Tag: us soccer

podcast, pro soccer

RSD17: Adding tiers to the U.S. soccer cake, with NPSL’s Jef Thiffault

Posted on by Beau Dure

Jef Thiffault is the managing director for the NPSL, an elite amateur league that’s been sometimes pulled into promotion/relegation discussions. But he used to work for MLS and SUM.

Mind blown yet?

It’s actually an encouraging discussion that gives the impression that we have some smart people in U.S. soccer, toiling far away from the courtrooms and big-league boardrooms. And we might see a sea change in elite amateur competition that just might spill upward to the pros.

Interview begins around the 10:30 mark after I give a long introduction and rant a bit about the NASL and so forth.

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pro soccer

Not Another Soccer Lawsuit: NASL-USSF, Halloween hearing edition

Posted on by Beau Dure

I’m not going to try to write something coherent out of all the accounts of today’s NASLpalooza in a New York courtroom.

First, I’m going to send my hopes for speedy recoveries for those injured and comfort for those who mourn after today’s senseless attack in Manhattan. I’m going to suggest we look into simple ways to make public spaces safer — bollards would help in this case — without resorting to outrageous racial and religious scapegoating or some sick fantasy that “good guys with guns” can stop this sort of thing from happening.

Then, I’m going to direct you to some first-hand accounts:

  • Michael Lewis, who has covered all leagues called NASL, has a summary.
  • Chris Kivlehan, writing for Midfield Press, has what you might call a play-by-play.

And you’ll want to follow Miki Turner, who has an advantage over most of us in that he’s an attorney. Another advantage: He has the transcript.

So what I’m really doing here is leaving a few breadcrumbs to find our way back through the Labyrinth. Or something like that. In simpler terms, I want to capture a few thoughts before the day is done.

1. The “USSF has no right to regulate squat” apocalyptic vision is probably moot.

And that’s good because I think USSF lawyers may have missed an opportunity to point out that there’s a difference between “amateur” as defined in most of the world (someone who is not paid to play) and “amateur” as clumsily redefined in the USA’s Stevens Act when someone realized a lot of Olympians are now raking in the dough.

Another thought on that topic (“they” here refers to NASL legal team):

So legal nerds hoping for The Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe and Whether the Stevens Act Covers Professional Leagues might have to wait until the inevitable suit against some other National Governing Body. (If I were making odds, I’d say it’ll happen in rugby. Or volleyball.)

If you want a bit more on this, here’s Midfield Press: “Judge Brodie asks for clarification on whether Sauer (USSF lawyer) is taking the position that Congress has given USSF the authority to regulate professional soccer.  Sauer clarifies that the Stevens Act does not limit their authority.  Sauer traces the USSF’s authority from the Olympic charter, from which FIFA draws its authority.  USSF is recognized by FIFA.  “Bottom line” is that USSF believes it has the authority to govern pro soccer and the Stevens Act does not limit it.”

And finally …

2. I’ll never understand why Jeffrey Kessler gets into soccer lawsuits and tosses out things that are easily refuted by anyone with a shred of outside knowledge (such an opposing counsel).

In Fraser v MLS, we actually had people arguing about whether the Premier League and The Division Now Known As The Championship are equal or whether the bottom three teams in the Premier League are sent down. (See pages 318-321 here, then pages 421-425 here. It actually reached a point of absurdity — page 2190 onward — at which Kessler was forced to backtrack from an assault on the credibility of one Sunil Gulati, who is once again involved in this case and seems to be Kessler’s white whale.)

Today, he brought up the sad story of a family upset over the prospect of losing the San Francisco Deltas. It didn’t take USSF lawyers long to point out that the Deltas’ survival ain’t at stake in this courtroom.

3. Judge Margo K. Brodie has done a remarkable job getting up to speed on soccer.

From the Midfield Press account: “(Kessler) suggests that no other FIFA affiliated federation in the world has standards like USSF’s PLS.  Judge Brodie suggests that is because soccer in those other countries is the number one sport, which is not the case here in the United States.”

Do you hear that, Soccer Twitter?

And she seems like one of those stereotypical New York judges from Law & Order who makes the lawyers behave.

