'It’s only working for the white kids': American soccer's diversity problem

Looking at population stats, NBA and NFL's "diversity problems" are a lot bigger? And I think all US major sports are lacking Asians more than anything? We need DoJ to step in and solve this problem.

 

Not sure that the stats bear this out for men.

Women maybe a bit more, but that is changing.

The USMNT as traditionally been over-repped by Hawaiians!

 

For some time now, the US Men's National Team has looked a lot like the country as a whole. There have been a lot of underserved areas of the country, our scouting networks are not as they should be, pay-to-play is still an issue, but there isn't a real problem with ethnic diversity or even diversity of economic backgrounds, either.

As Freisland alludes above, however, that's not exactly the case with the women's team however.

 

Less concerned with diversity on paper and more interested in how US soccer can inspire inner city soccer culture. It obviously exists in suburbs.

 

therein lies a cultural problem and It's not up to the ussf to make sure inner city kids grow up wanting to play soccer instead of football/basketball/baseball

 

It's getting better in New York as we speak, but obviously a lot more could be done there, I'll simply state in general terms. I can imagine that's probably true all around the cores of the nation's other major cities.

One thing, a relatively cheap thing that I would like to see become more of a "thing" in inner cities across the country is futsal. I'd like to see it coached, and taught in school as a regular part of the PE curriculum. I'd like to see more schoolyard basketball courts equipped with goals, although I know of some already so equipped. I'd like to see it organized on a basis not unlike the YMCA's YBA, which is cheap and non-competitive, allowing entry to all comers of all levels of ability and experience. I'd like a strong outreach to the Spanish-speaking community to get involved in and to perhaps even take the lead in this initiative (though to keep it inclusive, not to simply turn it into a Spanish-speaking community sport). I'd like to see inner city kids, so taught and inspired playing on those convertible courts recreationally, as they do basketball, during recesses at school and after school when the grownups aren't around.

 

This thread would probably be better served in the Soccer in the USA forum.

 

Agreed.

 

Diversity for the sake of diversity is worthless. Reading the article, it sounds like the real problem is a lack of development in young kids who love soccer and are talented but arent discovered. That's not a diversity issue. That's an issue with US Soccer not having a system to develop poorer kids the way other countries are able to. Lets be honest, a large segment of the world is living in abject poverty, especially central and south america. Yet they dont seem to have a problem finding poor kids and developing them into world class players. So what institutional structure is in place in these countries that we dont have? Is it due to the teams in their professional leagues having better academies or "minor leagues" or developmental organizations that can house a 14 year old with great skill and little means? Is there just more money in the sport in these countries thus the ability to pay for a poorer kid's development? Those are the real issues we need to solve. The diversity angle is irrelevant.

 

The racial part of this discussion often clouds this issue. There is definitely an issue with lack of accessibility in this country when it comes to competitive athletics in this country. And it is a much bigger deal in Soccer since almost everywhere else Soccer is the most accessible game.

 

Its economics more than race, really. Pay to play is killing us. I just signed my kid up to play in the regular fall league today. In front of me was a parent of a kid on his team. He was signing his son up for the 'travel team'. Based on the talent on the current team, there might be one or two kids I would say stand out and worth a look to move up to travel team. His kid isn't one of them by any means. But he has the means to pay a few hundred extra bucks, so viola, his kid is good enough to play in a better league. From there, our diluted talent pool begins to get scouted for potential National Team players.

 

There is one other issue that almost never gets mentioned in the "how other countries develop soccer players" calculus. In a lot of places, sports coaching is funded by the government. And of course in noted soccer developmental hot spots, developing players is often a for-profit enterprise.

 

Can you name some prominent soccer producing countries where development is chiefly funded by the government? My understanding is that clubs do the bulk of development through youth academies. And what "for-profit" American enterprises do you speak of? I assume you are not referring to MLS academies.

