Don Garber Speaks out on Frank Lampard Situation
By Phil Naegely
MLS Commissioner Don Garber spoke with SI.com about the Frank Lampard situation days after it was announced he would remain with Manchester City. At the earliest, he would join New York City FC in July, but it’s been made clear that Manchester City’s head coach would like Lampard longer due to his contribution so far this season.
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In Grant Wahl’s interview with Garber, Lampard’s contraction situation was explained. As Wahl describes,
"Here, by the way, is MLS’ official version of Lampard’s contract situation: Before he was announced by NYCFC last summer, Lampard entered into an agreement with the City Football Group to play under an MLS contract for 2015 and ’16 and to play for Man City until the end of 2014 under a Man City contract. Now that Lampard’s Man City contract has been extended to the end of this season, he will join NYCFC in July and play under an MLS contract.”"
This makes sense given that he is remaining with City until season end. However, it does not explain the fact why NYCFC lied to the their fans and made Lampard part of their promotional material for the entire 2014 season. In fact, they are still using him as part of their promotional material. Garber spoke to NYCFC fans’ frustration to the situation.
"“I could understand why their fans are unhappy, and I do believe [NYCFC] will work hard to build back that trust,” Garber told SI.com from Florida on Saturday night. “They’ve started that process already. I sensed this was coming, and it didn’t surprise me when they ultimately made their decision. You’re dealing with a very unusual set of circumstances. Frank has become one of the most important players in Man City’s season, and he’s scored critical goals to have them tied for first place in the Premier League.”"
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Yes, Lampard is one of the most important City players this season especially with Toure competing in the African Cup of Nations. However, I’ve yet to see NYCFC working hard to build the trust back with their fans. If they were serious in building that trust, they’d give their fans a discount or even refund their tickets. Even better, they should offer an apology and flat-out admit they lied to their fans. Yet, pigs will fly before that occurs.
On the same note, Garber noted that NYCFC is committed to the league.
"“I think it’s important to say this: These guys [NYCFC] are very committed to MLS and committed to New York … They have made an unprecedented investment in MLS and New York City, and they are going to continue to do so.”"
Yet, their actions are showing otherwise. NYCFC’s actions appear to tell a different story. Why introduce a player to the fans and media and not specify when he will be joining the team? Why try to pull a fast one on others and think they’d not pick up on your mistake down the road? Likewise, why call it a loan when he hasn’t reportedly even sign a NYCFC contract yet. Lastly, is lying to the fans and media worth the public relations mess, they are dealing with now? For me, I’d say NYCFC doesn’t really care about telling the truth and just wanted to “sign” a high-caliber player to sell seats.
Next: Frank Lampard Not Ready to Leave the EPL
NYCFC has more than 11 thousand season ticket holders. Not the 20 thousand that Don Garber mentioned incorrectly during his State of the League and quickly corrected before the address was over.
All in all, MLS and NYCFC have a mess to clean up. Garber’s comments to SI.com did little to make NYCFC fans feel les taken advantage off. Likewise, NYCFC definitely hasn’t done anything to build back the trust of the fans despite Garber’s remarks that they have.
What do you think of Don Garber’s comments?