Charlotte FC firing head coach is latest strange development for Tepper sports teams
In July 2021, Charlotte FC owner David Tepper was asked on the day of Miguel Angel Ramirez’s first press conference as the club’s coach how long he hoped Ramirez held the job.
“I’d like him to be here forever,” Tepper said.
Forever turned out to last less than 11 months, as Charlotte FC fired Ramirez on Tuesday, less than halfway through its first season.
Which begs the question once again: What in the world is going on at Bank of America Stadium?
This feels like a “Stranger Things 4” episode, as one odd thing after another keeps happening with either Charlotte FC or the Carolina Panthers.
The number of prominent executives and coaches walking out the stadium door — it’s too many to be a coincidence.
Just in the past four months, Charlotte FC alone has lost not only the executive who laid the team’s groundwork (Tom Glick); but also the executive who replaced the executive who laid the team’s groundwork (Nick Kelly); and now the 37-year-old soccer coach whose team was 5-2 at home and had energized a large portion of the city but who still got fired only 14 games into a 34-game season and a three-year contract.
There’s more to all of those departures, of course, just like there is to the Panthers’ startling decision to vacate Rock Hill as a training facility and the mystery surrounding the Eastland Mall/supposed soccer training ground site.
But the common thread here is Tepper, the hedge-fund billionaire who owns both the Panthers and Charlotte FC, and whose decision-making I do understand on Rock Hill but not on Ramirez.
If you’re going to keep Matt Rhule around after 5-11 and 5-12 seasons for a third NFL year with the Carolina Panthers, why wouldn’t you keep a soccer coach who has gone 5-8-1 so far with an expansion team? And if there’s a valid reason to fire Ramirez, why not make it public?
Charlotte FC’s lack of transparency
It’s true that Ramirez has a strong personality, and he hasn’t been shy expressing that he’d like the team to spend more money on salaries for top-notch players. There were obviously some philosophical conflicts in terms of the talent level Ramirez wanted vs. what he had, especially with goal-scorers up front. The coach answered a question about Charlotte FC’s roster-building in February by saying in Spanish: “Right now, we’re screwed.”
That comment undoubtedly didn’t go over well in the corporate suites. But talent level is a common debate in any pro sports front office. It also shouldn’t be enough to get you fired, and undoubtedly it wasn’t.
We’d like to know more of what was, and fervent Charlotte FC fans are owed more. But what we got instead Tuesday afternoon was a nothingburger of a press conference, as Charlotte FC Sporting Director Zoran Krneta repeatedly said the decision to fire Ramirez was best for the club but wouldn’t get into any specifics. Krneta also kept saying he didn’t want to engage in speculation, but he didn’t have to.
He knows what happened. Just be transparent, tell the truth and move on.
Instead, here was a typical quote from Krneta, now one of the last survivors of Charlotte FC’s original leadership team and someone who is undoubtedly trying to hold onto his own job: “We just thought that we would like to change our direction. And we thought we needed to move the club in the right way. That’s it. That’s all I can say.”
And yet in the same 15-minute news conference Krneta said he was “encouraged by the performance of the club so far.” Which is true but confusing. Why’d you fire the guy then?
I’ve been encouraged, too. Charlotte FC sits eighth in the 14-team Eastern Conference. The home games have been a party, much like Tepper promised they would be. The club would be only one win out of the playoffs if the season ended today. Dumb ol’ me — I actually thought Ramirez was doing a good job.
Not that Ramirez is perfect. In his last job, with a Brazilian soccer club, he also got fired in midseason, even though his team had gone 11-7-4 over 22 matches. So this is 2-for-2 on Ramirez over his past two jobs in getting fired quickly.
Rhule stayed, Ramirez left
The Brazilian firing didn’t stop Charlotte from hiring Ramirez, who made his name overseas in places like Ecuador and Qatar. Only 36 when he was hired, Ramirez was considered one of soccer’s bright young minds. Charlotte FC initially interviewed about 30 candidates for its head-coaching job, cut that list to five and then further cut that list to one — Ramirez.
In fact, Tepper said in July 2021 that once he heard from Ramirez, he didn’t need to talk to anyone else.
“We got done with the Zoom call,” Tepper said back then, “and I said, ‘I’m done. I’m done. We’re going to get this guy.’ ”
But it took less than a year for Tepper and Krneta to tire of Ramirez (the rest of the people who made that hiring decision mostly beat Ramirez out the door). For good measure, they fired three of his assistants, too — staff members who were known as “Ramirez’s guys.”
Krneta was asked Tuesday if he thought firing the coach after less than a year reflected poorly on Charlotte FC’s leadership team.
“No, I actually don’t think so,” Krneta said. “I think it reflects to us that we are ready to make decisions when decisions need to be made. I think it shows that this club actually wants to be better and wants to improve.”
I believe Tepper has shown laudable patience with Rhule, despite his 10-23 record over two seasons. The owner has stuck with his NFL head coach through thick and (mostly) thin, and I would do the same thing. Give him one more year.
But with Ramirez, it was the opposite. Rhule has a long leash. Ramirez turned out to have one the size of a ruler.
Midseason firings are perhaps more common in soccer than in other American professional sports. Since the start of the 2019 season, six full-time coaches have lasted less than one year in MLS.
Still, based on what we know, this feels wrong. Why now?
The only thing we know for sure: Another shoe will drop at some point. With Tepper’s two sports teams, one always does.
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 5:38 PM.