4. I still don’t have a good handle on when this case will discuss whether the NASL can reasonably have D2 status.

We know from earlier filings — and from the reporting by Midfield Press and Nipun Chopra — that the NASL is grabbing some NPSL teams and flinging them up the pyramid to bolster their numbers. Follow-up info on that front is redacted, but it was discussed in court today:

Coincidentally, the Ranting Soccer Dad podcast posting tomorrow morning is an interview with NPSL Managing Director Jef Thiffault. We refer to the clubs considering an NASL move, but given the pending legal action, don’t expect a ton of detail.

5. I have no idea who’s going to win.

Or at what stage. Would the judge grant an injunction, giving the NASL a stay of execution, only to grant the USSF’s Motion to Dismiss, which is following a separate schedule and will take a few more weeks to discuss? I’ve heard convincing arguments either way, and I can’t pretend to be a lawyer.

I can tell you from a journalist/historian’s point of view, the NASL side has piled on more arguments that set off my b.s. detectors. They have eight teams — no, wait, make that 14, even though it’s well-established that a couple of these teams aren’t likely to return, and several others are currently playing before crowds of hundreds (when reported) in the NPSL with amateur players. They made bold claims about competing with MLS well before they were ready to do so, and now that they’ve declined, they’re blaming the system. They could’ve differentiated themselves from MLS by creating the promotion/relegation system they claimed to support, and not long ago, NPSL was interested in doing that. NASL pushed them away, only to latch onto a few NPSL clubs now.

If I were an NASL fan — and if I lived in Indianapolis or Puerto Rico right now, I would be — I’d be embarrassed by this insistence on propping up a brand name instead of joining up with NISA or regrouping some other way in Division III and working back up.

But that doesn’t mean they’re wrong, legally. It doesn’t mean they can’t convince a judge who appears to be quite reasonable that they should be given, like Delta House after the Faber parade, just one more chance.

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home, ranting soccer dad, soccer

The best post-T&T pro-promotion/relegation argument

Posted on by Beau Dure

Predictably, Soccerocalypse has brought out the usual arguments from the promotion/relegation crowd:

  1. Youth development will be so much better!
  2. Players will be under constant pressure!

If anyone could turn their attention away from Twitter long enough to read something longer than 280 characters at a time, they would have seen this addressed in the pro/rel series — both pros (and alleged pros) and cons.

The short versions:

Youth development: European clubs that have good academies have them so they can sell players (and yes, solidarity payments/training compensation is a legitimate issue with legal potholes I can’t fully comprehend). Chelsea’s inability to develop a first-team player from within is legendary, just one example of a “broken” academy system in the birthplace of soccer.

MLS has actually made progress in youth development because its clubs know they can avoid the boom and bust of pro/rel. They feel confident spending millions to create what wasn’t there before. Then they have a pathway, via their oft-derided relationship with USL, to send promising 17-year-old players to the first team via the USL bridge.

And then MLS teams can play their youngsters because they know they’re not going to be relegated. That’s one reason why MLS has developed so many players who turn around and beat the USA in CONCACAF. (I have heard arguments that MLS needs to impose stricter limits on international players. Then I’ve heard arguments saying MLS needs to spend more on international players to raise the level so that any U.S. players who make that first team will be more appropriately challenged.)

Pressure: Yes, we know. Someone in a German locker room threw a shoe at Eric Wynalda.

shoe

First of all, the idea that you’re “playing for your job” at every training session in Europe but not in MLS is inflated. European clubs aren’t going to cut people mid-contract. You can lose a starting spot, sure, and then you can regain it the next week. That’s not unique. If you want to see job insecurity, watch the NFL, where a kicker can miss once or twice on Sunday and be unemployed on Monday.

Second: Bobby Warshaw tells a different story of playing for a relegation-threatened team. His teammates in Scandinavia all just wanted to wash their hands of it and be gone.

And it’s not as if pressure always makes diamonds. Sometimes, it makes dust. In this clip, Woody Harrelson is Trinidad and Tobago. Wesley Snipes is the USA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgJ2CaTfaxU

The USA didn’t lose because the media and supporters are too nice to them. They played tense. Cautious. Trinidad and Tobago did not.

