In the aftermath of MLS suspending Lionel Messi for skipping last week’s All-Star Game, commissioner Don Garber admitted to Front Office Sports that he hasn’t mended fences with the Inter Miami superstar yet.
“I don’t think he wants to talk to me,” Garber said with a laugh at Huddle in the Hamptons on Friday.
Messi and his teammate Jordi Alba weren’t allowed to play in Saturday’s 0–0 draw
FC Cincinnati, a move Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas called “draconian.” Mas said, “Obviously, Lionel Messi is Lionel Messi. He is different.”
“I didn’t treat him like any other player in that decision,” Garber said Friday. “So, I probably won’t be going to Miami any time soon, or hanging out and doing any media work with Leo.”
In defending his decision, Garber recalled the first time he fined an owner—the late Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, who owned multiple teams during the league’s early years.
“If you don’t do that, you’re not gonna be able to lead,” he said. “You’re not gonna be able to command the respect of the ownership. The media is going to shit on you no matter what. You guys will write a story ‘how could you suspend Leo Messi?’ after we suspended him, and before we suspended him say ‘how could you not?’ So, the media is irrelevant to that equation. They’re gonna hate you all the time.”
Despite the suspension, Garber said Messi “has done more for our league than any player ever has, and probably any player ever will,” comparing him to Michael Jordan and the NBA, Wayne Gretzky and the NHL, and Tiger Woods and the PGA Tour.
Messi’s contract expires at the end of this season, and there’s no guarantee he stays in MLS.
“Hopefully we re-sign him,” Garber said. “We’re in the middle of contract negotiations. The suspension came in the middle of that. I believe that when you’re running a league, you’ve got to make decisions that are gonna set a precedent, and establish that the rules exist for all.”
Messi, 38, is the highest-paid player in MLS with a $20.4 million salary, and also has revenue-sharing deals with league media rights partner Apple and kit provider Adidas.
– Daniel Roberts contributed reporting.
