Inter Miami coach Phil Neville fined by MLS for comments about league officiating
Major League Soccer announced Tuesday that Inter Miami coach Phil Neville has been fined an undisclosed amount for his comments regarding the officiating following Miami’s 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.
The comments were in violation of the league’s public criticism policy.
According to a league source, Neville had a phone conversation with league officials Tuesday to discuss his concerns, and it was a productive meeting.
After the loss at New York Neville slammed the MLS video review system (VAR), saying his team was cheated out of a goal when Gonzalo Higuain was called offside. The club provided photos to support his claim.
It was the third game in row Miami lost 1-0, and all three involved controversial calls. In the previous game at Portland, Julian Carranza’s apparent game-tying goal was nullified for a foul. In the Atlanta game, Leandro Gonzalez Pirez was called for a questionable hand ball in the box, resulting in Atlanta’s game-winning penalty kick.
After the New York loss, a fuming Neville called for a “massive investigation’’ into calls against his team.
“I’m just going to go full barrel,” is how Neville started his postgame remarks. “We were told this week that the Atlanta penalty should not have happened, so we were cheated in Atlanta. We then got told we should have had two penalties plus the goal in Portland, so we got cheated in Portland. And we’ve been cheated [Saturday night].
“I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but something is fundamentally wrong with the way referees are treating Inter Miami. We’re playing in one of the best leagues in the world, and I’m having one of the greatest experiences of my career, but I’ve got a dressing room that’s asking real, real questions about the integrity of this league in terms of the decisions we keep getting. I cannot accept this.”
Miami is clinging to playoff hopes heading into Saturday’s road game against the Columbus Crew. Miami is in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, eight points short of the seventh-place playoff line with six games to go.
Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson, asked Tuesday about the team’s playoff chances, said: “Until we are mathematically out, I’m optimistic. We have been a team of streaks. In this league things can change quickly.”
Henderson and four players — Gonzalez Pirez, John McCarthy, Sami Guediri and Julian Carranza — helped pack 2,500 care packages for cancer patients on Tuesday afternoon as part of the club’s DRV PNK anti-cancer initiative with AutoNation.
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 5:10 PM.