Found something interesting while cleaning out the basement. Pictures below.
Coincidentally, Grant Wahl has a crucial interview with MLS commissioner and SUM CEO Don Garber.
Garber says that from the time the first agreement was done (2002?) to 2022, SUM will have paid the Federation $300 million. That’s a cool $15 million per year.
But Garber cites those numbers in response to USSF VP and presidential candidate Carlos Cordeiro calling for a “commercial committee” headed by an independent director to oversee such deals. He also cites the USSF board minutes that show Garber and anyone else affiliated with SUM (say, an Athletes’ Council member currently employed with an MLS club somehow) recuses himself from any vote on SUM. (Even so, Sunil Gulati said the SUM deal has been approved and renewed by a unanimous vote of the non-recused members of the Board.)
That probably doesn’t completely absolve SUM and others of all conflict-of-interest questions. What additional steps need to be taken are in the eye of the beholder. Should Garber simply remove himself from the Board after roughly 18 years? Do we need an accounting of what SUM has done for the women’s national team? Do we simply need to give non-MLS clubs a shot at Division 1 somehow, whether they get a piece of SUM or not?
In any case, the book below is obviously taken from early in SUM’s life. Superliga will never die …
Ranting Soccer Dad 