On Wednesday, Chicago Fire president and general manager Nelson Rodriguez held his second media roundtable of the season. In this edition, he expressed the club’s frustration with their position in the table as well as the controversy with Section 101.
On the former, it’s essentially a matter of “trust the process” as eventually, the Fire’s fortunes will turn for the better.
“I believe that’s what we feel right now, is the frustration based on the expectations we had, but also the frustration that we currently feel about our own inability to consistently play well and win on a regular basis,” said Rodriguez.
“If we remain committed to individually doing our job and doing it well, then we have a chance. Everything is still in front of us, with 12 games left in the season, ten are against the East, with a U.S. Open Cup semifinal -if we win that, we get to host the championship game-, so it’s all right there. And for me it’s simple: it’s up to us and I believe in us.”
Rodriguez said that there are also two standing offers to players in Europe, one of whom Rodriguez classified as a “Number ten.” He expects resolution on those one way or the other this week.
Also on the player front, he said that Bastian Schweinsteiger would like to stay with the Fire for another season.
As for the trade of Jon Bakero to Toronto for Nicolas Hasler, Rodriguez went through the process of that.
“In that (2018 MLS) draft, we also selected Diego Campos and Elliot Collier who for us, for the moment(of the trade) had outperformed Jon. As the season progressed and we got to the point where we are today and through the normal course of conversations that you have with teams, Toronto expressed an interest in him, they indicated that Nico Hasler might be available,” said Rodriguez.
“We wanted more competition for the backline (in) which we think Nico can play right back. We needed more cover in the midfield, which Nico can play wide in a 3-5-2 set. And his most natural position is as a number eight. I think that convergence of factors led us to the decision.”
As for the controversy regarding Sector Latino and Section 101, Rodriguez said that he isn’t losing any sleep over the decision and again cited the pattern of misconduct committed by the group over the past 14 months.
“I accept that there are signs with fans who disagree with me, but I don’t lose any sleep over the decision that we made,” said Rodriguez.
“We gave ‘Sector Latino’ various opportunities to correct its behavior, it continued and our decision was made, and we won’t change. We will always put fan safety first.”
He also said that the club is reviewing last Saturday’s match where fans went into Section 101 during the last ten minutes of the match in protest of the banning of Sector Latino and the blanket revocation of season tickets of holders in that section. Rodriguez said that Sector Latino will not be reinstated either this or next season. He also said that the club had regular meetings with the leadership of the supporters groups regarding the behavior of Sector Latino.
After the cameras went off, a follow-up question was asked about why the group was punished rather than individuals and Mr. Rodriguez had this to say:
“There are a few elements to that answer. The first is the group and its leadership to the time I’ve been here has never voluntarily submitted those who were guilty of breaking the fan code of conduct. In one particular incident, the number of participants in the incident was large. It was more than a few people, many of whom were trying to obscure their faces, many of whom were wearing a sweatshirt identifying them as members of Sector Latino. The leadership was given every opportunity to bring forth those who violated the code of conduct. They did not. That’s what led to the final warning. That’s what led to if you can’t control your membership, if you can’t, you will leave us with no choice. And on the very next opportunity, there’s a violation of the code of conduct, there is no submission of the guilty party and everything is clear. So we made good faith efforts, but in the end what I’ve said and will continue to say, we cannot allow a group to hide or allow to be hidden within them, those that endanger the safety of others.”
THOUGHTS: Fairly or unfairly, there will always be people and groups who do not believe in turning in their own no matter how big the crime is. The supporters groups will read that last quote and feel Rodriguez was hoping for a snitch among the groups. Whatever way you look at things, the blanket revocation of season tickets was wrong, Sector Latino indeed have committed violations of the code of conduct and were warned a couple seasons ago about using a homophobic chant which Rodriguez went on the pitch at halftime to discourage its use. The supporters groups can always better police themselves and as much as some supporters want to emulate atmospheres in Europe and South America, there are things you can and can’t do and Sector Latino have evidently done things in the latter.
The fact that things have gotten this far between the front office and the supporters groups is embarrassing and a conflict where nobody is going to win, not the club on or off the pitch and not the supporters groups. Ideally, I’m still of the belief that Nelson Rodriguez needs to hold a town hall meeting with supporters much like former COO Atul Khosla did in 2015 when the club was in last place. The fact that the club has regressed from last season does not help matters in the slightest.
A lot of what has happened this season falls on Nelson Rodriguez. He needs to set things right at the club. Otherwise, the protests will continue and/or fans will be waiting on pins and needles for Sterling Bay and Tom Ricketts to bring their proposed USL club to the city in 2020 and start supporting them. The Fire should not wait for that to become reality to repair bridges with its fans and build a better squad on the pitch.
The club needs to fix things both on the pitch and with relations with its supporters. Otherwise, the club should get fixed either through Joe Mansueto taking a more active role or the league actually caring about a team built before 2009 and taking some steps to ensure the club in the third largest market is not being run as a third rate operation.
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