MLS must resolve referee lockout or risk Lionel Messi's first full season becoming a full-blown farce

Ahead of the 2024 MLS season, commissioner Don Garber gave an extensive interview to the Sports Business Journal, 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.