After Real Salt Lake players refused to play following nationwide protests against police brutality, owner Dell Loy Hansen condemned his players’s actions.
Hansen said: “It’s like someone stabbed you and then you’re trying to figure out a way to pull the knife out and move forward. That’s what it feels like. The disrespect was profound to me personally.”
He claimed as a result he would have to “cut 40-50 jobs again.” The ‘again’ part of that came from when he laid off and furloughed staff at the start of the pandemic. As a result, players had to reach into their own pockets to pay the furloughed staff.
After these comments, RSL defender Nedum Onuoha stated: “I don’t want to be here. I’m not here to play for someone who isn’t here to support us.”
After these quotes, RSL players were barred from practice and training today. However, fans and other athletes are standing with RSL. MLS can remove Hansen as an owner if there is a 2/3rds vote by the board of governers.
They have just convened a meeting.