BY MIKE DONOVAN
Two former Chivas USA youth coaches have filed a lawsuit against the club, claiming they fired because they were “neither Mexican nor Latino,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Daniel Calichman and Ted Chronopoulos, who both played for the U.S. Mens National team and in MLS, had been coaching in the club’s youth academy until they were dismissed on March 7.
The suit alleges that after Jorge Vergara took over ownership of the Southern California club in the fall, notified his employees that any staff who did not speak Spanish would be fired. The complaint also claims that the coaches were told that ownership was taking the team back to “its Mexican roots” and that neither coach would be part of that effort.
Calichman is currently the head coach of Claremont McKenna College’s men’s soccer team and was capped twice by the U.S. National Team in 1997. Chronopoulos received one cap for the US in 1997 and has coached with various clubs, including the Charleston Battery and the New York Cosmos.
A spokeswoman for Chivas USA told the Times that the club would not comment about the suit.