After Prince died, Saturday Night Live ran a tribute. Jimmy Fallon told a story of being at a party where he was on stage wondering if he could get Prince to come up and play. Then he saw the crowd parting and Prince basically floating to the stage. Prince came up to Fallon and gave him a look that said, “Yeah, I got this.”

That’s what the USA needed. Not overconfidence. But that sweet spot between confidence and complacency in which they say, “I got this.” Only Christian Pulisic, who’s too young to have been through the same CONCACAF wars (or relegation battles — see Altidore, Jozy) as his teammates, played with that attitude.

But let’s say there’s a benefit to playing in a league that’s more intense than MLS — though, if you were ever in a locker room with Taylor Twellman or Dom Kinnear after a game, you know things can get pretty intense. Why is Germany more intense than the USA? Why is Germany more intense than Scandinavia?

It’s because Germany has a deeper soccer culture.

Same reason Mexico and the big Euro leagues are more intense than MLS or Scandinavia. For all the progress made in the USA since Paul Caligiuri took a wild shot in Trinidad in 1989, this country is still a good bit behind everyone else. Youth soccer participation plateaued and then started dropping, and while a lot of those kids turn up wearing Messi or Rooney jerseys, a lot more never watch soccer on TV or in person.

So if you want to make a good argument for promotion/relegation, try this:

Pro/rel will help deepen the soccer culture in this country.

And I believe that. Most of what I’m saying here on pro/rel is the same stuff I’ve been saying for 15 years, no matter how much it’s been misrepresented by the PRZ on Twitter. But this is an argument that I can’t remember hearing before. Maybe some people made it, but it was drowned out in all the “PRO/REL WILL OBVIOUSLY MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER BUT MLS/SUM/USSF/STEVE BANNON ARE CONSPIRING TO KEEP THE NFL BIG” nonsense.

This is your argument. This is something you can present to people who have money on the table — not the Monopoly money Silva and company threw at MLS so they could create the narrative that MLS turned down a gazillion bucks to institute pro/rel now.

Is it enough? I don’t know. The other realities still exist. We have a Division I soccer league now where we didn’t in 1992, and it’s because people were enticed to invest in a scheme that reduced the risk from “might as well burn your money” to “there’s a small chance this might work.” If you’d told people in 1992 we’d have a soccer league that consistently drew 40,000 people in Atlanta and Seattle, people would’ve laughed at you. (Especially Atlanta. I grew up in Georgia, and I’m astounded.)

But if the pro/rel crowd is willing to drop the nonsense, along with the conspiracy talk and nonsensical legal actions, maybe there’s a chance to win the argument.

If I were elected USSF president (no, I’m not running — there’s a reason a lot of sane, qualified people from Peter Wilt to Julie Foudy aren’t interested), I’d do the following:

  1. Divisions 2 and 3 go pro/rel next year. I’m torn on whether the USL brand name should stay. The NASL brand name should not. It has a history of incompetence, and even the glory days of the late 70s were built on non-traditional glitzy Americanized soccer. Besides, given the existence of Mexico, the “North American” part of the brand name never rang true. Keep the clubs — to start, put the clubs on the soundest financial foundation in D2 and the others in D3.
  2. Division 4 becomes the top amateur division (semipro clubs are allowed to compete, but it’ll be mostly amateur, as these leagues are now) for the top tiers of the major amateur leagues — PDL, NPSL, UPSL, Cosmopolitan, GCPL, other USASA Elite Amateur Leagues. Clubs that finish in the top three of these leagues can apply for D3 status — for the foreseeable future, only a few clubs will do that. (At this point, I don’t think we can or should relegate clubs from pro D3 to amateur D4. If D3 gets too big, start a pro D4, more or less mimicking what England has recently done with its fifth tier.) Have a D4 national championship if it’s feasible, replacing some of the existing and sort of redundant national amateur cups.

Two reasons to this. First, it’ll make the lower divisions much more interesting.

And it just might demonstrate to the powers- and purseholders-that-be that there’s a benefit to expanding the pyramid and building a soccer culture.

Or, you know, just yell and scream and sue. That’s working so far, right? And competition between uncooperative leagues worked so well that we’re about to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ASL, right?

