Former Real Salt Lake coach Mike Petke filed a lawsuit Tuesday against his former team, seeking nearly $700,000 that he claims RSL still owes him after he says they breached his contract.
Petke was fired after 18 months on the job after he used a homophobic slur in Spanish toward referees after a July 24 Leagues Cup game against Tigres UANL.
His attorneys now argue in court papers that RSL violated its contract with Petke by firing him at the end of a two-week unpaid suspension. They allege that a written contract amendment that Petke signed expressly stipulated that future infractions could result in his immediate dismissal for cause, but RSL ended up firing him as head coach the day before that suspension concluded.