Photo by ISIphotos.com
MLS referee Jair Marrufo has made his share of controversial calls during his time as an official, but it is a decision he is alleged to have made off the field that has officials investigating him.
Marrufo is under investigation for allegedly accepting a jersey from Chicago Fire star Cuauhtemoc Blanco after the Fire's recent 2-2 tie vs. the Columbus Crew, a match Marrufo presided over. The Columbus Dispatch secured statements from both U.S. Soccer and MLS, which are both looking into the accusation.
The allegations are even more damning considering a controversial decision Marrufo made during the Fire/Crew match. Marrufo issued a highly-questionable red card to Crew defender Gino Padula for a challenge on Blanco, a call that helped spark a two-goal comeback by the Fire, and a red card Columbus is now protesting. Now witnesses are saying that Blanco visited the referee's locker room after the match and gave somebody a signed jersey of his.
What do you think of this development? Think Marrufo acted improperly if he, in fact, received a gift from Blanco? Think this is just sour grapes from Columbus Crew officials/fans after Saturday's blown lead and subsequent tie following Marrufo's suspect red card on Padula?
Share your thoughts below.
All this hate for Marrufo….wasn’t he the ref of the year last season? As for the “harmlesss mistake” reference…..refs aren’t suppose to take anything ever….end of story.
1. Stupid by Marrufo. Players may exchange jerseys but I don’t recall an instance where one exchanged shirts with a referee. Besides, it wasn’t an exchange but a gift–and a signed one. Just stupid.
2. I have a hard time seeing USSF or MLS disciplining Marrufo seriously on this. Wasn’t he nominated/chosen by USSF for international work for 2010? We’d have major egg on our face to say “here’s our WC nominated referee being kicked out of the league for bribery!”
3. I’m sure there was nothing neferious here. But the appearances look terrible: Chicago comes back to tie, a PK is called on a Blanco dive and Blanco then goes out of his way to deliver a signed jersey.
This incident will prove whether Don Garber has any real courage, or if he’s nothing but a marketing maven dressed up as the commissioner of a professional league.
BTW, do any of you really expect FIFA to give a damn about this? Blatter is Marrufo times 10, in terms of corruption, and Jack (Ass) Warner is Blatter times 20.
Bring back Esse Baharmast!
Seriously, this is much ado about nothing. Now, if he had accepted a jersey from McBride – then I would cry foul.
The two worst-officiated games I’ve ever seen in MLS were both Cew-Fire games. This one, and the Erich Simmons near-brawl game back in ’05.
oooo the ref got a jersey… the MLS is so bad a$$ right now. Seriously, the NBA gets in trouble for gambling, the MLB for steroids, Serie A for match fixing. Who cares!
Blanco and Marufo were caught on tv talking before the match for a while so this is no surprise. BAn the ref and take away that 1 point from chicago
So does giving a jersey count as a cultural custom? It’s pretty common among players. I wonder if Marrufo will argue that the acceptance of cultural gifts allowed him to accept the jersey.
I was at the game and that I don’t think that foul was red card worthy! Definitely a foul but not a red card. At this point I would say the cards are stacked against Marrufo! Time to give HIM a red card…sorry that was lame!
Brett, yeah Brunner’s tackle of Nyarko could have easily been a red, just like the PK could have been called on the take down on Marshall in the box. It was just a horribly called game all around.
I will say this about the throwing of things on the field. There is no excuse for it, but if other teams, not going to mention names, do not get penalized for the actions of their fans there should be nothing done about Crew fans. Again, no excuses just the precedence has been set by the league for this, and all it ever comes down to is verbal warnings.
Does anyone know if the USSF or anyone else publishes a table of Ref’s cards similar to what the BBC does here?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/4145246.stm
many of the players and coaches saw blanco trying to get into the referee’s room and watched him wait outside for marrufo. it’s not a question of “if” he gave him the jersey.
Ahh nothing smart to say to let’s just say the Crew sucks. How original.
