Five ideas for USSF prez Carlos Cordeiro

Five ideas for USSF prez Carlos Cordeiro
by Travis Clark
February 19, 2018

A little more than a week ago, a new president was elected to lead the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Carlos Cordeiro, who previously served as the vice president, replaced Sunil Gulati.

With the U.S. game in a precarious position in the wake of the U.S. men’s national team failing to make the World Cup, and the U.S. youth women’s teams failing to convince of late, Cordeiro takes over with things at a crossroads.

While it’s hard to know just what Cordeiro might do – he does lay out some ideas on his website that can be seen here – the coming months will be very interesting.

Below are a few issues that Cordeiro can address, and illustrate that the members of the U.S. Soccer Federation voted to move the organization in a new direction.

Unite the youth game

There’s an alphabet soup of various leagues and organizations that control elite soccer in the United States. Whether that’s U.S. Youth Soccer, U.S. Club Soccer, American Youth Soccer Organization or even the Development Academy, the difference leagues are all operating within their own silos. And yes, they are reasons why the different organizations – which all supposedly operate under the purview of the U.S. Soccer Federation – exist and operate.

One way to radically remake and shift how things are run in the United States would be to reform and unite the various leagues. That’s obviously far easier said than done. However, with Cordeiro openly admitting to not being a “soccer guy,” perhaps this is an opportunity to remake himself as a mediator. What about sitting down, creating some kind of technical committee/youth council, that would then sit down everyone from different organizations in the same room, and come up with a solution. The end goal could be something like a tier system of leagues or organizations, either re-branding or merging existing leagues or entities.

That could end up going a variety of different ways, and it’s sure to leave someone feeling left out or disenfranchised. And even if that’s a risk to run, the outcome of collaborating, compromising and working together could leave the game better off at the youth levels.

Create a pathway for promotion/relegation and an open system

This is a self-admitted pipe dream, but it’s hard to see a dramatic change at the high end of soccer in America without a move to an open system that has the potential to create as many professional teams as possible. My colleague J.R. Eskilson wrote about this last October, in the wake of the USMNT's failure in Trinidad & Tobago.

Yes, the hurdles are obviously endless on paper, but this isn’t something that Cordeiro needs to initiate overnight. Start the process. Come to the table with the MLS owners, and demonstrate why this would be beneficial for them. 

Without that move, however, it’s difficult to imagine much changing when it comes to the higher end of competition and development.

Open up doors for players everywhere

To simply throw out the “get rid of pay-to-play” point would be disingenuous; it would be optimal if soccer was free for all, though the path there is very difficult.

Rather, instead of taking a top-down approach that is so common from MLS or the Federation in the past, working towards a bottom-up avenue is a way Cordeiro could shake things on their head. Approaching reform with the mindset of simply opening up doors for players in the United States, no matter the walk of life, to reach the highest level possible, no matter the gender, is an alternative way of thinking.

What does that mean? It means trying to provide as many different routes of access for kids in the inner city, or for players that live in more rural corners of the country.

Of course, this is another monumental, difficult task. But Cordeiro highlighted his business savvy, and if he can bring in unprecedented amounts of money, turn that around to grassroots programs, it could be beneficial in the long run.

Solidify the NWSL

This is certainly a much higher-end thought, though Cordeiro has an easy option when it comes to solidifying the NWSL. If he wants to provide the league with a way to bundle TV rights, he can unbundle the U.S. women’s national team rights from Soccer United Marketing and allow NWSL Media – a new entity started last year – to look for a league TV deal that includes the USWNT. That should be able to provide a much-needed, stable revenue stream that could prevent situations arising like it did with the Boston Breakers.

And sure, there is little trickle-down impact to youth development. But if the focus is on equality with the various national teams, then creating a stable women’s domestic league is a must, and would only serve to benefit the USWNT program.

Build a smart, well-versed technical committee

Much of the talk surrounding the U.S. Soccer Federation and its future centers on technical committees, and General Managers for the USMNT and USWNT respectively.

This is where things are going to get tricky for Cordeiro.

Hiring the right people at this point, could set the U.S. back on track – on the men’s or women’s side – or it could continue the program veering in the wrong direction. Of course, it’s impossible to know what the “right” move would be: Does he go with an MLS lifer that will push players to stay in the league or dare to go with more of an outsider, that would bring in a coach that would challenge rising stars to head abroad?

Perhaps one way to skirt that danger would be to bring in a more independent thinker to advise young up-and-comers to chase dreams in Europe, sign abroad or go to college. For more specific names, be sure to check out last week’s edition of the TopDrawerSoccer Show.

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