You’ve asked all year. “How is Chivas USA allowed to do this?” Potentially discriminatory practices. Reported hiring preferences. If it’s not Mexican or Mexican-American, it’s not Chivas USA, we’ve come to understand. How exactly does that jive with state and local law? And even if it does, why is Major League Soccer allowing this to happen?
It looks like HBO is going to get to try to get to the bottom of it. On this month’s edition of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, reporter Soledad O’Brien digs into the controversy, with a minute of the show teased via the network’s YouTube channel (and embedded, above).
Consider this is a pretty main stream news magazine. For soccer stories to trickle into the “MSM,” they usually have to involve Messi, political unrest, organized crime, or the kind of brutality that makes us ask “is that the only reason you care?”
This story has the potential to be told with the same kind of sensationalism, and rightly so. For any company in the U.S., let alone a soccer franchise, the type of discrimination alleged to be taking place would be headline news. And if the issue made it into an edition of Real Sports, surviving the cutting room floor, there’s probably a story to tell.
If all publicity is really good publicity, Major League Soccer may be in good shape. However, if there are some things for which you don’t want to be known, the league’s can’t be happy to see O’Brien’s work generating this kind of buzz.
The full episode airs tomorrow night, so come Wednesday morning, you’re sure to hear more about what HBO’s uncovered. The next move will be MLS’s.