Another Reason To Leave The MLS

The joke about employees skipping out of work to watch the World Cup has become so prevalent that even ESPN is making the joke (and setting it, cleverly, to a U2 song). But what about when one of your employees is, well, a soccer player?

New York Red Bulls player Youri Djorkaeff — who played for the French team that won the 1998 World Cup — left the Red Bulls last week for "a serious family matter" ... and it turned out that "family matter" was the France-Brazil game. He would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for a pesky, um, warrant out for his arrest.

Frankfurt police spokesman Carsten Sippel confirmed Wednesday that Djorkaeff was arrested before France's quarterfinal win over Brazil on Saturday, but declined to comment on other details of a report in the Rheinpfalz daily. ... Djorkaeff's detention was related to accusations he left the scene of an accident after his car scraped another vehicle in Kaiserslautern in late 2001.

You know what? If he's out on bail by Sunday, we bet he won'te regret any of it at all ... even if the Red Bulls cut him. Good ole MLS.

Caught In The Public Eye [Some Fine Fellows]