Seems to me we should have a general N&A thread for the upcoming USSF presidential election. The election will take place at the US Soccer AGM, which takes place on February 8 through 11. Here's some information on the nomination and election process. And it will be an election as Grant Wahl reports that Steve Gans is now an official challenger to Sunil Gulati. Wahl further reports that: I think Wynalda should get in the race, because why the hell not? Nominations are due by December 10.
If true that Donovan is considering running for USSF president he is taking too long. IMO, the more challengers Sunil has the better. He needs to go and I hope there is no type of corruption in the election.
IMO, I think we need to change the structure of USSF more than a new President. 1) We need to form a committee/board for each the WNT/MNT who have votes on hiring/firing decisions of technical director and the technical director only. Ideally it would have 7-11 members with each member receiving 1 vote and be comprised of a player representative from the senior national team, the President of the Federation, former player representative, prominent coaches, youth soccer leadership, etc. This committee should not have any member from the primary USSF board outside of the President, so that will exclude MLS Commish etc. The only thing I am unsure of is term length for the members and how they would be chosen. 2) There must be a technical director whose only duty is to be technical director. He is in charge of hiring the coach, youth team coaches, and is in charge of "setting the direction" of the program. The selection of the senior NT coach is finally his decision, but the committee/board mentioned above is allowed to interview/rate the candidates prior to selection. YNT coaching decisions do not need to have the board/committee involvement. The technical director can only be removed with the committee/board voting for his removal with a 2/3 or 7/10 majority. This election is going to be a mess because the only part candidates/fans care about is the who gets to choose the coach/technical director. That is 1/5 of the job of the President and the only person whose name has been mentioned who seems to even have a grasp of that seems to be Kyle Martino who won't take an unpaid position. We use to set goals for the NT and soccer for 12 years in the future. Getting someone promising immediate change for stuff that takes time is going to get us back to where we are.
He knows US Soccer, he knows youth soccer, he knows professional soccer, he's respected around the world for his soccer ability. He's also intimately familiar with the club landscape of US Soccer, and most importantly - he can be independent.
I think Landon would not be good. Just too close to Garber and MLS' interests. Need an outsider. Need a stronger personality willing to go up against the establishment. He just strikes me as someone the establishment would control and would be unwilling to break up the USSF/SUM/MLS relationship which is a real problem. Landon would be better as a technical director. Two top candidates for me from what they've said are Wynalda and Martino. They both have called for severe structural change. Their viewpoints go completely against the establishment. That's what we need. I think Hugo Perez would be a decent option too. Martino meanwhile wants an outside independent audit of USSF/SUM/MLS and an open system, a direct threat to the establishment. That's the type I'd ride with. But he won't run. So Wynalda.
Klinsi would be perfect for that technical director position mentioned above...something that would have better suited him IMHO
I agree. Landon needs more seasoning. But to the doubters, he had a key role in a couple of recent labor negotiations, one between the Fed and the USMNT, and one between MLS and the players. But that's not enough experience. And jon...Martino? Without a first name, I don't know if you mean Kyle or Tata. Tata as coach, sounds good. As the USSF president, I think he'd be an awful choice.
Wynalda would concern me. While he certainly is not afraid to challenge orthodoxy, he has always struck me as the kind of person who is good at railing against the obvious but offering little in the way of substance. His rants are often incoherent and the combination of grudges and self regard meld together in ways that for whatever reason are reminiscent of conspiracy theorists. (e.g. "If people only understood what I knew, they'd know the entrenched forces we're up against! I won't go into further details") Wynalda strikes me as what JK would be like if he were a pessimist. Landon strikes me as a fundamentally decent and honest guy with a realistic sense of his own abilities and limitations and that makes me comfortable that he would seek out expert advice. Martino would also be fine.
There is nothing wrong with that. BTW, Martino is out. More insider: US Soccer surplus larger than reported; Gans has nominations for USSF election; Martino on not running https://t.co/spUlxN2Iu3— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) October 18, 2017
Assigning tasks doesn't do anything if the guy who signs your paycheck tells you how to do the task and MLS tells him how to do it. Money talks, job titles/descriptions are b.s. and b.s. walks.
Does anybody know what the relationship is between Steve Gans(Edit: or his Boston law firm) and Kraft Bros?