Inter Miami fires coach Phil Neville: Sources

Inter Miami has parted ways with head coach Phil Neville, multiple team sources tell The Athletic. Sources were granted anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the decision. The Miami Herald was first to report Neville’s firing. 

The club later announced the move, adding that assistant coach Jason Kreis had also been let go. Assistant coach Javier Morales will serve as interim head coach.

The decision comes a day after Miami’s 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls and with Miami sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with just 15 points in 15 matches this season. Neville’s contract was set to expire after the 2023 season. He had been in charge of Miami since the 2021 season and led the club to the playoffs in 2022. 

“The buck stops with me, the responsibility starts with me and ends with me,” Neville said on Wednesday night after the loss. “And with that comes accountability. And our results have not been good enough.”

Miami has dealt with numerous injuries to key players in 2023, with captain and designated player Gregore out for most of the season, ditto for key starter Jean Mota. Earlier this season, Inter Miami lost six matches in a row, a stretch that pushed the club towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference table. That losing streak started immediately following Gregore’s injury.

Neville has been in charge while Miami managed a roster rebuild through sanctions and budget restrictions. Neville was just four months into his role when Major League Soccer found that Inter Miami had violated the league’s salary budget and roster guidelines in 2020. Inter Miami were fined $2 million and received another $2,271,250 reduction in allocation funds, which are used to build MLS rosters, for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. 

Under sporting director Chris Henderson, Miami have worked to rebuild the roster through trades and sales over the past two seasons, receiving more than $3 million in general allocation money through trades of players like Julian Carranza, Lewis Morgan and Bryce Duke and a reported $2.6 million in the sale of center back Nico Figal to Boca Juniors. They also moved other salaries off the books through loans and buyouts, including Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, Matias Pellegrini and Emerson Rodriguez.

This season, the club has also been holding resources open for summer reinforcements, as they remain in the chase to sign Argentine icon Lionel Messi, who is out of contract with PSG at the end of the French season next week, as well as with his former Barcelona teammate, Spain legend Sergio Busquets.

Pressure had been building for weeks. During his post-match news conference on May 20 following a 3-1 loss to rival Orlando City, Neville engaged in a verbal dispute with a local reporter. 

“You always look for things to be negative about,” Neville said. When the reporter interrupted Neville’s next thought, he responded coarsely. “Can I finish speaking,” before telling the reporter to “show some f— respect.” 

Fans voiced their frustration on Wednesday night during and after the match. They booed Phil Neville’s son, Harvey Neville, on his touches in the second half and then after the game a group of fans unfurled banners asking for Phil Neville to be fired.

Phil Neville was asked about the boos directed at his son and said, “come after me” and not, “the young players.”

“Hit me, guys, because I can handle that and take that, I’ve taken it my whole career,” Neville said. “I understand their frustrations and the banners and all that business because it comes with the territory of being a professional football manager.”

(Photo: Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)