MLS Disciplinary Committee hammers Miazga

FC Cincinnati will be without the MLS Defender of the Year during the rest of its playoff run.

Center back Matt Miazga, who recently was named the league’s best defender, will be out for the remainder of the playoffs and for at least one game to start the 2024 season.

According to the MLS Disciplinary Committee Decisions, Miazga has been suspended three games, effective immediately, and issued an undisclosed fine for misconduct. Miazga was under investigation for entering the officials’ locker room after FC Cincinnati beat New York Red Bulls in a penalty shootout Nov. 4 to finish a two-game sweep in the first round of the playoffs.

Additionally, Miazga will be required to attend behavior assessment training through the league’s Substance Abuse & Behavioral Health (SABH) program. His suspension applies to the remainder of FCC’s playoff run and carries into the 2024 season. Miazga appealed the ruling but was denied, according to one source with knowledge of the situation.

FCC is set to host the Columbus Crew on Saturday in the Eastern Conference final – one game away from hosting MLS Cup.

Officials for FC Cincinnati could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday evening. Miazga did not want to comment on the issue when asked Nov. 16, and his agent did not respond to messages.

Miazga had been issued two yellow cards right at the end of that Nov. 4 match, which meant he automatically was facing a one-game suspension for accumulating three cards over two playoff matches. One of his cards that game was for dissent following a disallowed goal in the eighth minute of added time and the other for excessive celebration following his made penalty kick in the shootout.

Three days after the match, the Pro Soccer Referees Association put out a statement on social media alleging a player – later identified as Miazga – gained unauthorized entry into the officials’ locker room and needed “forcibly removed.”

MLS launched an investigation and made its ruling public Wednesday after Miazga's appeal was denied.

“We support the commissioners’ office efforts for creating deterrents for future like conduct," PSRA President Peter Manikowski told Queen City Press on Wednesday night after the league issued its press release. "This type of conduct is dangerous and unacceptable. We continue to work with the commissioners’ office to ensure the safety of our officials in Major League Soccer’s venues.”

According to the match report, which Queen City Press obtained from the PSRA, Miazga entered the officials’ locker room on or about 22:18 p.m., which would have been about 80 minutes after the match, “by loudly opening the door, walking 10 feet into the interior hallway and turning the corner.”

“Mr. Miazga then in a confrontational and aggressive manner, yelled at all four match officials,” the report stated. “Miazga was immediately asked to leave by (assistant referee) Jeff Greeson, fourth official Ramy Touchan and (assistant referee) Jeff Swartzel, but refused and said, ‘Why? I want to talk to the f---ing referee.’ After refusing to leave, stadium security was summoned and had to forcibly remove Mr. Miazga from the Match Officials’ locker room while he continued to yell and insist on speaking with the referee.”

A spokesperson for PSRA indicated the crew mentioned the head official, Victor Rivas, was in the shower, but the others were near the lockers and had no knowledge of how Miazga got in the locker room or what happened in the hallway before and after Miazga entered.

PSRA said there also was video footage submitted from Red Bull Arena.

Testimony from the officials in a Nov. 9 hearing as part of the league’s investigation expanded on what was provided in the match report. According to information from PSRA, the officiating crew testified that Miazga entered in a blue hoodie holding pizza and a brown folded paper to-go food container, but when repeatedly told he needed to leave, Miazga continually insisted he wanted to speak to the “f---ing referee.”

According to PSRA’s account of the testimony, initial attempts to usher Miazga out of the locker room failed, including initial efforts by a security guard that had been brought in for assistance.

“Mr. Miazga continued to yell and curse at the individuals in the room,” PSRA said in its account of the officials’ testimony. “Then, another unknown individual entered the locker room and forcibly removed Mr. Miazga with the security guard from the locker room. As they were leaving the locker room, that unknown individual was heard saying, ‘What are you thinking going in there?’”

The officials’ testimony was corroborated by a reporter that had been in the hallway waiting on an interview with FC Cincinnati forward Brandon Vazquez.

A reporter (whose name has been redacted for privacy due to harrassment the individual received after initial publication of this story) submitted a note to PSRA on Nov. 10, which was shared with Queen City Press, indicating he saw Miazga enter the officials’ locker room and could hear him shouting loudly at whomever was in the room. His account referenced Miazga holding a “tray of food with a half-eaten burger, loads of ketchup with some fries.”

The reporter's account indicated a security guard did not enter the picture until after an FC Cincinnati “member,” who turned out to be a communications staff member, had intervened to remove Miazga.

Last week, FCC coach Pat Noonan expressed some frustration with some of the details that had come out about the situation.

“You've got to have more composure (about) going into an officiating space,” Noonan said. “It's an hour and a half after the game where he's got a pizza box in his hand. I think people have this notion that he's in his cleats running into that room. So, there's a lot that's been fabricated what's happened and that part's also disturbing. So hopefully, we can come to a conclusion that has him back on the field.”

Manikowski said he is in the process of reviewing Noonan’s comments and already has been in discussion with the commissioner's office about the accusations of fabrications.

At the time Noonan made those comments he already knew he would be without Miazga for the Eastern Conference semifinals against Philadelphia and likely had an idea that additional punishments were coming.

However, Yerson Mosquera stepped up in Miazga’s central defender role Saturday and ended up with the game-winning goal in addition to helping FCC keep the clean sheet in a 1-0 win.

