NYCFC/ Frank Lampard Debacle Proves the MLS Needs a Restart

Every professional sports organization throughout the history of professional sports has some sort of flawed action from time to time. It's just what happens when you have money savvy and incompetent human beings with flaws of their own at the helm. Take the NFL for example, who is coming off a nationally televised playoff game this past weekend involving the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys that left people across the world dropping the 'fix' bomb. The MLS, the younger brother to all the professional sports league in North America, is certainly not immune to these occasional questionable incident(s). Those running the MLS have fallen under fire by making extremely poor and regrettable decisions, causing them to trip over their own two feet.

The recent mess involving the MLS, Frank Lampard and the newest addition to the league - NYCFC, has become a different matter in and of itself.

This issue has evolved into one of the bigger stories to hit a North American Professional Sport league in quite some time, and it continues to get stranger with every turn. The aforementioned Frank Lampard remaining with Manchester City, the parent club of NYCFC, through the completion of the 2014-15 Barclay's Premier League was always the norm, and those who believed otherwise were either in denial or just lacked common sense. It is the news that Lampard is a City Football Group employee who may realistically never step foot on a pitch and play a competitive game wearing an NYCFC uniform after he was used by the MLS as a poster boy to advertise and promote the new club  that is making the expansion side look as fugazzi as ever.

This issue is no longer about a single team or a single ownership group. It has embarrassed those who passionately follow the MLS, it has left some NYCFC customers, including myself, demanding refunds for money spent on season tickets, and it has shined a massive spotlight on glaring issues that are really holding the MLS back from growing into a perennial sports league in North America. No explanations, apologies or public relation press conferences can repair or fix the damage done by what is being called 'Lampardgate.'

The time for drastic change is now upon the MLS, and it begins with the man who run the league.

Today, there is zero indication that MLS Commissioner Don Garber did not have full knowledge of the entire situation involving Lampard, NYCFC and Manchester City in the Summer of 2014. If this remains to be true, Garber unintentionally or not played a significant role in the conspiracy involved in merchandise and ticket sales based on the lie that Lampard was an NYCFC player when he wasn't. This is absolutely unacceptable, gutless and a far more serious offense than anything NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was guilty of in recent years.

In short, it's time for the coward that is Don Garber to step down.

The passionate MLS fan base have no reason to believe any garbage that comes out of the month of Don Garber or any other MLS league official states during a press conference or any other media platform. 'Lampardgate' has grown into an impossible situation for any league, let alone one that it constantly fighting for fan recognition and popularity to overcome. Garber is now, fair or not, the public face of a scam, and his mishandling of the Lampard situation has stripped him of the right to lead the MLS for another day.