The United States Men's National Soccer Team (USMNT) skipper Clint Dempsey was handed a two-year ban from the US Open Cup for tearing the referee's notebook into pieces before eventually getting sent off.
The disciplinary action comes after the 32-year-old knocked a notebook from a referee's hand, and tore it, after picking it up from the pitch.
The reason for the strange outburst was that one of his teammates, Michael Ariza, was sent off earlier in the game between Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers.
Such chaos ensued in the game that referee Daniel Radford was forced to send off as many as four of Seattle Sounders' players, with the club going on to lose 3-1 against the Portland Timbers in the US Open Cup game on 16 June.
The US Open Cup's Adjudication and Disciplinary Panel has hence taken the decision of suspending Dempsey for six Open Cup matches or for the next two years of the tournament, whichever is greater. The Sounders forward has also been fined an undisclosed amount.
It is also to be noted that the ex-Fulham and Tottenham forward had received a three-match ban from Major League Soccer (MLS) in the previous week.
Dempsey is, however, a part of the 23-member squad selected by USMNT Coach Jurgen Klinsmann for the CONCACAF Gold Cup starting next month.
Speaking of his skipper's actions in the US Open Cup and his discipline in general, Klinsmann is looking forward to having an open discussion with Dempsey to sort out any issues troubling the player.
"The situation with Clint Dempsey, obviously, is something that I saw basically on the internet. It's something that nobody wants to see. It's a mistake, and mistakes happen," the ex-Germany Coach told US Soccer.
"So, obviously when he comes in next week to Nashville in preparation for our friendly game with Guatemala, we'll sit down and talk through that and we'll go from there. It's something that nobody wants to go through.
"Nobody wants to get red carded. Nobody wants to get suspended and be in discussion by the fans and the media for a mistake you make. But on the other hand, it's part of the game too. So we'll take a little bit of a step back and we'll discuss it in person in a relaxed way and go from there."
