US Soccer Presidential Race
- Thread starter Sons of Pitches
- Start date
SPChamp1
SILVER
How are those structural changes coming along? USSF is just as corrupt as FIFA. Perhaps not financially, but corrupt in the manner that they refuse to even have an open dialog about Pro/Rel in the US. Corrupt in the manner that’s Sunil was the President of USSF while still being employed by the Kraft family and the Revs. Corrupt in the manner of basically shutting down NASL for their deficiencies, but allowed USL to get waivers for theirs and keep playing.
I could go on and on. The fact is that there is no incentive for USSF to want to get better and truly compete for a WC. They already have their 1st Division Domestic League and a closed system that doesn’t allow anyone to infringe on it.
Lastly, why the hell does what is essentially a Rec League (AYSO) have that large of a percentage of the vote.
Well, its been ... what? A little over 2 months. The new guy has been there a very short period of time, but has driven some fundamental changes. Let take a quick look at some of the biggies announced within the last few months:
1. The General Manager positions were approved by the Board and hiring is underway: https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...for-mens-womens-national-team-general-manager and http://www.espn.com/soccer/united-s...terview-for-us-soccer-general-manager-sources.
2. Improving Oversight & Accountability at U.S. Soccer - On April 7th, the Board of Directors approved several important reforms to empower the Board to play a greater role in all Federation activities and enhance oversight and accountability and created two new committees:
- A Technical Development Committee co-chaired by Carlos Bocanegra and Angela Hucles, to provide Board-level oversight of soccer operations; and,
- A Commercial Committee to oversee all Federation commercial activities, which will be chaired by a new independent director to replace outgoing Donna Shalala.
- Expanding and formalizing the Membership Department—which will be headed by Brian Remedi, who will serve as Chief Stakeholders Officer, working with Caitlin Carducci;
- Nico Romejin will serve as Chief Sport Development Officer, responsible for all technical areas, including Player Development and Coaching Education, and Ryan Mooney, as Chief Soccer Officer, will coordinate administrative needs on the technical side;
- Jay Berhalter will serve as Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer, responsible for corporate, broadcast and retail partnerships, event operations and revenue; and,
- Tonya Wallach will serve as our new Chief Talent and Inclusion Officer to promote equality and diversity across all programs at all levels.
The reason AYSO and many of the youth council members have such a large percentage of the membership vote is because they have more members. You see, US Soccer is made up of members, the Professional council, has a disproportionate membership vote if its based purely on members. Have you read the bylaws? because these are some fairly basic questions that are answered in the Bylaws - https://www.ussoccer.com/~/media/files/governance/2018/20180211-2017-18-bylaw-book.pdf?la=en
Moreover, because US Soccer is the USOC NGB it must also adhere to the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, thus, the athletes councils will have significant votes.
SPChamp1
SILVER
In these two months there has been no fundamental changes, just announcements about fundamental changes.
Despite these announced GM positions, oversight committees and staff level changes there is nothing here to revel as groundbreaking. They “had” to put something out there. They put lipstick on a pig.
I may not be the most knowledgeable on the inner workings of USSF, but after the Presidency change, I see nothing but SSDD with a new name attached.
In the meantime, nothing will change, the MLS Owners will continue to reap the benefits of a closed soccer pyramid and just making the World Cup will be enough.
Despite these announced GM positions, oversight committees and staff level changes there is nothing here to revel as groundbreaking. They “had” to put something out there. They put lipstick on a pig.
I may not be the most knowledgeable on the inner workings of USSF, but after the Presidency change, I see nothing but SSDD with a new name attached.
In the meantime, nothing will change, the MLS Owners will continue to reap the benefits of a closed soccer pyramid and just making the World Cup will be enough.
I don't know what your experience in 140+ million dollar non-profits is, but the Federation is not just some mom and pop shop that can turn on a dime. There are officers, an elected board and members. The "President" of the Federation cannot make wholesale changes to anything without Board approval. There needs to be a budget defined, an initial plan, negotiations and feedback from the stakeholders, a revised plan, more negotiation, a final plan that gets sent to the Board, and approval by the Board and then an implementation phase.
Carlos Cordeiro's entire platform was to NOT BE LIKE Sunil Gulati and just do whatever he wanted and then ask for forgiveness later.
Fundamental changes of the nature you speak of is many years off because the MLS has significant contractual relationships that would be jeopardized if the Federation attempted to force a different business model on it. There would be lawsuits galore that would cost tens of millions unnecessarily.
Moreover, the MLS is simply a 3rd rate pro league compared to the rest of the world. If we want our professional US players to excel in the World Cup we do exactly what Klinsmamn advocated and got him in trouble with the MLS ... go to Europe where they play at a much higher level.
Soccer in American is decades away from becoming the number 3 ... let alone number 1 sport in America. For Christ sake, f'ing Tennis got 1.2 Million viewers (US Open) v. an MLS match which averages about 300k. Thursday Night foot ball averages just over 14 million viewers.
We are two months into a multi-year process, so far the ship is turning the in the right direction, but a ship this size takes a year to go a few degrees in any direction. I am very familiar with the inner workings of the Federation and I see a major fundamental change with the Cordiero Presidency, which is an intentional weakening of the President's office and creating to oversight Board level committees to prevent the crap that Gulati pulled off.