 

Oh they do, but in a lot of places local sports clubs are funded by governments' ministries of sport or some such other, which employ coaches in paid positions on a full or part-time basis. This takes place in many parts of Europe and in many places all over the globe, and in many cases, many kids who play on many of those local clubs get scouted to play in the youth academies. In most places, the kids don't get scouted to play in youth academies from the playgrounds, they get scouted through organized play, but while our entry-level organized play typically involves untrained volunteer coaches and referees through non-profit organizations like AYSO (and it must be noted that the real raison d'etre of such organizations is insurance), in a lot of other places it's government-funded entry-level organized play with paid coaches and referees.

I don't know much about the specifics. I've lived in Europe but I wasn't involved in the process there.

 

Pay to play soccer is producing mostly limited prospects who can't beat their marker 1v1 and is therefore polluting the pool of quality prospects for the youth national teams. This is why so many of our players shit the bed when forced to make a decision in tight spaces. I am glad you see how these things are all connected. I agree with you.

 

First off, there's no outdoor soccer courts(futsal)in the cities,due to spare spaces taken up by basketball courts,or baseball fields. Perhaps residential and commercial buildings should have futsal courts on multiple floors for starters. Once that problem is overcome,promote the hell out of it. Thanks to amazon lots of strip malls will close, reconfigure those structures into indoor fields. However I believe kids would rather play and entertain themselves virtually via software etc...hence you have a population of obese,lazy,jaded kids who don't get enough sunshine and exercise.

 

I'm sure it's not anywhere near being universal but we have fustall being played everyday on basketball courts (small pvc goals) during lunch at our school. Our school has a Latino majority and is considered an "urban school". I believe they do play some soccer at times during PE.

 

I see you are in Scotland. How do they do it over there? Do you know about any of the other European countries? I would guess that the national federations don't really develop/identify young talent at an early age?

My assumption is that there is probably relatively little competitive organized play before age 5 or so but that kids play informally from a very early age and there may be some opportunity for organized soccer that is "just for fun". Some of the kids playing "just for fun" would be ahead of their peers and the process of noticing the young talent begins starting around 5 or so. Because kids develop at different rates, scouting the just for fun play probably continues. They probably have some different levels of play in the "just for fun" leagues too?

Once identified as "special" the kids begin with a team or academy which would then hope to develop the kid for profit in some way.

If you or anyone else can correct me or add to my assumptions, I would appreciate it.

 

Because as youngsters their parents push them in a different direction......................towards academics. Which is great. By the way, one of the top prospects in Dallas' academy is forward Toshiki Yasuda. Japanese-American from El Paso.

There's been a lively and robust debate about this topic on the youth boards since this article came out. Folks from Holland, etc. telling us what the model is in their countries.

Here's the deal. Pay for play will never stop existing. We live in a capitalist society. The question, of course, is who's paying. As MLS/NASL/USLpro teams continue to build up their academies, they are increasingly paying for the players in their programs. People talk about those programs as "free." Well.....................they're free from the point of the players. Who's paying for those programs? Well, I am when I buy tickets to an FCD game, or buy FCD merchandise, etc. etc. As time goes on, the affiliate programs of MLS clubs will continue to expand and more kids will be under that umbrella. Currently, a number of MLS clubs invest over a million dollars a year in their youth development programs.

How on earth is a soccer program in Waco, Texas unaffiliated with an MLS/NASL team supposed to finance itself? How on earth can those programs be free for the players? Who's paying the bills? I have no idea how we think that's supposed to happen. They can offer a couple of "scholarships" to some particularly talented economically-challenged players, but that's it.

And you know what? Families need to play for little league baseball, Pop Warner Football, tennis lessons/team, golf lessons/team, cheerleading, boys scouts, 4H club, violin lessons, dance classes................the list goes on forever. Nothing is free. I don't really understand how this topic about youth soccer programs being free comes about.

So what can we do? We can build up our scouting and talent identification infrastructure in MLS/USLPro/NASL/USSF/etc. Thus if there's a player on Waco United that's a pro prospect, he can make his way to one of those programs. He can make his way to an FC Dallas, where the USSDA teams are in fact paid for by the club. And in case folks haven't noticed, many of FCD's homegrown signings and best academy players aren't from Dallas. Homegrowns Alejandro Zendejas and Aaron Guillen are from El Paso. Devin Vega is from San Antonio. Coy Craft is originally from FCD's affiliate program in Southwest Virginia, etc. etc.

