Next month the U.S. Soccer Federation will hold its annual general meeting, a usually dull affair in which delegates from every level of soccer sit through four days of committee meetings. This year, though, the delegates will vote to elect a new president, replacing retiring President Sunil Gulati. The new president will set the course for the federation as a whole, and could change the entire course of American soccer.
During his 12 years at the helm of U.S. Soccer, Gulati helped save the organization from financial ruin and turn it into a moneymaker. That said, he also deserves blame for repeated mishandling of the national teams, including his misbegotten process of hiring and firing coaches for the men's national team, and his lack of focus on domestic youth soccer, while consolidating his own global power at FIFA.
As Gulati leaves, then, he leaves an organization in which the president's role has expanded greatly. The favorite to replace him is someone he knows well: Kathy Carter, who currently runs Soccer United Marketing, the marketing agency that makes money for both U.S. Soccer (via selling the national teams) and Major League Soccer (which owns Soccer United Marketing). Carter would be the establishment pick, a promise for more of the same — a focus on "growing the game" that seems strangely limited to growing national-team revenue and MLS coffers.
Those who want someone different aren't short on options. Heading the list of other candidates is television analyst Eric Wynalda, a former national team player and lower-division coach who has never been able to resist saying inflammatory things. Wynalda seems the preferred candidate of angry soccer fans, but it's hard to imagine that many of those fans are U.S. Soccer Federation voters.
Two other candidates stand out. One is Kyle Martino, who like Wynalda is a television analyst and a former national-team player and who might provide more soccer-focused, less business-focused leadership. Unlike Wynalda, he doesn't have a reputation for being a lunatic.
The other, current federation vice president Carlos Cordeiro, seems like another vote for the status quo. But it's telling that Carter, not Cordeiro, is seen as Gulati's hand-picked successor.
The other candidates are Steve Gans and Michael Winograd, both lawyers who seem likely to be lost in the shuffle, and Hope Solo and Paul Caligiuri, two former American national-teamers who have soccer name recognition and not much else for qualifications.
U.S. Soccer is at a crossroads. The men's national team has no coach and won't be at the World Cup. The women's national team failed to win a medal at last year's Olympics. Youth soccer is widely split and consistently underfunded. MLS is still struggling for worldwide relevance. Other professional leagues, such as the NASL, are near folding.
