Commentary
There’s a New Doctor in Charge of U.S. Soccer
By Christopher Barton
March 13, 2006
The normal outcome of the annual United States Soccer Federation National Annual General Meeting is usually limited to yet another squabble between the various youth soccer organizations and the latest major announcement by the Federation and/or its corporate partner Nike. Simply put, nothing very important usually happens during the three days that top level soccer executives come together for largely inconsequential meetings.
This year the meeting was quite different, even though there was no major surprise. What did happen is the possible rebirth of the soccer administration toward the goal of catching up with the progress made on the field.
After eight years of rule by a capable but largely ceremonial and somewhat meandering presidency of Robert “Dr. Bob” Contiguglia, we know have the privilege of entering into the era of Sunil Gulati, a qualified and learned individual who may breathe new life and sanity into the morass that is the alphabet soup of US Soccer. For starters, we know that even though Gulati has his Ph.D., he will not make us feel infantile by insisting that we call him “Dr. Sunil.” Hooray!
Even more important is that Gulati enters the position with a broad knowledge of the infrastructure of the game and how backroom politics influences every important decision. For all his niceties, Dr. Bob was a youth administrator from Colorado, and it is no surprise that in the restructuring that took place during his eight years in office he ceded most of his power to Secretary-General Dan Flynn.
With Gulati in charge, US Soccer finally has a President who knows how the system works and has the contacts within the world community to make it work. Many of the greatest moments of US Soccer over the past fifteen years have Gulati’s fingerprints on them, including the 1994 World Cup and the formation of MLS. In his current role as President of Kraft Soccer he has overseen the building of arguably the league’s most successful franchise (Galaxy fans might differ).
For all that domestic success, it is his international experience that will mean even more to the sport in this country. Gulati already serves on numerous FIFA committees and has the contacts necessary to position the United States properly within the politics of what the rest of the world calls football. Given his character, we might even see a move to start the clean-up of some of the corruption that infests the game on the highest administrative levels, and he already has a ready-made test-case in the World Cup ticket and travel scandal that has enveloped CONCACAF President Jack Warner.
In a sport where most decisions are contentious and the pathway to those decisions filled with rancor, Sunil Gulati was elected by acclamation. Whether you want to call it an election or a coronation, the bottom line is that for the first time in a long time, US Soccer has a President who expects success both on and off the field and does not define that success as the status quo.