Monday, March 30, 2020
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Prolegomena to Any History of New York (Indoor) Soccer
Society for American Soccer History session, United Soccer Coaches Convention, Baltimore, 16 January 2020.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
The State of the Field: Ideologies, Identities and Initiatives
https://www.routledge.com/The-State-of-the-Field-Ideologies-Identities-and-Initiatives-1st-Edition/Kilpatrick/p/book/9781138569737
Friday, January 12, 2018
An appeal to the USSF Board of Directors
12
January 2018
Board
of Directors
United
States Soccer Federation
Dear
Directors,
At
this critical moment in the history of the United States Soccer Federation, I
would like to make this appeal to the Board of Directors for reconsideration of
a decision that will have long-ranging disastrous consequences: the refusal to
sanction the North American Soccer League [NASL] as a second-division league
under the Professional League Standards for 2018.
Since
position determines epistemology, a bit about myself and my unique perspective
on this situation. As the Club Historian of the New York Cosmos, I am
responsible for providing institutional memory, preserving authenticity and
accuracy in legacy projects, marketing initiatives and community relations, as
well as archival and curatorial projects. As someone born in 1968, the year the
original NASL was formed, who grew up cheering the Cosmos, this responsibility
has been a labor of love. I was taught to play and love the game by my father,
who grew up playing the game in rural upstate New York in the late 1950s, where
my family’s roots go back to the Colonial era. I mention this as I find it
relevant to note my connection with the sport does not match the stereotype of
someone with an immigrant father who learned the game on foreign shores, though
as a member of the “Pelé Generation,” my exposure to the game benefitted
greatly from the explosion of both youth soccer participation and popular
interest in the Cosmos and NASL that coincided with my childhood. I have been
involved with organized soccer as a player, coach and administrator since 1977
and take a sense of custodianship of the game as a sacred obligation.
As
an academic, much of my teaching and scholarship has focused on the rich
history of the sport in this country, dating back to the first publication of
the Laws of the Game here in New York by the Beadle Brothers in 1866. The
popular misconceptions that soccer is either “new” or somehow still “foreign”
here are addressed in numerous publications, presentations and media
appearances I have given domestically and internationally. As an example of my
scholarship, I am attaching a published version of “Amnesia and animosity: an
assessment of soccer in the States,” originally given as an invited lecture at
Oxford University in the week after the last men’s FIFA World Cup Finals four
years ago.[1]
Unfortunately, amnesia and animosity plague the game here now more than ever,
prompting this appeal.
When
I speak about soccer overseas, the single most frequent question I am asked is
not, “when will the USA win the World Cup,” but “when will the Cosmos play in
the MLS?” The difficulty in explaining how our current Professional League
Standards differ from the way the rest of the world’s FIFA member national
associations structure their domestic competitions clashes with the widespread
goodwill towards the Cosmos’ identity as American soccer’s greatest
ambassadors, cultivated by the Cosmos representing United States soccer in
international friendly matches played in 48 nations. Over the past five years,
when people learn the Cosmos have been competing in this country’s 2nd
division, they cannot understand why the club hasn’t earned promotion to the 1st
division despite winning a 2nd division league title three times
(2013, 2015, 2016).
If failure to understand how winning a 2nd division doesn’t earn
promotion to a 1st division has proven a popular talking point, how
then can one explain an entire league being relegated from 2nd
division to 3rd division status? This gives a sporting twist to
American exceptionalism that should be a source of shame in a nation that
prides itself as a meritocracy. FIFA’s mandate on Sporting Integrity, which
states that a “club’s entitlement to take part in a domestic league championship
shall depend principally on sporting merit,”[2]
is in gross violation with the current USSF Professional League Standards.
The
numerous exceptions that have been granted to leagues since the Professional
League Standards were introduced in 2010 ought to provoke scrutiny of the
Professional League Standards Task Force, whose recommendations have
consistently failed to help the USSF deliver on its stated Mission to “make
soccer, in all its forms, a preeminent sport in the United States and to continue
the development of soccer at all recreational and competitive levels.”[3]
Rather than helping this country’s most fabled and internationally renowned
soccer club thrive, the USSF has been indifferent at best to the Cosmos’
mission and, at worst, has been both obstructive and destructive towards
efforts by the club and the league in which it plays to grow interest in the
game.
To
compete in accordance with the club’s legacy, the Cosmos must attract
high-quality players, coaches and corporate sponsors. Since returning to
competitive play in the NASL in 2013, the Cosmos have featured globally
renowned stars such as Marcos Senna and Raúl, as well as talented young
American players such as Haji Wright and Eric Calvillo. The recent signing of
former Cosmos coaches by the Portland Timbers is testimony to the quality of
their work with this club and is evident in the three NASL titles won in the
past five seasons.
One
of the attractions to such talents, despite the club competing in a league
sanctioned as 2nd division, has been the opportunity to join with
and add to the legacy of a club that featured superstars such as Carlos Alberto,
Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia and Pelé, as well as domestic legends such
as Rick Davis, Shep Messing, Werner Roth and Bob Smith. But how can such a
legacy be upheld when not just the club but its league faces the threat of
relegation to the 3rd division? To avoid “relegation” by default if
the NASL and its teams are demoted to 3rd division or non-sanctioned
status, and achieve “promotion” within the current Professional League
Standards would require “altering the legal form or company structure” of the
club, which would be another violation of FIFA’s clear Statute on Sporting
Integrity.
The
USSF Board of Directors “can’t be an organization that focuses only on some
members,” and should not just be a “rubber stamp,” as Director Carlos Cordeiro
recently confessed.[4] This
forthcoming Board of Directors meeting is an opportunity to right wrongs,
rather than reinforce them with this rubber stamp. Please reconsider the
decision to deny the NASL 2nd division status and help the USSF
deliver on its mission to make soccer the preeminent sport in this country. We
should be enjoying our team playing in this year’s FIFA World Cup as we
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the NASL, not wondering why the
team failed and why the USSF would take action that makes a league and its
clubs fail with their missions to grow the game.
If
my experience and expertise may be of use in any way as we work to achieve this
mission, I am available at your convenience.
Yours
in soccer,
David
Kilpatrick, PhD
[1] Sport in Society, 20:5-6 (2017), pp. 627-640. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2016.1158480
[2] FIFA Statues, p. 66.
https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/02/58/14/48/2015fifastatutesen_neutral.pdf
[3] https://www.ussoccer.com/about/
[4]
https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/12/20/carlos-cordeiro-us-soccer-president-election-platform
Sunday, February 14, 2016
'A Bridge to Cuba: New York Cosmos Journey to Cuba'
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