Following two months of silence, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati has announced that he will not seek re-election.
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati will not seek re-election
After 12 years in charge, Gulati says it’s time for someone else to take over.
Photo by Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images
“I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and talking about it with people in many different positions -- many of whom told me I should run,” Gulati told ESPN FC on Monday. “But in the end, I think the best thing for me personally, and for the federation, is to see someone new in the job.”
On Sunday, Grant Wahl reported that Gulati was considering endorsing Soccer United Marketing president Kathy Carter, who has not yet declared that she is running. Gulati did not make an endorsement while announcing that he would not run on Monday. Another Gulati associate, U.S. Soccer vice president Carlos Cordeiro, has announced he is running.
Former United States men’s national team players Kyle Martino, Paul Caligiuri and Eric Wynalda have also declared their candidacy, alongside Boston attorney Steve Gans, longtime soccer executive Paul Lapointe, and former player and general manager Michael Winograd. Candidates have until Dec. 12 to finalize their entry into the field with the nominations of three USSF delegates.
Gulati has been U.S. Soccer president since 2006. Previously, he served as an executive vice president at USSF, was a deputy commissioner of MLS, and was the president of Kraft Soccer, running business operations for the New England Revolution and related properties. He was named to the FIFA executive committee in 2013, and has led a bid to bring the 2026 World Cup to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Reviews of Gulati’s reign as U.S. Soccer president have been mixed. His critics will say that he didn’t do enough to promote grassroots and youth soccer development, that his oversight of USSF’s relationship with MLS was detrimental to lower-division soccer, and that he did a poor job with the hiring and firing of senior national team coaches. His proponents will say that he turned American soccer into a big business, and that the federation’s reported $140 million surplus is mostly due to his leadership.
Gulati may not be the person with the right ideas to push U.S. Soccer forward. But thanks to Gulati the businessman, his successor will have the necessary funds to push the federation in whatever direction they like.
