Monday was a big day for the New England Revolution organization. Not only did the first team have their first preseason match of 2020 but Revs II had their first-ever training session.
To be completely honest, today’s Revolution notebook is less Revs related and more of an MLS look at a few crazy stories that came out on Monday.
For starters, let’s talk about Inter Miami. David Beckham’s MLS expansion team is locked in a trademark war with Inter Milan. On Monday the Italian Series A side took a legal victory when the U.S. Trademark Office dismissed one of two arguments made by Miami to not change their name. Technically this disagreement is between MLS and Inter Milan based on the league structuring.
Essentially Inter Milan is trying to convince the Patent Office that having the name Inter in front of Miami makes consumers think of Milan. When you are building a franchise that is going to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and play in what is essentially a $1 billion stadium you should typically have lawyers present when coming up with a name. The team is already named, merchandise sold, marketed, the whole works and at any moment they may be forced to change their name.
And how about the Montreal Impact? Montreal is getting hammered right now in body blow type news. On Monday night the Impact officially announced that Ignacio Piatti’s contract had been terminated. The 35-year-old DP scored 66 goals in 135 matches across six seasons with the Impact. He only appeared in 11 matches with nine starts in 2019 due to injury. Still, losing him this close to the season is a huge impact on Montreal. Piatti is returning to San Lorenzo.
The other piece of Impact news is the rumor that their Sporting Director Oliver Renard accepted payments from an agent relating to the transfer of players when he was at Standard Liege. He currently has a civil complaint out against him by Standard.
