Top Stories

U.S. Soccer VP Carlos Cordeiro set to run for federation presidency

 

Carlos Codeiro has thrown his named into the hat when it comes to U.S. Soccer’s presidency.

The U.S. Soccer vice president announced on Wednesday that he will enter the election for the federation’s presidency. Cordeiro, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, is a longtime colleague of current president Sunil Gulati, who is up for reelection in February.

Cordeiro joined U.S. Soccer in 2007 as an Independent Director while also serving as Vice Chair of U.S. Soccer’s World Cup Bid Committee from 2008-10. Additionally, Cordeiro has served as U.S. Soccer Treasurer since 2008 and chaired U.S. Soccer’s budget committee since 2011.

By joining the race, Cordeiro becomes a candidate alongside Gulati, who is seeking re-election once again after initially being named president in 2006. Gulati has not yet stated that he will officially run, but has already reached out to executives for support in the upcoming election.

In addition, former U.S. Men’s National Team star Eric Wynalda and Boston attorney Steven Gans are set to join the race for the job.

Comments

  1. Pay to play will not go away in the near future.

    Former professional players or coaches, or those who played at high levels, will never give up their time for free (volunteer) to coach. They make their livelihood from coaching. It is about greed. Soccer (coaching) is a big business in this country and isn’t going away if there is a new USSF guy at the top.

    There is no way USSF has money to subsidize all the (travel) clubs in the country so kids can pay a nominal fee (~$150) to play. That fee just covers the refs and (grass field) rentals, it would be more for turf depending on how much the county/muncipality subsidizes it.

    When the level of soccer knowledge of the average person rises over generations, then we will no longer need to pay for elite level coaching but today we are not there, thus people need their services to elevate the elite level player’s skills.

    We have been getting regular Champions League and EPL/La Liga coverage over the past 10 – 15 years, so it will take many more decades before the average level player (who becomes a parent) can absorb that knowledge and pass it on at grass roots level.

    Reply
    • @Helium, good post. Its tough hard to accomplish for sure. I would like someone at USSF to send some folks over to Iceland and do a study on what they did to revamp their youth setup. Iceland is now the smallest country to ever qualify for the WC and they like us do not have a long footballing history and generations of parents who know the game. What are they doing with coaching then? Yes, the travel is totally different and a much small pond to scout talent from which makes it easier to find the gems, but I’m sure we could find some things they are doing especially coaching wise that we could learn from and bring back here. What they’ve done is a shocking accomplishment.

      Reply
  2. forgive me? it costs money to rent the field, then you divide that cost by how many players you have, isn’t this normal and expected?

    Reply
  3. If this guy is at all attached to Sunl, and it appears he is, then I dont want him. He’s a business man, not a soccer guy and we dont need that

    Reply
  4. This would likely mean Gulati is done.

    This also means that they’d like to keep the status quo…kinda like Blatter to Infantino…

    Reply
  5. Until we have more information, and here descriptive details on his outlook and philosophy (namely Pro/Rel), I remain skeptical he’s simply another Garber, SUM, and Gulati disciple with different cologne on.
    —-
    We need to move away from business as usual. New voices, new visions, new results.

    Reply
    • Exactly, we need outside ideas, not another company man. He’s tainted in being too connected already to Garber and Gulati. Never mentions SUM and its influence once in his statement. As difficult as it will be during any transitional period we need a true disrupter with fresh ideas who’s not afraid to shake things up. Someone who can’t be strong armed to do the bidding of SUM/MLS. USSF needs to take back the control. I like that he’s for better coaching standards and focus on inner city involvement but that just doesn’t reach deep enough to solve the true problem that being USSF is controlled by a private corporation called MLS/SUM.

      Reply
    • We don’t know he would be a replica of Gulati though. He may have very different ideas of how to run things, but has had to play company man for years.
      I’ve had very different ideas than my previous boss at my old position, but was never given the opportunity to implement them until i was promoted to his level. If I was solely judged by who my boss was I never would have had an opportunity to progess and change the flaws I saw in our way of doing things.

      Reply
      • We don’t know he would be a replica of Gulati though.

