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Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner has been suspended until June 1 by Major League Soccer.
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When allegations of impropriety against Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner first surfaced in mid-November via reporting from The Guardian, the Eastern Conference club was one of the favorites to lift the 2025 MLS Cup.
The Union haven’t won or tied an MLS regular season or playoff match since.
As MLS officially announced a two-and-a-half month suspension without pay for the executive on Monday “based on new information obtained during outside counsel’s independent review,” it’s impossible not to marvel at just how much the club’s position of strength has eroded since allegations of discriminatory behavior made by the MLS Players first became public.
Tanner had already technically been on leave, imposed by the team, after The Guardian’s initial reporting led to a second league investigation. The first investigation was unable to substantiate the claims of sexist, racist and homophobic conduct, the The Guardian notes.
In that time since the initial report, the club suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat to New York City FC in an Eastern Conference semifinal, parted with four regular starters – Tai Baribo, Mikael Uhre, Kai Wagner and Jakob Glesenes – from a side that won the 2025 Supporters’ Shiel, and then proceeded to lose its first four matches of the 2026 MLS regular season in a historically poor start for a reigning Supporters’ Shield winner.
But intriguingly, most of the fan ire appears not to have fallen directly on Tanner, but instead on club owner and chairman Jay Sugarman for a perception of being unwilling to spend money to keep the core of a clearly talented group together, and to a lesser extent on second-year manager Bradley Carnell.
The question now is whether Sugarman and others within the Union will view the club’s recent spiral without him in charge as evidence that Tanner is irreplaceable in his role, or not worth the baggage of keeping on board.
Oddly Good Timing?
In a manner similar to Bruce Arena, the all-time winningest MLS manager who was suspended for similar offenses during the end of his tenure with the New England Revolution, “Tanner must successfully complete a league-approved restorative practices program” before he can return to the role.
But if he remains, the timing of his return could actually be somewhat favorable.
With the World Cup approaching, MLS will go on break at the end of May, at which point Philadelphia will still have 19 of 34 MLS matches remaining. And the secondary transfer window opens on July 13, nine days before the Union return to League play with a midweek home tilt against the New York Red Bulls.
That would essentially give Tanner the next 10 weeks to evaluate what transpires between now and Philadelphia’s last spring match on May 24, and then seven more weeks to begin planning changes for when the secondary transfer window opens.
And the impact of that window could be far greater than in previous seasons. In 2025, for example, the Union only had 10 MLS regular season matches remaining when the secondary transfer window opened on July 24.
Carnell Coaching for Tanner’s Job?
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Philadelphia head coach Bradley Carnell reacts during the MLS match between the Philadelphia Union and Atlanta United FC on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported that the Union have no intention of making a decision about Tanner’s future until after the disciplinary respite is complete, and that the sporting director wishes to return when he is permitted.
And it’s hard to imagine that the club would act on Carnell, the second-year manager, if it intends on bringing Tanner back.
But if Carnell can’t figure out how to recover some better form during the remainder of the pre-World Cup schedule, maybe that could change.
The threshold for reaching the Eastern Conference playoff field last season was 53 points, but that was the highest such requirement in either conference since the current format was first implemented during the 2023 season.
More realistically, any team that has earned 44 points or more has earned one of the 18 MLS Cup Playoff places. (The New York Red Bulls, the 10th-place finisher in the East last year, finished 10 points beneath the line with 43.)
If the Union earn 12-15 points between now and then, taking 30 or so more in the final 19 matches to reach the postseason is a doable task. If the losses continue to pile up similar to the LA Galaxy’s historically poor 2025 start, it could become harder to justify waiting on a sporting director’s June return to make a decision, particularly one with Tanner’s baggage.
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