In much of the soccer world, the US women’s team and players such as Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan are beloved superstars and powerful voices for equal rights.
Many in the rank-and-file of US Soccer don’t share that sentiment though. In their eyes, the US national teams – particularly the women – are bleeding the federation dry while leaving precious little for grassroots associations charged with overcoming the sport’s stagnation and decline among young players.
That’s one of the takeaways from last week’s US Soccer presidential election, in which incumbent Cindy Cone barely held onto her position – by a margin of 52.9% to 47.1% in the weighted-vote tally – after a strong insurgent campaign by Carlos Cordeiro, who had resigned just two years ago and handed the reins to then vice-president Cone.
Cone’s bloc of elite athletes and pro leagues barely held on to power against the state youth and adult associations along with a few other voting entities such as US Youth Soccer.
On the surface, supporting Cordeiro made little sense. His bungling ended when he took the fall for an insulting (and, given the rest of the case, wholly unnecessary) legal brief in the lawsuit brought by the US women’s team. It wasn’t his only misstep. He was clumsy in the spotlight, with comments more cringeworthy than anything Ricky Gervais could conjure. He dithered over the hiring of a new CEO who might have flagged that offensive brief or improved a work environment described as toxic. Recent revelations have shown the federation failed to react to reports of systemic abuse of women’s players from youth level to the pros. Cordeiro touted his ability to navigate the world of high finance, but there were hints of a sponsor revolt had he won.
Cone therefore inherited a mess, just as Covid appeared and made her job even tougher. She also had to deal with a federal mandate that gave national team players more power within the federation – a decision out of her hands but nevertheless resented by the grassroots types.
On the surface, Cone did well. The budget was stabilized, she settled a pointless legal fight with the US Soccer Foundation that had been brought on by Cordeiro’s arrogance, landed a new broadcast deal with Turner Sports, and brokered a tentative settlement in the high-profile women’s team lawsuit that has cost the federation a lot of money and goodwill.
Unsurprisingly, many women’s team players either formally or informally endorsed Cone, a Hall of Famer who played for the team two decades ago.
“The US Soccer Federation needs a leader who will move our sport forward, not backward,” read a letter from 18 players. The letter didn’t mention Cordeiro. It didn’t have to. Most fans of the women’s team surely shared the players’ opinion. A straw poll by supporters’ organization the American Outlaws ran 91% in favor of Cone. “If Carlos Cordeiro is elected we riot,” read a tweet from The Women’s Soccer Show.
That was a risk the grassroots organizations were willing to take.
Officially, their biggest complaint was that the people working at ground level felt neglected. Cone and her staff have been seen as aloof, focusing more on the national teams than on the members who play a vital role in growing the game.
“Our current US Soccer culture has created a division between the ‘Elites’ and the ‘Grassroots,’” US Youth Soccer chair Dr Pete Zopfi, who produced an election-eve endorsement for Cordeiro, wrote in an email to the Guardian. “Hopefully what we heard and saw before the election about ‘working with all members’ was not just political rhetoric.”
If the problem was simply time and attention, that might not be so bad. But the biggest complaints were about money. State associations raised pointed questions about paltry spending on grassroots needs such as referee programs in comparison to the big numbers – the men’s national team is budgeted at a loss of $13.6m, with the women set to lose nearly $10.8m. To an extent, the federation can point to sponsorship revenue that’s listed separately and is surely driven primarily by the national teams. But the budget shows an overall loss of $30.67m.
That will prompt some resentment toward both national teams. But the women were particularly outspoken against Cordeiro, and the states have been particularly disdainful of the USWNT.
And the settlement of the women’s lawsuit, seen in some quarters as a piece of news conveniently timed to help Cone win reelection, may have had the opposite effect, furthering resentment toward the team. Assuming a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached, which isn’t a sure thing, the women’s lawsuit will be settled for a fee of $24m. In the states’ eyes, that’s $24m they won’t be getting.
Forget the argument that the women needed to win the case to set an example for young girls. To the grassroots groups, the settlement and the projected losses are actually robbing girls and boys of the support they need. Even worse, the sport is attracting fewer and fewer participants. Cone is hardly responsible for creating the long-running problem, but the states would argue that fixing it should be a higher priority than it is.
To be sure, some of the state representatives have other motives. While the US women’s team and its fans are often held up as a beacon of progressive values, the same isn’t true of soccer as a whole in the US. The game, particularly at youth level, is popular in America’s conservative heartland, and some are still bitter about women’s players kneeling during the national anthem. Others think the women’s team is too cozy with former player Cone. And it’s easy to see that there are sexist elements to some of the complaints. After all, the US men’s team lost more money than the women’s team, while some of the members who supported former men’s players such as Eric Wynalda or Kyle Martino in the 2018 election now suddenly tout the need for “business acumen” with a female player at the helm.
But those motivations are hardly the only driving forces behind the grassroots revolt. The states and other organizations believe they see through the women’s team’s rhetoric. If the USWNT are serious about fighting for girls and future generations, they say, shouldn’t the bulk of revenue be going to develop coaches, referees and players?
Cone has recognized that she has some bridge-building to do. The national teams must do so as well. The men are still taking a rigid negotiating stance even though all available evidence shows they are more than adequately paid. And with men’s players now commanding large salaries from European powerhouses as well as MLS teams, it’s difficult to make a case that they need big money from international appearances to pad their incomes.
The women, though, have more work to do. They’ve convinced a lot of supporters and columnists that their legal fight was essential. Now they need to convince those who actually look at the federation budget. And all federation members, from volunteers to the well-compensated national teamers, have to find a way to put things together. Otherwise, even with Cone in charge rather than Cordeiro, US Soccer may indeed go backward.
