Major League Soccer has suspended striker Luis Suárez three league games for his role in the mass brawl between his Inter Miami side and the Seattle Sounders after the Leagues Cup final. Suárez was at the center of the confrontation, first putting Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas in a headlock before being dragged away. Later, TV cameras caught Suárez yelling at, and spitting on, Sounders security director Gene Ramirez.
Sounders team psychologist Steven Lenhart, himself a former MLS player who was known for confrontations and physical play, has also had his credential revoked for the remainder of the 2025 season. Lenhart was among a large group of Sounders players and staff who joined the melee along with Inter Miami players and staff.
Notably, Inter Miami midfielder Sergio Busquets escaped punishment, despite cameras showing him raising his hand to Vargas’ face, which escalated the fracas along with Suárez’s actions.
The ban means Suárez will miss Miami’s upcoming games at Charlotte FC on 13 September, at home in a rematch against the Sounders three days later, and another home game against DC United on 20 September.
Together, the suspensions from MLS are far less severe than those meted out by the Leagues Cup itself, which has its own disciplinary process and committee despite it being co-run by MLS. The Leagues Cup suspended Suárez for six games, Busquets for two, Lenhart for five, with an additional three-game ban for Miami defender Tomás Áviles.
It is entirely possible that, given the ages of Suárez (38) and Busquets (37) and the fact that both players’ contracts are up at the end of this season, neither will be made to serve any of their Leagues Cup suspensions. The MLS suspensions, meanwhile, will keep Suárez out of three crucial games as Miami aim to improve their playoff seeding. As of now, the Herons sit sixth in the East, four points out of a spot that would get them home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and 10 points back of the Supporters’ Shield.
Suárez’s ban is roughly in line with past MLS suspensions for spitting, though in every recent case the spitting action itself was isolated and took place during the course of play. Héctor Herrera was suspended two games for being caught on VAR spitting at a referee in the Houston Dynamo’s final game of last season, while Real Salt Lake’s Jasper Löffelsend was given a similar suspension for spitting in 2023.
Suárez posted an apology on Instagram four days after the final, saying that “It was a moment of great tension and frustration, where right after the match things happened that shouldn’t have happened, but that doesn’t justify the reaction I had … I was wrong and I sincerely regret it.”
Inter Miami posted a statement saying the club “condemns” the scenes that erupted after the final, but stopped short of apologizing.
