Chivas USA Discrimination Scandal: Were Daniel Calichman and Theothoros Chronopoulos Fired Because They Weren’t Mexican? [VIDEO]

Chivas USA's reputation is already in the tank. On Tuesday night, it took yet another hit on a segment of HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel which investigated claims by several former employees of the club that under the direction of owner Jorge Vergara, racial discrimination became the rule. The allegations were kicked off back in May, when Daniel Calichman y Theothoros Chronopoulos - two former coaches with a Chivas youth league - said they were fired because they weren't Mexican or Latino. Seeking unspecified damages, the two claimed in the suit that in a November 2012 employee meeting, Vergara said that non-Spanish-speaking employees should be seen off. Watch a clip from the HBO special below.

The club puzzled many in its response to the suit. "Chivas USA is and has always been an organization that respects everyone without any distinction," it wrote in a statement, "and knows that its employees are the most valuable asset the company has. That is why it implements the best practices in terms of equality and respect and it stands against any sort of discrimination in terms of gender, health, religion, opinion or physical disabilities." But as the Los Angeles Times pointed out then, the statement made no mention of language or national origin, the categories to which the two coaches' claims referred. Nor did the club say why it was issuing the statement at all.

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Since Jorge Vergara bought the totality of the club in 2012, he has sought to promote it more aggressively to Mexicans and other Hispanics in the United States, marketing what was originally meant to be "Hispanic America's team" even more exclusively to them. Consequentially, attendance fell from 13,000 per game the previous year to just over 8,700, while the team itself has continued to perform abysmally.

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Now, one of its former players, defender James Riley, has joined the two youth league coaches in denouncing the team for discriminatory practices. In the HBO segment, Riley, who is Korean and black, said he thought he and other non-Mexican teammates were traded specifically because of their race.

"It was just a systematic expulsion of players that didn't align with what they were trying to do with Chivas USA," he said.

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Current director of soccer Francisco Palencia denied the coaches' accusations. "We don't pay attention if they're Mexican, Mexican-Americans, Europeans. We just bring good talent here," he said.

But when HBO reporter Soledad O'Brien questioned him on what former players have said about the team's practices, Palencia threatened to walk out of the interview, according to Reforma.

Players from around the league weighed in on Twitter after the documentary aired, with the Philadelphia Union's Matt Kassel suggesting that Chivas stay in Mexico, move to another city or change owners and ex-Chivas player Cobi Jones saying the club "did not look good at all".