In 2007, a betting scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy shook the NBA. It forced the league to overhaul how it protected its officials’ integrity and standing. The league’s referees have spoken up again, but this time not to defend their own integrity, but to stand behind a female official from a completely different sport who they believe was failed by the system meant to protect her.
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The National Basketball Referees Association issued a statement in solidarity with the Professional Soccer Referees Association after PSRA publicly criticized MLS Next Pro’s handling of an incident involving a female official.
“We stand in solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters in @PSRAofficials,” the NBA referees wrote. “If the League won’t uphold its own standards, who will protect the officials enforcing them?”
The incident goes back to an Aug. 23 match between Columbus Crew 2 and Huntsville City FC. Crew 2 head coach Federico Higuaín was shown a red card following what the PSRA described as “two deliberate acts of physical abuse and sexism against a female official – squeezing her hand and refusing to let go after being told to stop three times.”
The union added that the confrontation “was compounded by a demeaning, sexist remark to the official: ‘Don’t forget, this is a man’s game.'”
MLS Next Pro responded to the incident with a two-game suspension. There was an additional restorative-practice training, a punishment the PSRA argued falls well short of what league policy actually requires. Citing the 2026 U.S. Soccer Federation Policy Manual, the union noted that a “forceful grab” carries a minimum three-game suspension under existing rules, and that acts of discrimination require an additional minimum three-game suspension on top of that.
PSRA president Peter Manikowski confirmed the coach involved was Higuaín, a former Argentine midfielder who spent eight seasons playing for the Columbus Crew before returning to the organization as Crew 2’s head coach in 2025.
The union framed its public criticism as extending beyond this incident, with Manikowski stating: “We wanted to make people aware, at all levels and across all sports, that when decision-makers need to make these decisions, incidents involving intimidation of match officials need to be taken seriously.”
MLS Next Pro has stood by its process, telling reporters: “It was determined that the coach’s behavior violated League policies and warranted additional discipline beyond the red card that was issued in the moment.”
The NBA referees’ decision to publicly amplify PSRA’s statement signals a concern among other officiating unions. It’s about how leagues discipline misconduct toward referees, particularly female officials working in male-dominated environments.
The NBA’s referee union has spent nearly two decades rebuilding public trust after Tim Donaghy’s betting scandal became the sport’s defining officiating crisis. Donaghy pleaded guilty in 2007 to conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and to transmitting wagering information, admitting he bet on games he officiated and provided inside information to gamblers.
It’s not the first time NBA referees have publicly spoken out about threats to officials’ safety. Following NHL player Dennis Wideman’s on-ice assault of linesman Don Henderson in 2016, the National Basketball Referees Association’s general counsel Lee Seham issued a statement warning that “intentional physical violence towards referees is escalating each year.”
The NBA’s own referees have long operated under some of the most scrutinized conditions in professional sports. Every call is reviewed and second-guessed by a fanbase and media shaped by the Donaghy fallout.
A female NFL official filed a federal harassment lawsuit this year alleging a three-year pattern of gender-based hostility from league personnel. In English football, a former international referee testified to a tribunal that she lost her position after reporting being forcefully pushed by a coach.
Referee advocacy groups across multiple sports have framed these incidents not as isolated conduct issues but as evidence of a systemic failure to protect officials – particularly women – when the accused holds institutional power.