Ernst Tanner, the former Philadelphia Union sporting director, has not resumed his duties with the club despite becoming eligible for reinstatement after his suspension expired on 1 June.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed this week that Tanner has yet to complete the restorative practices training ordered by Major League Soccer as a condition of his return.
Tanner was suspended without pay by MLS following a league-ordered investigation that found he had violated “policies and standards of professional conduct required of League and Club leadership.”
That investigation concluded in March and represented the second inquiry MLS had launched into alleged misconduct by Tanner, after a Players Association complaint raised concerns about racist, sexist, and homophobic behavior.
MLS had initially closed its first investigation after being unable to substantiate those complaints, but a subsequent investigation by The Guardian late last year gave the league reason to reopen the case.
The Guardian’s investigation substantiated many of those complaints and raised additional concerns, ultimately leading to Tanner’s suspension without pay from the league.
Neither MLS nor the Philadelphia Union offered clarity on which specific allegations were substantiated, and Tanner has denied the allegations made against him.
Union owner Jay Sugarman addressed Tanner’s current status at a press conference last week, saying: “Ernst right now is still in the restorative process. We’re going to wait to see how that plays out. The reports we’ve gotten so far is that he’s taken it incredibly seriously. I think he was always planning to step back and go back to Germany at the end of his contract year so we’re running out of time as it is, but we’re going to have conversations with him once we get all the information from the league and the specialists who are working with him.”
When asked whether Tanner could be assigned a different role at the club, Sugarman described any such discussion as “premature” until results from the league-ordered training are available.
The Union have moved on operationally, naming former academy director Jon Scheer as sporting director while also parting ways with head coach Bradley Carnell following a franchise-worst start to the season.
Tanner’s legacy at the club is nonetheless significant, having built the Union into one of MLS’s most admired organizations and developing an academy system that has produced multiple players on the US roster at this summer’s World Cup.
The Union currently sit in last place in the Eastern Conference in what is shaping up to be one of the worst seasons in franchise history, and they are not scheduled to return to action until 22 July, when they face the New York Red Bulls.
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