Referee Alan Chapman Booted From Real Salt Lake Match

The villain of the Portland Timbers 1-1 draw against the LA Galaxy on Sunday was undoubtably Nigel de Jong for his dangerous and totally in-character tackle that injured Darlington Nagbe and will keep the Timbers' midfielder out for the foreseeable future. In a close second, however, was referee Ben Chapman, who elected to only give de Jong a yellow card for his actions.

de Jong has yet to receive any punishment for his wildly reckless play, but today it seems that PRO -- the Professional Referees Organization -- has at least pulled Chapman from this weekend's MLS slate. Chapman was scheduled to referee Saturday's match between Real Salt Lake and the Vancouver Whitecaps, replacing him with Ismail Elfath.

Interestingly, rather than simply replacing Chapman's name on the list of referee assignments, on the MLS site his name was struck out. This was not the case on the PRO website, where Chapman was replaced outright from the listing.

Chapman has not, however, been completely suspended from refereeing: he will be the man in the middle for Satuday's USL match between the Orange County Blues and San Antonio FC.

Thanks to torchill for posting this in the FanPosts.