        Who said replica? I think my speculation is fair without the unnecessary devils advocate angle you’re taking with every post in this thread.

      • You said, “I remain skeptical he’s simply another Garber, SUM, and Gulati disciple with different cologne on.”
        I took this as “replica” or the same. Was I wrong?
        My point is the simple fact that the guy currently works for US Soccer should not make him an unpalatable candidate. If he understands the current flaws within the system and avoids the mistakes of his predecessor he could be the best option out there. Surely its not Wynalda of Donovan.
        I absolutely don’t buy that we need an outsider to bring wholesale changes. I think people are letting the qualifying failure cloud their judgement and are prioritizing heads on spikes rather than intelligent change.

      • Ronaldinho, all you do here is attempt to break down other people’s arguments or reasoning and then accuse them of being conspiratorial or over emotional about our WC exit yet you never add anything original to the conversation. You suggest no solutions or anything constructive. All you do is shill about why other points of view are wrong without give us your own point of view. So by all means I’m asking for it now, tell us oh wise one what must we do?

      • You nailed it. I do not know the answer and neither do you.
        All I see you do is take a very hardline stance with almost 0 to back up your positions. You have a very black and white view of these issues which I believe is wrong. Its very easy to poke holes in your arguments because its not backed up by anything.
        Fixing our problems will be a long, complicated and difficult process. No one really knows what will work or will not work in the United States. So yes I will continue to point out where I believe your thinking is flawed.
        General ideas I would like to see considered are greater access to affordable coaching courses. Focus on increasing regional coaching/scouting networks to identify top youth players. Incentive based programs by USSF for youth clubs who are producing D1 college players/professionals. A true second division with 20+ teams. Could continue the wish list, but its all very general.

  6. Read his platform. Other than a jab at Gulati that seems to indicate Gulati is confusing the role of president with the role of CEO, the rest is pretty much mealy-mouthed generalizations.

    I’m increasingly with Joe Dirt that the key issues facing us are probably divesting SUM from the USSF, and of course, my own personal bugaboo, the direct frontal assault on pay-for-play. In particular the Federation needs to start standing up to and de-certifying the worst offenders among the pay-for-play youth clubs, and going after their field space, because a lot of these same pay-for-play clubs conquer public field space like they’re waging a military campaign and then slam it in the faces of everyone else. The USSF needs to reconquer public parks for, you know, the public, and it’ll be amazing how far that simple step goes in a opening the youth soccer pyramid up again. Saw none of that in there; this guy’s an insider.

    Reply
    • I would like to better understand all of the factors at work in the pay-to-play issue. I’ve had four children play so I’m familiar with a lot of the dynamics, but I’m not sure how much influence USSF has. Can USSF mandate to the affiliates (USYS, US Club, AYSO, etc) pretty much anything they want or do those organizations have some autonomy?

      I hadn’t really considered the field issue as it’s not a major issue where we live. Is it realistic that USSF can do what you suggest? Can they force USYS, for example, to de-certify clubs that don’t meet certain criteria?

      What other options exist for confronting the pay-to-play model? The only thing I can think of is to fund scholarships for low income kids to play on DA teams. I just don’t see how pay to play goes away until MLS clubs are rich enough to employ the same model as other advanced soccer countries.

      Reply
    • Exactly Quozzel, the real problem with our federation is that the USSF is not in control, instead USSF is controlled by MLS/SUM. Overlapping boards, directors, and even payments when it comes to tv rights deals(Check the Feinstein’s Senate request for info in regards to womens pay, shows SUM doesn’t itemize where it gets the tv rights money from and how much). http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/thegoalkeeper/Senators-ask-MLS-chief-Don-Garber-to-explain-money-moving-between-SUM-US-national-teams.html

      USSF needs to be the top of the pyramid not beholden to a private corporation of team owners of MLS/SUM.

