The USSF handed down their “punishment” to Orlando City SC for essentially spying on USL Championship side Sacramento Republic before the U.S. Open Cup finals match earlier this month.
According to ESPN, the fine, issued by the Adjudication and Disciplinary Panel of the Federation’s U.S. Open Cup Committee was in the “low four figures” — which is nothing more than laughable considering Orlando City’s majority owner, Zygi Wilf, is a billionaire real estate developer and probably has this money sitting on the floor of his Aston Martin.
The incident itself took place the day before the match when an Orlando City staffer was present at a Sacramento training session. And per the Federation’s ruling there was also no proof “that any spying or information gathering took place, or that the individual had been instructed by Orlando’s coaching staff to observe training”. Furthermore the staffer insisted he was there to meet a friend coaching at a nearby field. However, the panel still determined it necessary to hand down a fine when they considered the “actions contrary to the good of the game”.
Again, all of this is laughable considering the precedent of spying and subsequent punishment in American professional sports, juxtaposed to what Orlando City was ultimately handed.
It’s also very unsurprising given the blatant conflict of interest between MLS and the USSF. All this considering it would’ve been in no way helpful for Major League Soccer’s monopoly on the game and the Federation’s complicity in that if a lower-league team were to somehow beat a team from the first division.