Ian Murphy and Alvas Powell filled the rest of the back line against Philadelphia, while Ray Gaddis played right wingback, where Santiago Arias also was missing due to a leg injury that had him only available on the bench, and Yuya Kubo stepped in for defensive midfielder Obinna Nwobodo, who was out with a leg injury.

The Orange and Blue had much to overcome last week, but now they will have to do it again in a rivalry game against the Columbus Crew. They are two wins away from an MLS Cup trophy, and they will host the final if they beat Columbus.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY PSRA (UNEDITED)

Hearing with MLS:

In situations like these, it is standard for MLS to have a post-match interview as part of their standard investigation. This is where they would usually expand on the information they initially provided. Our Officials testified to the following in a hearing on November 9th:

• There was a Loud bang on the door, and then standing in the opening      of our seating area is Matt Miazga in a blue hoodie holding pizza and a brown folded paper togo food container.
• An Official said, "You can't be in here. You need to leave." He continued to stare at the crew.
• The Official repeated that he needed to leave. Miazga yelled back defiantly, "Why?"
• At that point the crew realized he wasn't going to leave on his own. The Official again repeated, "You can't be in here. You need to leave"
• The Official got up and started walking toward MIazga to attempt to usher him out and kept repeating "you need to leave," "you need to leave"
• Miazga repeats, "Why? Why? I want to talk to the fucking referee!"
• The crew was very confused initially, as no player is ever in our locker room, but this is when they realized this was a situation in which they needed help.
• Miazga was blocking the hallway to the exit. As an Official tried to usher him to go back into the interior hallway, he stepped back and said, "Don't touch me!"
• At that point the Officials were afraid that he was going to escalate the situation, maybe even become violent,  and they felt like they needed to get security.
• Miazga stepped back a bit and an Official was able to walk past him to the door down the interior hallway.
• He opened the door and made eye contact with the Official’s security guard posted across from the locker room and said, "Security! He can't be in here. He needs to leave!", while pointing to Mr. Miazga.
• At that point the security guard entered the locker room, approached Mr. Miazga, stood in front of him, grabbed his arm and told him he had to leave.
• However, Mr. Miazga showed no signs of leaving when the security guard was trying to get him out.
• Mr. Miazga continued to yell and curse at the individuals in the room.
• Then, another unknown individual entered the locker room and forcibly removed Mr. Miazga with the security guard from the locker room.
• As they were leaving the locker room, that unknown individual was heard saying, "What are you thinking going in there?"
• After they left the room, the security guard on the way out apologized to the Officials for allowing the player to enter the locker room.
• The Referee got out of the shower, dressed, and then went out in the hall to ask where the breakdown occurred.
• The primary security guard, who has been there for years, apologized profusely, stating that they had a new person there assigned to the door of the Official’s Locker Room and someone had asked him for help down the hallway momentarily.
• He stated the new security guard was being sent off to write up an incident report for the stadium’s records (PSRA has not seen this, but we assume that MLS has obtained this).
• The primary security guard, on the way out to the vehicles, again apologized repeatedly for the incident and stated he was going to go write up his own notes and report on the incident for the stadium’s records.

Reporter/Witness:

While an initial tweet was published that poured cold water on the narrative that our Officials essentially blew this out of proportion, we received a detailed note well after the fact from another reporter who was in the hallway. On the afternoon of November 10th, we received a note through a Twitter direct message. I will post it here without edits or formatting (apologies). We passed the information along to PRO, who said they passed it along to MLS. It aligns with the testimony that our Officials provided.

From (NAME REDACTED FOR PRIVACY) received November 10th at 1:52pm CT:

Myself and another reporter were right next to the locker room door when Matt walked under the belt barrier looked at both of us, saw the tiny guard not paying attention and entered the referees locker room. He started shouting immediately at whoever was left inside the room. A member of FCC came out of their locker room looking for Matt, that is when my colleague notified them that they need to immediately enter the referee locker room and get Matt out of there. They said excuse me what he repeated Matt went into the locker room for the officials and his screaming his head off. The FCC member then sprang into action entered the room and quickly removed Matt Miazga. The commotion alerted higher levels of security who came over and reprimanded the guard for allowing the player to walk right past them into the room. I just saw the post before kick off and was going to put a piece out on it but I’m just a small fish in the MLS media so I would get overlooked. I mentioned it to a bigger outlet who said they would back me if I put a piece out on it. Not sure who the Athletic spoke with but the only other media present was facing the wall of the FCC locker room and had no clue what happened or who was involved. RBNY media was all in the Red Bull Locker Room media area. I was waiting for Vazquez to interview which didn’t happen because after the incident all of a sudden FCC was running late and needed to get to the airport to catch their charter flight back to Cincinnati. Hopefully this information helps you and the officials out. One of the referees came out after Matt was removed and went looking for the liaison at the arena to report the incident. I believe it was the 4th official but it may have been the center I didn’t get a great look at the referee during the chaos of FCC literally bear hugging Matt out of the room. Red Bull Security never entered the room to remove Matt. The guard was frozen in place with deer in the headlights look on his face. If needed I could even tell you Matt was holding a tray of food with a Half eaten Burger loads of ketchup with some fries if that detail matters. I have no clue how to reach the disciplinary committee to share the eye witness account of what happened. Hopefully this got to you guys in time to forward on.