      Reply
      • For those who like reading and what to learn more about SUM/MLS, here an article from SportsBusiness Journal reporting that MLS bought back a 25% stake it sold to private equity firm Providence Equity. Since SUM owns all USSF tv and marketing rights this means that during the last two WCs 25% of the tv revenue was given to a PE firm rather than USSF because they owned 25% of the company who held the rights. Is this really how we want our federation run?
        http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2017/06/20/Finance/Providence.aspx

      • I had heard of SUM, but wasn’t aware of the depth of the connection between USSF and MLS in the deal. Obvious now why there is so much suspicion about who is making the calls on player selection for the USMNT. It sounds like USSF benefits much more from having MLS do well than it does from having the USMNT do well (short of missing the World Cup anyway, oops). So they have an incentive to select MLS players because it enhances the profile of the league. Thanks for your efforts in shedding light on this arrangement.

      • Exactly Shaggy, the more transparency we have the better our federation will be run. In regards to player selections, it only makes sense that MLS/SUM would want their players to be called into the NT. MLS players are marketable assets for MLS/SUM whose contracts are wholly owned by MLS not the club, they increase their assets’ marketability if they play more often for the NT, Jordan Morris was on a Wheeties box a couple months back at my grocery store, he’s a real world beater you know, jk.

        The MLS/SUM guys were so overly arrogant about qualification they thought their league and players were more than good enough to qualify from Concacaf without having to use primarily Euro based players in the lineups or rosters. It backfired into their face and we now have to suffer a WC without the USMNT playing.

        The more we as fans learn about the control and influence MLS/SUM has on USSF, instead of the other way around as it is in other nations, the more we can understand what happened this Hex with the questionable call ups and lineups and more importantly prevent the cronyism from happening again.

      • I think you are repeatedly jumping to the wrong conclusions. There is money to be made by USSF, MLS, SUM and many others, yes. That in itself doesn’t mean there is a conspiracy. I do believe you when you say MLS would love the US to play as many MLS players as possible, but competely disagree on the results of that. You ask how we can explain calling up MLSers vs Euro players as if forming as team is as simple as what league a player plays in. There are many many more factors such as player/coach history, training ground history and locker room presence that none of us are privy to at all. Throw in the fact that we were led by an arrogant MLS coach who believed he was as good as anyone in the world. He said this himself. Arena’s belief in himself and MLS perfectly illustrates how he could take a player like Dax Mccarty over Danny Williams for example.
        Your viewpoint suggests a major conspiracy that is effecting our entire soccer structure from top to bottom. I think the answer is much more simple. We had a weakened player pool at the top end. We had an arrogant, entitled coach and players. That is what I see for the main reason we did not qualify.
        There are many things that need to be addressed in our development as a soccer nation, but I think the reason we didnt qualify was on the field not off it.

    • Joe Dirt, You are really filling in the gaps of knowledge about SUM without any real evidence. You are making assumptions on the worst case scenario (they control who gets called in and plays on the NT) when it is far far more likely that is not the case. Jumping to conclusions of a massive conspiracy is really not productive or intelligent.
      I’m waiting for anyone….anyone to provide an answer on how to end pay to play. Please someone tell me how that works. I do not see how it is possible unless the USSF starts subsidizing hundreds of these youth clubs. Someone has to pay for coaches, fields, refs, travel etc etc. Its my understanding there isnt an issue with pay to play in other countries becuase there is a saturation of professional clubs who can pay for the youth teams. We have maybe 30 pro clubs in our very geographically large country who are capable of funding these programs. Its great to talk about ending this system, but its we conveniently forget that there is funding needed for them. Where does the money come from??

      Reply
      • @Gaucho, I’ve been called a lot of things on this site with some of my posts the past several months in the run up to this. I’m not really concerned whether you or others think my posts are “Productive or Intelligent”. I’m not the talking head hem and haw type guy who manages to sound smart yet say nothing of substance. I want people to start to think about things differently so that we can figure out what happened or else we are doomed to repeat this embarrassment again.

        In regards to players selections not calling up or leaving on the bench EPL and Bundesliga players in favor of MLS players is equivalent to an England manager using Championship players over EPL players or Lowe using 2.Bundesliga players over Bundesliga players. I love MLS and a big Atl Untied fan but its not even close to the same level as EPL or Bundesliga and not even equal to Championship or 2.Budnesliga if you analyze transfer fees for players.

