Scabby The Ref: C38 Members Support PRO Referee Strike

COMMERCE CITY – The Colorado Rapids played their first home game of the 2024 MLS season on Saturday, March 2. We are now four weeks into the new season. The PRO Referee strike continues as MLS referee officials have not reached a new collective bargaining agreement with MLS.

As a result, the league has resorted to scab referees with varying levels of experience, from lower division to professional youth referees. The performances have been mixed. The refs haven’t been a deciding factor in any Rapids game so far, though it’s taken VAR for them to get it right sometimes. That could change. Elsewhere in the league, they’ve been a negative talking point.

A professional DJ got a call wrong that saw LA Galaxy get a red card in the opening weekend. Inter Miami blew out Orlando City with a ref who openly wears a Miami shirt on his social media. The refs got a call wrong in a recent Sporting KC home game that saw Peter Vermes go off after the match.

Burgundy Wave’s former parent site had a cringe headline that was out of touch and bodied on social media by MLS fans. We don’t want their content to get any more clicks than it’s already gotten, so we won’t be linking to it. Yes, MLS fans noticed the replacement refs. In a bad way. It’s been obvious.

Scabby The Ref has become a meme on social media and now in the stands as a symbol for the replacement refs and the MLS community showing solidarity with the striking/protesting officials. It’s a play on Scabby The Rat, a union rat that symbolized a construction worker protest in Chicago a few years ago. The meme depicts the rat being menacing and having some discoloration on his nose, ears, and abdomen, possibly because of a disease. Scabby’s sporting a striped yellow referee shirt.

Would you rather have him or Baldomero Toledo ref your next game? Tough choice.

Rapids fans showed their support at the home opener with less meme-y posters reading “bring back the real refs.” It’s good to see the MLS community get on the same page and show solidarity for a group that are normally universally derided.

Say what you will about PRO Referees and the quality of soccer officiating in America. The criticism has become excessive and at times dehumanizing in recent years. The refs are probably better than we all let on. VAR has shown they get a lot of tight calls right the first time.

Mass confrontation and referee intimidation are issues that need to be dealt with. It’s disrespectful. We need better officials to move forward as a soccer nation. Fewer people are interested in the profession because of what the discourse around referees has devolved into.

The show of support is a net positive in this moment. Hopefully an agreement is reached and the real referees come back soon. They’re a necessary part of the league’s growth and prosperity. They deserve to be compensated in accordance with that.

Hopefully all the Scabbies gain good experience that make them better referees as well.

Photo Credit: Sara Fitouri of Centennial 38.

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