Bruce Arena was fined an undisclosed amount for his referee comments. (AndyMead/YCJPhoto.)
Bruce Arena has never been a shrinking violet with his opinions.
You might want to double that about game officiating.
The New England Revolution head coach will pay for his post-game remarks after his team’s 3-2 loss to Real Salt Lake on March 12. He was fined an undisclosed amount by Major League Soccer for his comments on Friday.
MLS stated that “these comments are in violation of the league’s public criticism policy.”
Arena twice leveled criticism at game officials as he was upset with RSL’s second goal in its comeback win.
Pablo Ruiz’s free kick set up Justin Glad’s 88th minute goal to equalize the match. Revolution players protested that the ball had moved before Ruiz kicked it.
VAR was not consulted.
“Yeah. The ball was moving,” Arena said. “They looked at it and they said it didn’t move. We have the most inefficient use of VAR, probably, in the world. We looked at it. The ball was moving. Having said that though, they still got the goal and all of that, but there’s no point in having VAR if they can’t look at that tape and make that decision. What can I say, you know?”
Arena also was upset that two New England players received yellow cards in a 10-minute span.
“This referee in the beginning of the game didn’t do a good job in terms of issuing cards,” Arena said.
