Major League Soccer suspends Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini for six games for comments about a referee dying: 'If they found him... I'm going to be a suspect'

Major League Soccer has suspended Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini for six games after he joked about a referee dying following his team's elimination from the playoffs. 

'If they found him in False Creek then I'm going to be a suspect,' Sartini said via The Canadian Press. 'I'm not saying that I would do it, I'm saying I'm the first suspect, it's different.'

Sartini poked fun at referee Tim Ford passing away after the Whitecaps were ousted from the postseason by Los Angeles FC on November 6.

In the final moments of Match 2 of the Best-of-three series, with Vancouver down 1-0 both in the series and game, Ford accidentally collided with Whitecaps midfielder Alessandro Schopf after a corner kick.

That led to a three-on-one attack for LAFC, with Vancouver's net empty. LAFC scored and pandemonium broke loose as several Whitecaps players surrounded Ford, Sartini ran around looking for an explanation. 

The goal from Denis Bouanga would eventually be overturned via VAR because of offside, but not before Sartini was red carded, which comes with an automatic one-game suspension.  

MLS added five games to Sartini's suspension nearly a month after the incident because of the investigation it launched into the events in Vancouver.  

Sartini did apologize for his comments the day after the match, but the damage was already done.  

The Whitecaps head coach drew the ire of the Professional Soccer Referees Association, which represents MLS referees, with the organization calling Sartini's comments 'disgusting.'

Sartini has been Vancouver's head coach since the beginning of the 2021 season.