In wake of the recent controversy regarding the U.S. women’s national team’s lawsuit against U.S. Soccer and subsequent comments from the federation’s filing, Cosmos chairman Rocco B. Commisso has asked for the resignation of USSF president Carlos Cordeiro and the reconstitution of its board of directors.
By Rocco B. Commisso
Special to FrontRowSoccer.com
As one of the many constituents long marginalized by the leadership of U.S. Soccer, the New York Cosmos join the rapidly growing chorus of voices condemning the shocking and offensive comments made by the federation in its response to the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) players’ gender discrimination suit.
It is the latest glaring example that the federation is failing to fulfill its duty to promote the development of all forms of soccer in the United States, including women’s and men’s, adult and youth, amateur and professional. Instead of accomplishing that mission, the federation primarily has been focused on advancing MLS at the expense of the competing interests of other stakeholders. The federation’s bias in favor of MLS, as detailed in NASL’s lawsuit against U.S. Soccer and MLS, derives from profound conflicts of interest that have existed since the founding of MLS in 1995 and the intertwining of the financial interests of the Federation with those of MLS through Soccer United Marketing.
U.S. Soccer has been almost singularly fixated on diverting resources to MLS and SUM instead of seizing on opportunities like my own April 2018 offer to infuse an unprecedented $500 million into American soccer.
As objectionable as that bias may be, it now is clear that there are other fundamental problems at the top levels of U.S. Soccer: the gederation’s view that the women’s game is inherently inferior to the men’s is, in my opinion, clear evidence that the years of discrimination against women is not due simply to financial conflicts of interest, but also to a deep underlying prejudice against women players.
While groups like the New York Cosmos and USWNT players have long endured the disgraceful behavior of U.S. Soccer, even corporate sponsors are now beginning to recognize the true colors of some of the people leading the federation.
As I have reiterated since 2017, a U.S. Soccer House cleaning is long overdue. For the good of the game, Carlos Cordeiro and every member of the U.S. Soccer board should immediately step down and the Federation should call a special election to reconstitute its board of directors to make it truly representative of all constituents, including NASL and NISA.
You can read the letter correspondence regarding Commisso’s $500 million proposal to U.S. Soccer by clicking on the PDF links below:
