NEW YORK - The federations of the United States and Canada, today, stripped PRO, the formerly titled Professional Referee Organization, of their professional status after another weekend of costly blunders and silly mistakes.
The new logo! Isn't it a peach?!
"No longer can we allow these referees to be called professional," stated the President of the U.S. Soccer Federation, Sunil Gulati. "This has been a decision long coming as we have looked at the performances of referees in all of our professional leagues over the past few years."
President of the Canadian Soccer Association, Victor Montagliani, had the following to say regarding the situation, "The Canadian Soccer Association does this with no glee or satisfaction, and we apologize to all of our fans for the trauma they had to suffer over the past few years. We stripped PRO of their professional status on Sunday evening after the Red Bull - Orlando City game and we plan on ensuring that they meet a stringent requirement going forward to be re-certified as a professional organization and professional referees"
Inside sources to the decision told The Nutmeg News that PRO will be stripped of their professional status and turned into ARO, the Amateur Referee Organization. The referees under the ARO badge will be required to work youth football initiatives and charity tournaments until their mistakes are corrected. Referees will have the opportunity to work their way up to being able to officiate NCAA games before they are considered for reinstatement to professional standards. As well, all payments to referees will be suspended to ensure that the issues with recent games will not be rewarded.
"It is important to us to remove the financial incentive of just showing up for games," stated President of Major League Soccer, Mark Abbot. "With PRO stripped of their professional status we can no longer employee them or pay them for our games featuring professional players. It is important that the referees care and truly attempt to fix their issues before they become a professional again. We refuse to reward a level that is below feckless mediocrity anymore."
The Nutmeg News will have more on this as Baldomero Toledo calls a red card in the Greece United FC 25th Annual Soccer Tournament and is suspended from that tournament as well.