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MLS commissioner Garber says Galaxy coach Bruce Arena to get 'major fine' for bashing league

Eric Bolte / USA Today Sports

LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena has apparently yapped his way into MLS commissioner Don Garber's bad books. 

After raking the league across the coals in an interview with The Washington Post last month, Arena is about to have his wallet lightened considerably, Garber told SI.com

Arena, who was fined $2,000 last summer for criticizing officials, was venting his frustration with his team's inability to sign American-born Sacha Kljestan. The midfielder currently plays for Anderlecht of the Belgian Pro League. The deal fell through in early August, just before the league’s incoming-player transfer deadline. 

Arena blamed the negotiation breakdown on MLS's single-entity, central-ownership structure, which prohibits players from contracting with individual teams. 

"I won’t go into detail and just say forces within the league worked real hard to make sure that didn’t happen," he said in the interview.

"They are children," Arena added, "and there have to be adults in the process, and we didn't have enough of them. I think we are back into the old days in the league where the rules are somewhat arbitrary."

Garber, who was at home recovering from prostate cancer surgery at the time, later responded with agitation: "Bruce has the opportunity to be our Tom Landry, our Pat Riley, and he continually puts himself in a position where he acts unprofessionally and he emotionally misstates the facts."

"In the case of Sacha Kljestan," Garber said, "he wanted to come to MLS and play for six months and live in Los Angeles so that he could then go back to Anderlecht. We are not going to sign a six-month contract with any player, whether Bruce Arena wants us to or not. His comments were false and inappropriate and will be dealt with … It will be a major fine."

Kljestan’s agent, Richard Motzkin, reportedly said that several clubs had been interested in Kljestan, both in Europe and in MLS. 

"Had the right opportunity for Sacha presented itself within MLS," said Motzkin, "then he would have been prepared to commit long-term to the league. However, that was not the case at the time."

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