Who are the USSF and what do they do

Football or Soccer across the pond has gone through many changes since the formation of its governing body in 1913.

The United States Soccer federation was originally named United States Football Association when it was formed in 1913 in Chicago, Illinois. The Association was one of the first member states of FIFA when it was given provisional membership in August 1913. The USFA was given full membership at the FIFA congress in Oslo on June 24 1914.

The USFA brought together the first USMT (United States Men’s Team) in 1916 for a tour of Norway and Sweden, the side ended the tour with a respectable 3-1-2 record.

In 1921, the USFA sanctioned the creation of the first American Professional Soccer League. There were eight franchises for the league which were Fall River, Mass.; Philadelphia; Jersey City Celtics, N.J.; Todd Shipyard of Brooklyn, N.Y.; New York FC; Falco FC of Holyoke, Mass.; and JP Coats of Pawtucket, R.I.

The USA were among the teams to play at the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, Bert Patenuade was the tournament’s third top goal scorer and was the first player to reach three World Cup goals.

The rebranding of the association happened just after the Second World War. The association is now called U.S Soccer Football Association. It was then changed once again in 1974 dropping the word Football from the title.

The rebranded association sanctioned the transfer of one the biggest names in the game, Pele, when he joined the New York Cosmos in April 1975.

They then, made their first World Cup bid when they went for the 1986 World Cup but ultimately lost out to fellow CONCACAF members Mexico.

There was a minor crisis in 1985 when the two professional soccer leagues in the Country ceased their operations, but there was light at the end of the tunnel as after an all-star game in Pasadena California, FIFA officials recommended that the USA make another bid for 1994. At the second attempt they were successful and would now bring the world to America in 1994.

The association had to form a new league and gather the resources to compete at their own World Cup. They formed the MLS on 17^th December 1993, to give the country credibility in the eyes of the footballing world. The 1994 World Cup was a huge success and if it wasn’t for Diana Ross’ dreadful penalty at the opening ceremony the association would have had one of the best tournaments ever. That World Cup made a star of defender Alexi Lalas, as a side from his magnificent beard and hair, he was the USMT shining star. The side went out to eventual winners Brazil.

It isn’t just the mens game where the association govern, the USWT is arguably the more successful of the two. The USWT won their first World Cup in 1991 which prompted the USFA to bid for the 1999 Women’s World Cup which was successful. The USWT won the tournament on home soil after beating China Women 5-4 on penalties. After a medical outbreak prevented China hosting the tournament in 2003, the USFA had the huge task of hosting another tournament with just four months prep time. They would go onto lose to Germany in the semi-finals.

The association received major boosts when teams in the MLS went out and signed some more of the

worlds biggest names when L.A Galaxy signed English superstar David Beckham from Real Madrid in 2007. This opened the door to other stars crossing the Atlantic like Robbie Keane, Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard.

In June 2017, FIFA approved the association’s fourth name change to the United States Soccer Federation

That brief history of the United States Soccer Federation, hopefully gave a better understanding of where football came from in the USA. Now it’s time to look at what the USSF do now in terms of governance and how it acts when any controversies come their way.

The USSF is still based in Chicago, Illinois. The president is Sunil Galati and he is supported by Carlos Cordeiroa and Dan Flynn.

The USFF oversees and promotes the development of national teams starting from the age of under 14’s to the senior teams of both men and women. They also develop the U.S Paralympic national team for when they compete in the Paralympics and World championships.

The USSF strive to push the development of young players, this is exemplified in the state of the art training facility at the StubHub Center in Carson, California which was opened in 2003. The USSF is has also commissioned the building of a National Training and Development center in Kansas City which is set to open December this year.

They also govern the biggest youth league in the country which is the United States Youth Soccer Association. They preside over the MLS which is now in its 24^th year and the newly rebranded National Women’s Soccer League which is now in its fourth term.

The USSF isn’t safe from controversies as quite a few have happened over the last five years. As in 2014, parents and former players filed a class action law suit against the federation, FIFA and other soccer organisations for failure to implement policies to prevent, evaluate and manage concussion injuries sustained by players. As a result, in 2015, the USSF unveiled a new safety initiative aimed at addressing head injuries in the sport. The new policies include, eliminating headers in players aged 10 and under, whilst reducing heading practice in 11-13 year olds. Other rules included modifications to the substitution rule to allow those suspected of a head injury to be taken off without it weakening the team in question.

The USSF have also been questioned by the lesser soccer leagues as to their protection of the MLS to maintain its position of the number one league in the country. Their issue came from the USSF benefits from the financial dealings with the MLS, which it doesn’t have with other leagues. This is seen as an incentive to preserve the MLS from competition. In 2015, the NASL took issue with the fact the USSF made rule changes to make it harder for the league to gain division one status with the MLS.

There has also been questions of the competitiveness of the MLS. As former USMT coach Jurgen Klinsmann said that American players need to move to Europe to further their careers. He said this is due to the top down structure the USSF implement which puts pressure on the best American players to stay in the MLS which he believes hampers the national teams’ competitiveness in international competition. This could mildly be proven in the fact that some of the country’s best players over the last few years like Clint Dempsey, Christian Pulisic and Tim Howard all had to move to Europe to further their careers.

Well, I hope this covers where the USSF came from and what it does now.