        There are explanations for using lower league players over higher league players. Some just want to think they weren’t as good or don’t play well for the NT or don’t show heart. That may be, but were talking about snubs from 3 or more players, do they all not play well or not show heart? Some people don’t want to let their mind take them to the needed conclusion because it sounds absurd.

        The deep lying problem within our federation is this, USSF is not in control of itself or soccer at all levels within its jurisdiction, MLS/SUM controls USSF and USSF does what MLS/SUM wants.

      • Ronaldinho, I read an article yesterday that indicated that part of the agreement USSF has with SUM/MLS provides USSF with a significant revenue share of anything over a certain benchmark that is generated by MLS marketing agreements. It is a large potential revenue hit to USSF if the benchmarks aren’t hit. It provides a huge financial incentive to USSF to keep MLS’s profile as prominent as possible, which could absolutely be impacting player selection. Unfortunately, I forgot to save the article, but I found it on a basic Google search about MLS/SUM.

      • Regarding pay to play, though, we’re in agreement as you can see from my comment above. The only way I can think of that it diminishes in any significant way is when we have two or three generations of parents who’ve grown up playing the sport at a high level and can provide a high level of coaching in the youth ranks, compared to what you see in other American sports. Even that is questionable though as the clubs make it extremely difficult for independent teams to compete in leagues and get in to elite tournaments. That is where USSF may have to step in somewhere down the road.

      • @Gremio Alum, I agree its hard to end pay 2 play given the current club environment. Not enough professional academies to cover the country is a big problem that’s not going away under the current system. Until we have solid profitable second and third division clubs who have their own academies and are profitable enough to fund them.

        As long as MLS/SUM and USSF do everything they can to destroy any viable division 2 competitor as they did with NASL and promoting its surrogate USL to division 2 and refusing to sanction the current division 2 league we wont have stable enough clubs at lower divisions to realize that academy network we need to catch all the talent nationwide. http://sbisoccer.com/2017/10/plenty-at-stake-at-tuesdays-nasl-injunction-hearing

        Maybe MLS could run a system similar to MLB or maybe we could do what the rest of the world does and have an open system with independently owned clubs? Those are the only two ways I see us getting to the point of having enough academies to catch and scout all the talent nationwide, one is with MLS/SUM the other without.

      • There’s always going to be SOME pay-for-play. Obviously the money has to come from somewhere.

        The problem is that some of these clubs have insane rates and aggressively conquer public field space. Often they don’t even use what they have; they just make sure no one else can. CESA in Greenville, SC, for instance, is a massive offender; it typically costs upwards of $3K a year to play for them when it’s all added up – and this is before travel costs – and they control something like 23 of the 26 public fields in the city…many of which go unused on a typical night or even Saturday morning. To call the situation a disgrace is an understatement. Go ahead and complain; they don’t care. Where else are you going to play? For the poor, the answer is pretty simple: nowhere.

        There’s a bunch of similar cartels all across the USA, putting entire towns on lockdown. And it’s gotta stop.

      • Shaggy and JoeDirt. I get that there is money tied up in the relationships across US Soccer that can appear like a conflict of interest. I do not believe if this monetary relationship did not exist that Danny Williams, Faian Johnson or Geoff Cameron would have been playing vs Trinidad. As I said before that was a failure at the managerial level not board room.

        Its a valid quesiton to ask how intertwined the USSF and MLS should be though and I agree they are actively fighting to protect MLS interests. Like it or not MLS is the professional league of the US and we are dependant on its success. MLS is playing a long term money game and is in a ” scale” mode of their business. An MLB style model is an interesting one as is a pro/rel experiment in the lower divisions. Those ideas are so difficult to implement now though becuase not enough lower division clubs are on a sustainable model. How many fold or have major issues every year?
        We need more money in soccer to create lower divisions that can thrive yet apparently not even our first division is profitable. MLS tries to think of ways to promote itself and create more revenue streams, but then we crush them for being a money hungry business without our best interests at heart. Its complicated

Leave a Comment