as opposed to 2-3 in our season averages), the amount of time the ball is in play, number of incorrect offside decisions stopping good attacks, and number of incorrect/avoidable yellow/red cards.” Manikowski wrote. “Refereeing in the professional divisions is driven by experience-guided situational awareness, knowledge of the rules, and expert communication. The locked-out officials display these at the highest level – nine of our officials worked a World Cup Final in 2022 or 2023…This dispute will be resolved by bargaining – and there is clearly more bargaining to be done.”

Through two weeks in the 2024 MLS season, there were 22 instances that went to video review. In 2023, with PSRA officials, there were only two during the same span.

What do the PSRA want?

To meet their expectations, the PSRA and their 260 members are requesting roughly $95k more in contributions per MLS team in 2024 than what the tentative agreement the two sides agreed to in early February, per . That total amounts to an extra $2.75m in total funds across all 29 clubs in the league, which then totals out to a request of $10,956 more per PSRA employee.

The PSRA even penned a letter to Garber himself, inviting him – or any MLS executive – to join them at the bargaining table after the commissioner's comments to in which he said: “I can’t remember in my near-40 years in sports, of having a bargaining unit reach agreement and then not have their members support it. Very disappointing. The process, in my opinion, was one that either was intentional or there’s a disconnect between the members and their elected negotiators. So I’m hopeful that they’ll be able to reach an agreement… It’s not the way MLS was hoping to start a season, but you can’t really negotiate with an entity that, in my opinion, hasn’t really negotiated with PRO fairly.”

Since that statement, which aired on February 21 prior to the first match of the MLS season between Inter Miami and Real Salt Lake, Garber has not publicly spoken about the negotiations, nor has he attended a bargaining session – despite the request from the PSRA. PRO, meanwhile, has laid out what their contract is, and – in their eyes – how it's enough of an improvement from the previous CBA to put pen to paper on.

The biggest mistakes

A multitude of officiating errors have occurred through the first two weeks of the MLS season, from 50-50 tackles being whistled as fouls to the offside flag being raised either far too early or far too late on decisions in the final-third. However, two major errors became front and center of the refereeing conversation after the first two weeks of the 2024 campaign, with one each matchday.

In week one, the LA Galaxy were wrongfully reduced to 10 men late in the match due to a ghost-foul on Sergio Busquets from Marco Delgado that led to him receiving a second yellow card in the 87th minute. Five minutes later, Messi netted a late equaliser for Inter Miami.

Delgado made zero content with the Spaniard, and the Barcelona legend even admitted as much after the match, insisting that it was "not even a card". MLS went on to rescind the red card and admit the error.

In week two, meanwhile, the Philadelphia Union score a late equaliser against Sporting Kansas City off a possession from a throw-in that should not have been their ball; rather, it went out of bounds off a Union player, something Union manager Jim Curtin asserted postgame: "Certainly it was their throw-in. There's no question about that."

Through two weeks, that's two critical, game-changing calls that were missed. It may seem like a small number, but they were simple errors that one cannot help think a standard official wouldn't have missed.