LA Galaxy and Aleksandar Katai: Give credit on difficult decision
On Friday, the LA Galaxy parted ways with Aleksandar Katai due to racist comments made by his wife. Give credit to the organisation for making the difficult decision.
It is very easy for sports organisations to make the wrong choice. Money, greed, the insatiable desire to win. They are all tremendous motivators and often lead even more honourable and moral figures and teams to making dishonourable and immoral decisions. Power corrupts, as they say, and so does the pressure-cooker world of professional sport.
As such, when organisations make morally brave, bold, and progressive decisions, even if it is often far too late and far too little, they should be praised for stepping against the grain, for standing out from the crowd and dealing with the subsequent criticism that will surely come their way.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Galaxy made exactly this type of decision. They released Aleksandar Katai following comments from his wife, Tea Katai.
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Earlier in the week, the LA Galaxy released a statement condemning Tea’s posts on social media. In since-deleted posts on Instagram, Tea mocked the Black Lives Matter movement, posting ‘Black Nikes Matter’. Even more awfully and disturbingly, she called protestors ‘disgusting cattle’. Other translations suggest she said, ‘kill the sh*ts’. Whichever way you slice it, they are vile, racist comments that are utterly indefensible.
In their statement, the Galaxy then said:
"“Earlier today, the LA Galaxy were made aware of a series of racist and violent social media posts by Tea Katai, the wife of LA Galaxy midfielder Aleksandar Katai. The LA Galaxy strongly condemned the social posts and requested their immediate removal <…> The LA Galaxy will hold a meeting with Katai on Thursday, June 4 and will determine next steps.”"
Following that June 4th meeting, the LA Galaxy made their decision: they and Katai ‘parted ways’. That is the official announcement of the statement made on Friday. The details of the discussion have not been released, of course, but it would be somewhat fair to assume that the Galaxy gave Katai an ultimatum: leave or be sacked.
Some have argued that the Galaxy have put themselves in a tentative position. Katai himself released a statement denouncing his wife’s posts, in which he said:
"“The posts made by my wife, Tea Katai, on her social media platforms were unacceptable. These views are not ones I share and are not tolerated in my family.”"
He later said that he will accept the consequences of his wife’s actions, taking responsibility for the behaviour of his family. It would be speculation to say that Katai holds the same views as his wife, but when the posts convey such blatant and disgusting racism, serious questions must be asked. And the Galaxy asked them.
It would have been easy for them to make an excuse, to separate Katai from his wife and protect their player and investment. They only signed the former Chicago Fire winger this offseason and were relying on him to fill the hole left by Romain Alessandrini in the offseason. Katai started both matches of the 2020 season to date and was set to be a key player moving forward. Not so anymore.
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This was the LA Galaxy taking the brave and right decision. Some will criticise them for sacking Katai in the first place; others will criticise them for not doing enough or for simply going along for the publicity. In reality, this was just the right thing to do, and for that, they deserve credit.