Several members of the Emerald City Sounders supporters group were reportedly removed from B.C. place during Sunday's Whitecaps-Sounders playoff game for allegedly displaying a Sounders banner that contained a political statement.
We got kicked out of BC Place for this banner because MLS told them to do it. pic.twitter.com/kEGAZaXVYz
— Tom Biro (@tombiro) October 30, 2017
MLS has had a policy against political speech on banners for a while now, but are "anti-racism" and "anti-fascism" really political statements?
No, reader. No they are not.
If Major League Soccer really wants to be the cool, hip, urban, multicultural sports league for young people, it is going to have to knock this sort of thing off, if only because the cool, hip, urban, multicultural young people demographic is largely against racism and fascism.
Not to mention, that, you know, "don't be racist" and "don't be fascist" are fairly inarguable statements as far as "being a normal person" is concerned.
MLS really did themselves no favors with this incident, because, even though the banner wasn't a political statement before, MLS made it one. A line has been drawn. MLS, by virtue of trying to protect its brand at all costs, has taken something that was not a problem and made it into a problem.
The18 Recommends For You
