Wayne Rooney versus Apple wasn’t exactly the feud anyone was expecting, but maybe it’s the one we all need right now.
After his MLS side fell 5-0 to Arsenal in Wednesday night’s MLS All-Star Game at Audi Field, Rooney had several grievances to air out: against referee Ted Unkel (“he made the game a little bit about himself”), his team’s preparation for the game (“I told them I didn’t want them training at the National Mall but that’s where we trained and so we couldn’t do anything but head tennis”) and then, most strangely, against Apple.
As the D.C. United head coach told it, his assistant coaches were evicted from their seats by staffers from MLS’s media rights partner.
“Everything around the game is great and it’s great publicity for the league moving forward. Apple coming into the league has been great although they didn’t allow my staff to sit in their seats today,” Rooney charged in his post-game press conference.
“My staff got kicked out of their seats today by members of Apple. And I wouldn’t be doing my staff a service if I didn’t bring that up because if you are getting asked to do the game with your staff, you are expecting your staff to have seats to sit in, so that was very disappointing — but I do think Apple will help the league grow moving forward.”
The Athletic reported that the incident in question took place in a booth overlooking the field, rather than at field level itself.
Some clarity here: members of Wayne’s technical staff who normally film the game were booted out of their normal post in a booth elsewhere in the stadium – not at field level. Still weird? Dunno. Rooney clearly unhappy about it.
— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) July 20, 2023
On Thursday, MLS released a tersely worded statement that did not deny an incident took place, only that it was not in Rooney’s technical area.
“It is not true that any members of Apple’s staff were seated in the technical area during last night’s Major League Soccer All-Star Game,” the league said.
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