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Jesse Marsch, the American-born coach of the Canadian Men’s National Team, will receive an additional two-game suspension after his red card against the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT).
On March 21st, Marsch was visibly furious after his side weren’t awarded a penalty in the CONCACAF Nations League third-place match against the USA, after Canadian striker Jonathan David went down in the box in the 54th minute. The referee responded to the outburst by showing him a red card, meaning he had to spend the remainder of the game in the locker room. Replays showed that David had slipped under his own feet, so the initial decision of it not being a penalty was correct. The Canadians would end up winning the game, 2-1.
According to the official review of the incident, Marsch had shown “unacceptable conduct towards match officials” and “delaying the restart of the match by refusing to leave the field of play.”
After the match, Marsch was unapologetic about his conduct and said, “If I had to do it again, I would,” per The Athletic. He believed that there was a systemic officiating bias against Canada in CONCACAF competitions, citing missed calls in prior matches.
CONCACAF has now decided to suspend the coach for two further games, meaning he will be missing from the sideline for Canada’s first two matches in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, against Honduras and Curaçao on June 14th and July 6th, respectively. Assistant coach Mauro Biello will fill in during his absence. Canada Soccer is set to dispute the suspension, saying they “strongly disagree” with the ruling and are reviewing the matter with CONCACAF.
