Six Whitecaps players and their coach all got fined by MLS today

The Vancouver Whitecaps’ trip to St. Louis was an expensive one.

Six players, as well as head coach Vanni Sartini, were handed fines by Major League Soccer today, following Saturday’s debacle.

The Whitecaps were steaming mad at how the match, which they lost 3-1 to St. Louis City SC, was refereed. Things boiled over in the final minutes of the game, when multiple players were seen getting in the face of the referee, which was a violation of MLS’s “mass confrontation” policy.

The result was undisclosed fines for Whitecaps players Tristan Blackmon, Ranko Veselinovic, Luís Martins, Andrés Cubas, Déiber Caicedo, and Levonte Johnson for “inciting and/or escalating a mass confrontation.”

Sartini was fined for violating the league’s “public criticism” policy. The fiery coach tee’d off at the referees when he spoke to reporters following the game, and even demanded an apology from MLS.

“It’s hard to win when the other team has 12 men,” Sartini said Saturday, insinuating that the referee was playing for St. Louis. “That’s the initial thought and if we don’t receive a letter from the league that apologizes for the shameful performance of the referee. It’s something that the league can do it, and should do it because it’s for the good of the league, because we export this product away and when there’s something that’s completely shameful, unfortunately shameful, because it looked like the referee was a player for them. It’s really hard to comment on the game.”

#VWFC’s Vanni Sartini’s postgame comments on referee Sergii Boiko.#STLvVAN#AllforCITY#MLS pic.twitter.com/69a17uSfCT

— Har Journalist (@HarJournalist) May 29, 2023

The Whitecaps have a busy week ahead of them, with home matches against Houston tomorrow and Kansas City on Saturday, before the Canadian Championship final against Montreal at BC Place on June 7.

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