Hey, do you have anything to actually say about your hero and the incident that might have happened or are you just going to ignore how embarrasing this might all be and continue to tell us that you think the Crew suck?
i finally realized how bad the officiating in mls is this weekend when i attended the sounders game. the line judge closest to me missed numerous calls that were easily visible to the naked eye in the stands. i never really realized how bad it was before, because i didnt have a team to support. but now that my interests are involved, mls needs to do something.
I’d cry too if I sucked as bad as the Crew does.
I actually feel embarrassed for them.
Not to get off topic but I have seen several people, here and on other sites, talk about Gaven being a diver and just once would like to see a video or five that proves this allegation.
I have watched most Crew games and most Crew fans will tell you GBS is what he is and it would disgust us if he was on another team. But Gaven falling easily once in a game against your team does not make him a “noted diver” as you called him.
Ok sorry to take this off subject.
as i stated before, the blanco foul was rough, but could have been arguably a yellow… HOWEVER, the foul on Nyarko should have been a red… but then again, like i said before, Clb got robbed of fouls too
i want to know if there are any actions being taken from all the water bottles thrown at blanco when he took corner kicks…. one even hit the sideline ref…
But the question has to be asked about why Blanco should not be touched in this incident but Marufo does. The gift came from a player and the players know the rules as well.
But I will agree that even the idea of this happening needs to be seriously addressed, I just think it needs to be on both sides.
A gift is a gift is a gift. It doesn’t matter who won the game, or what calls were made or not made, it’s against the rules and Marufo needs to be disciplined. Even the appearance of impropriety needs to addressed by MLS.
“Kip… get off your high horse, GBS and Gaven are noted divers. Although the red was harsh, the foul by Padula was pretty poor.”
Hmmm, interesting but nowhere in this discussion did I ever mention anything about Crew players who do/don’t dive.
In fact the only mention of Crew players that I brought up was about how I felt they were the reason that they lost the game not the ref, Blanco, or that red card.
But you went out of your way to tell me to “get off my high horse” like I thought this was about something more than a horrible call from a horrible ref, a disgraceful display from an actor of a player and an alleged incident that would be inappropriate at all levels of the game.
I would say you go back and look at the “red card” again though. You will clearly see Padula’s boot is past Blanco’s leg that he is grasping at like it needs amputated when he starts falling to the ground. At most it MIGHT be a yellow card, but even that is even questionable if you actually look at it.
How anyone does not call that suspicious along with these allegations cannot be explained beyond bling allegiance to a player or a team.
Definetly bad and I think he should step down, you don’t take gifts at a game you just ref’d sets a bad precedent he should quit.
Well done, Matt.
It’s not that Jair was biased. It’s the perception that he might have been.
The following is from FIFA’s Code of Ethics.
“Officials are not permitted to accept gifts and other benefits that exceed the average relative cultural customs from any third parties. If in doubt, gifts shall be declined. Accepting gifts of cash in any amount or form is prohibited.”
Kip… get off your high horse, GBS and Gaven are noted divers. Although the red was harsh, the foul by Padula was pretty poor.
Maybe they can look into it — and find a reason why he gave Galaxy a penalty against United for the Wallace “handball”.
Maybe Donovan gave him a jersey at the end of the game as well! 😉
Jokes.
“as a fire fan, i even admit the officiating was horrid on both sides of the ball… both Chicago and Columbus got screwed out of some obvious calls and cards… he was terrible”
And to think, I was starting to wonder if there were any rational fire fans out there 😉
It was a horribly called game all around and a major issue that needs to be resolved for this league.
This would explain a lot about how bad the officiating has been this year. They need to clean that up.
as a fire fan, i even admit the officiating was horrid on both sides of the ball… both Chicago and Columbus got screwed out of some obvious calls and cards… he was terrible
I’m a Crew fan and won’t use this as an excuse for allowing two sloppy goals at the end of a match, but how can you say this isn’t shady? A Mexican soccer icon gives a gift to a Mexican referee. They are seen talking to each other before and after the game and at halftime. How in the world can a referee at that level not know that it’s unacceptable to receive a gift from a player? I seriously doubt Blanco just randomly walked to the referees’ locker room and offered it as a gift. Marrufo probably asked for it when they were chatting it up before the game.
to andy – the difference between a yellow and a red is that the Crew would not have been playing most of the game with one less player. Whether you like the Fire or whatever, this goes far beyond sour grapes.