 

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ranting soccer dad, soccer, work portfolio

About this story: How this weekend could shape US Soccer’s long-term future

Posted on by Beau Dure

Reminder: I’m off Twitter for a while aside from automated stuff like this. And the next one. And the next one. So if you want to chat with me about this story, why not chat here?

And this one has a bit of a back story, anyway. I’ve been working on this for months. One reason it took so much time is the staggering number of documents I read — financial reports, transcripts from annual general meetings (“Alabama … here … Alaska … here … OK, now the adult associations … Alabama … Alabama … Alaska … here …”) and so on.

Another reason might surprise you: A lot of people weren’t interested in talking. But I didn’t sense that they felt intimidated. They simply didn’t know anything.

I’m grateful that they admitted it. They’re not the Twitter pundits who think they have all the answers on reforming U.S. Soccer but have never even peeked at any of the information the federation puts online. A couple of people had nothing to add to this story but were looking forward to seeing it published.

So there’s a “put up or shut up” element to this story. Sure. If you really want to see some new people in charge, speak up now and over the next four years, because a lot of people may soon be term-limited off the board.

But I also hope it gives people a bit of a peek behind the curtain. Sure, anyone can read the same documents I did and maybe even talk to some of the same people I did, but it takes some time. If you understand U.S. Soccer a little better after reading this, I’ve done my job.

And if you have anything to add now, please do.

It’s an exciting time for soccer. The sport’s profile in this country has completely changed in the past 15 years. So what’s next?

Story: How this weekend could shape US Soccer’s long-term future | Football | The Guardian

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soccer

DNQ: U.S. youth soccer teams hitting a wall

Posted on by Beau Dure

Can we draw any conclusions from the USA’s failure to qualify for the U-17 Women’s World Cup? Or is the USA simply a victim of soccer’s cruelty? (We did say soccer karma doesn’t exist, except perhaps to see Real Salt Lake past Los Angeles last night.)

The statistics rounded up at Soccer America defy reason. In four qualification tournaments, the USA has outscored its opponents 103-3 and never lost a game. But the team has twice tied in knockout games, and each time, they’ve been eliminated on penalty kicks, yesterday by Mexico. So that’s two out of four U-17 Women’s World Cups that have taken place without the most accomplished country in women’s soccer.

“Maybe the U.S. women need a Developmental Academy like the men,” came one of the responses on Twitter last night. Perhaps. But things aren’t so good on the men’s side, either. The U.S. men’s U-17s lost in the CONCACAF quarterfinals to miss out on all four qualification spots. That’s the first time the U-17 men have missed out. The U-20s made it this year after missing out in 2011, which was the first time that had happened since 1995. The U-23s have failed to qualify for two of the last three Olympics, not even getting out of the group stage on home soil last time.

By comparison, the women have done well. The U-20s have won two of the last three World Cups.

On the whole, we have this strange paradox: As the country has grown more serious about herding its best youth players into elite national environments — the U-17 men’s Bradenton residency, the men’s Developmental Academy, the women’s Elite Clubs National League — the USA has fared worse in international youth tournaments.

Coincidence?

Partially, sure. Other factors include the growth of soccer elsewhere. On the women’s side, the USA’s growth is helping other countries — as Soccer America pointed out, the Mexican goal scorer and goalkeeper who eliminated the USA yesterday both play for the ECNL’s Texas Rush.

We can’t draw too many conclusions on the women’s side. The U-20s are fine. The U-17s have just had curious failures in penalty kicks, which old-school coaches often call a “lottery.” Sure, perhaps the U-17s should never let a game with Mexico get to that stage, but it’ll happen sometimes. Ask the senior women about their last World Cup qualification.

The men’s side is more puzzling. The USA used to round up a bunch of high school and college kids for these tournaments. They got a couple of semifinal and quarterfinal appearances in World Cups and the Olympics. Then nothing beyond the round of 16 since 2007.

It’s still not enough evidence to suggest something is systematically wrong. A bounce of the ball here or there can be the difference between a semifinal World Cup run or failure to qualify at all.

But it’s enough to suggest there’s no easy answer. Bradenton, the Academy and the ECNL aren’t going to produce champions through the sheer fact of their existence. It’s going to take rare talents, coached with care.

Systems don’t win championships. Players do. Or they lose and get an experience that will hopefully prepare them for better futures.

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