LOS ANGELES — Major League Soccer deserves a straight red card for its handling of the officials' lockout, which will enter its second month this weekend. At a time when Lionel Messi's presence means more of the world will be sampling MLS than ever before, the league has put its games in the hands of referees who are clearly overwhelmed and underqualified.

The results have been embarrassing, yet the league continues to gamble its reputation — not to mention millions of dollars in potential sponsorships and global recognition — to save the $95,000 per team it would take to bring the regular referees back this season.

In the first month, calls made by the replacement officials are being overturned on video review at a much higher rate then they were a year ago, according to the Athletic, and multiple games have been marred by glaringly missed or incorrect calls that changed the outcome of the match.

In Week 2, replacement referee Rafael Bonilla gave a throw-in to the wrong team, allowing the Philadelphia Union to score the tying goal against Sporting Kansas City deep in stoppage time. That same weekend, the scheduled center referee for an Inter Miami-Orlando City match was scratched just a few hours before game time after photos of the official wearing an Inter Miami jersey were posted online.

And last weekend, Montreal coach Laurent Courtois was one of several managers who took issue with the replacement officials, claiming two of the four Chicago goals shouldn't have counted and that replacement referee DeShun Beard should have given Fire keeper Chris Brady a red card midway through the first half.

"Something was taken away from my guys," he said.

The Galaxy have been cheated twice. In the first week, replacement referee Gabriele Ciampi — in real life a composer who once performed at the White House — called a phantom foul on Mark Delgado that led to the midfielder's expulsion, leaving his team shorthanded. Five minutes later, Messi scored in stoppage time, costing the Galaxy a win. A review panel later rescinded the yellow card, ruling there had been no foul, but the result of the game stood.

Then last Saturday, replacement referee Atahan Yaya was so inconsistent that Galaxy coach Greg Vanney, who has spent well over half his life playing and coaching at an elite level, admitted he wasn't sure what constituted a foul.

"I was frustrated," he said. "I felt like the standard of what's a foul, what's not a foul, was off, and I felt like that was consistent for the night."

Added Galaxy defender Maya Yoshida: "That's very shame[ful]. Stop."

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