We don't need to worry about eliminating pay for play for all players. We need to worry about eliminating pay-for-play for the top 2% of prospects. I'm not worried about whether an average youth player like little Johnny Bearclaw from Methville, West Virginia can afford pay-for-play in club soccer. He can play high school soccer if he wants.....................

 

I would also add that the author's assertion that "soccer is the world’s great democratic game, whose best stars have come from the world’s slums, ghettos and favelas" is more of a romantic notion than reality. Americans love this notion of the

For instance, Raphael Honigstein recently wrote a book entitled Das Reboot: How German Football Reinvented Itself and Conquered the World. In it he describes the backgrounds of the German national team players that have defined their current generation. The overwhelming number of them are highly educated and from middle class to upper-middle-class families (with some exceptions). If they hadn't been soccer players, they would have gone to university. the same is true, by the way, for many of the European players we talk about..............

And there are a lot of examples of these kids that come out of "ghettos and favelas." However, they quickly latch on to professional clubs. Luis Suarez, from that type of background, latched on at Nacional in Uruguay when he was 13-14. He had already head-butted a referee by the age of 16............leading to much greatness. We can give a whole host of examples of this type of player in Brazil and Argentina. Messi had started at Newell's when he was 12. Robinho was dirt poor. Started playing for Santos youth teams when he was 12.

That's what we need. We need to funnel young players (regardless of background) with pro potential to our professional clubs or affiliates that can afford to pay for their development programs. Buttscratch United in Nebraska will never be free if its not affiliated with a pro team. How could it be? So that means its actually our scouting and player identification infrastructure that we really need to invest in. MLS clubs already do this. Some of FC Dallas' young academy players were originally scouted and identified in local hispanic/latino leagues. Danny Garcia (now with San Antonio) comes from that background. I'm sure the same is true in LA and New York.

 

I'm fairly new to the "pay for play game" but i will say my opinion now is somewhat less like yours than it was before. My son has always played AYSO. Last year was his first playing club. Many of the players that played AYSO would be able to play club (quite a few play both) but you do have to tryout for the teams and while money is definitely a barrier for quite a few kids, I don't see money being enough to automatically get a kid membership on a team. I would guess that it is more of a case for the younger kids. (my kid is a 2001)

For me, there were two reasons that I didn't put my kid into club earlier:
1. he wasn't dedicated enough to justify the money I had to pay.
2. he wasn't dedicated enough to justify the time I would have to spend (practices, travel etc.)

As for the "Pay to play is killing us", I know it is far from ideal. It would be great if there were better access to higher quality play for all kids but where would we be if we just eliminated it? Pay for play, as I see it, is a symptom of where we are as a soccer nation. If we were a poor nation we might not have pay for play at all but with nothing to replace it with. Soccer may still continue to grow but probably much more slowly. There would still be pockets of immigrants and there would be leagues in those areas, as there have always been.

One change that I have noticed is that previously the immigrant leagues (primarily Latino in my area) used to play mostly with and against themselves but there are far more clubs located or drawing from those areas. When I coached at an innercity high school I remember that I had one kid over several years that went through the ODP program (a very good player but far from the best). He was playing for some club team outside of the area. All of the other kids were playing for teams in the area sponsored by local businesses or men. I remember, for instance, that King Taco (a restaurant chain) used to sponsor teams at different age groups. I found out later that many of our best players were actually getting paid to play for their teams. I don't know what the situation is now with King Taco but I do know there are many club teams located in the innercity.

 

Like clockwork, the socialist UK rag The Guardian tries to reduce every sporting issue in the US to a economic/political diatribe. Don't these morons know you can't decree "diversity" for feel good sake. Nothing to be seen here.

 

Special Breaking News Report at 10: Life is harder for Poor People; Easier for Wealthy People.

As we all know, the issue being discussed here is socioeconomic in nature. The racial part is added in order to sensationalize the headline. And, of course, its not a soccer-specific socioeconomic problem. This is life in 21st century America.