It’s hard out there for a progressive soccer fan sometimes. Between my homegrown league being kept alive in the early days by Phil Anschutz, the Premier League exploding in a frenzy of (alleged) racist slurs, and MLS announcing its new partnership with the anti-gay, anti-atheist Boy Scouts of America, sometimes it’s all a liberal hippie tree-hugger like myself can do to enjoy a game, let alone cheer.
But there are some things everyone can feel good about. MLS players and teams support a lot of different causes, and good on them. Helping military families? Of course. Helping kids learn to read, visiting hospitals, and building schools in Africa> Check, check, and check. Providing breast cancer screenings to women? … Not so much.
At least not if those screenings come through Planned Parenthood, and if you’re the Susan G. Komen Foundation. In between suing other charities, Komen found the time to pull funding from Planned Parenthood. Funding that was only used to provide mammograms, and not used for any of Planned Parenthood’s more controversial services (i.e. abortion). That decision hit the media last week, and the internet exploded. People have gotten used to seeing that pink ribbon all over stuff, from yogurt to baseball bats to gift wrap and watches. Oh, yeah, and on MLS towels, balls, hats, and shirts.
In the wake of the Komen controversy, some former supporters pulled their support. Donations to Planned Parenthood easily replaced the lost funds. After some attempts to spin the withdrawal, which no one seemed to buy, Komen backtracked, though it remains to be seen exactly how the Komen/Planned Parenthood relationship will continue, if at all, in the future.
MLS has been partnering with the Komen Foundation for several seasons now, particularly during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I attempted to get a comment from MLS about the controversy and whether that partnership would be ongoing. An MLS spokesperson told me they would “politely refrain from commenting at this time.” Honestly, I didn’t expect anything else. But I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t disappointing. And judging from blogs and Twitter, I wasn’t alone in feeling that way:
@WSReader @MLS: @komenforthecure made the choice to become a political organization. MLS should not be involved in politics. The end.
https://twitter.com/#!/SeattleOnside/statuses/165246137421398016
MLS is probably used to having its fans upset about something or another. After all, it seems like American soccer fans aren’t completely happy unless they’re complaining about the league schedule or ESPN or Fox Soccer or … I could go on. What MLS should be a little concerned about, though, is fans getting used to the league politely refraining from comment about things that actually matter. And it seems like some of us are there already.
This isn’t to say that the league schedule doesn’t matter, or any of the other things that we as soccer fans find fault with on a daily basis. But breast cancer screening can be (with apologies to Bill Shankly) a matter of life and death. As a breast-having person and an MLS fan, it’s upsetting to see the league continue to ally with a foundation that’s willing to play politics with women’s lives. And it’s disappointing to see them duck controversy after controversy.