And to call this stupid reporting without being willing to look at the information that was not only brought forth in that article but confirmed by those who are involved in the investigation just means that those Fire colored glasses must be too dark for you to see what just might be going on here.
But of course you would just blame it on the bitter Crew and their fans instead. That would be logical.
Really Andy? Do you really think that all this is is about being bitter over losing a game?
Most Crew fans will tell you that this game was not lost by a red card or a bad ref but by a team that still can’t close out games for all of the talent that they have. But hey whatever little dillusion will keep you happy go right ahead.
How about the fact that this started off as a very questionable red card that was seriously embellished by the player involved and bought by a known horrible ref and continued after the game with this incident, which was seen by quite a few people. Stop looking at this like you want to and look at it for what it is, very suspicious.
The U.S.S.F (Fifa sanctioned governing federation of all things soccer in the USA) is in charge of assigning, developing, and assessing referees.
Last year the USSF made huge strides in setting up a program to better develop top level referees in the USA by actually hiring 4 of the top referees in the country as full-time employees. The vast majority of referees are part-time employees at best, holding down a regular full-time job in addition to refereeing.
14 years ago the MLS referees were not even assessed during each game. Now, a USSF Referee Assessor is present at every MLS match and provides a full report to USSF on the referee and his crew, a pass/fail grade, and suggestions for further development. Additionally, USSF regularly meets with MLS to discuss refereeing.
If a referee and his crew fail two assessments in a season they are sanctioned by USSF – but these sanctions (anything from fines to suspension from certain types of refereeing) are not publicly announced.
go figure…
STUPID REPORTING…..nothing should grow out of this….Crew fans need to worry about their team finding a way to win..
Bitching about a red card that should have been a yellow….boo hoo, worse calls are made everyweek in all leagues!!!!
Carver makes a good point
Major League Soccer, Minor League Officiating – it has at times been painful to watch
Now ,if only This Guy would get over his hatred for the Crew and see that this is a serious issue that started with an eronious (sp) red card and has come to this and is nowhere close to being an excuse.
If only…….
Now if the Crew could find a excuse for those other losses.
Marrufo is an utterly abysmal referee and it greatly pains me to see him scheduled for any upcoming RBNY game. While I strongly doubt that he was guilty of any shady favoritism on behalf of Blanco/Fire, if he broke league rules and it will help to keep him far far far away from any future RB games, I hope that MLS drops the axe and gets him out of our misery for good.
hahaha
Seria A in the MLS
It says FIFA on his jersey. Where is FIFA in all of this and why don’t they express their interest in developing the skill of the officiating in MLS?
Wasn’t this the same terrible ref from the NYRB-Dynamo game?
About time MLS got into an “officiating scandal”
Probably a harmless mistake. Still what kind of judgement does a ref have if he would accept such a gift (assuming it happened)? Split second judgment is what reffing is all about.
Appearance of impropriety damages the game. Conspiracy or harmless screw up, he must go.
Marrufo officiated high school games here in El Paso. Many coaches disliked him because of the favoritism he showed towards certain teams. It would not surprise me if there is something going on.
So, is accepting a jersey from a player against the rules in MLS? If yes, then its pretty clear there was a violation. If no, then who cares? Its like saying that the NBA referees gave Jordan or Kobe preferential treatment. Of course they do. I know everyone would rather watch some goons in MLS break everyone’s legs, but I personally would rather see the few actual talents in the league protected a little more.
He’s got to go. I’ve always been depressed when I saw he was officiating the match, this is the final straw.
Not a fan of Jair. Maybe this will expedite his exit from referring in MLS.
Jair Marrufo is shady
The officiating in MLS is terrible.
I hate to say this–HATE to–but MLS needs to start disciplining all referees for their terrible calls in every game before investigating what is most likely a harmless gesture for a star on his way out of the league.
(Yes, I know that is a big assumption on my part, but the officiating in MLS has been a league-wide problem for years and they’ve done nothing about it.)
It could have been worse. Blanco could have given Marrufo his phone number.