USA Cup not the World Cup Anymore

The decision to select Qatar and Russia to host the World Cups in 2018 and 2022 was greeted with a lot of derision and frustration among the US soccer community. But the question isn't why Russia and Qatar were selected but why should we care? The World Cup and FIFA are petty tournaments handled by old corrupt bureaucrats who are tottering into failure at the end of their long and feckless careers. It is time the world moved on from FIFA and it is up to the US to begin a new type of sports entertainment, one only the US can stage.

Do you know what every NFL stadium is doing in June? Nothing. Do you know what every college football stadium is doing in June? Nothing. Do you know what that means to every city, state, and college that has an huge investment in a grand arena: no revenue lots of expenses. Do you know how many stadiums are idle in June that could stage international soccer matches, not 1 like Qatar, or 20 like Italy, Germany, Russia, or England, no, the US has 100's of major stadiums that could stage international quality tournaments, simultaneously and, more importantly, we are the only place where it can be done.

It is time for a new format for international soccer. A format where everyone can come every year. Not just the Netherlands but the Netherlands Antilles too; not just England, Brazil and the Cameroon but Malta, Ecuador and Zambia. Every one is invited, every year to play against everyone else. There are only about 160 countries in the world. If everyone came to play and the tournament was started with a four game round robin round that means hosting 320 soccer games over a two week period or roughly 20-30 games per day, roughly the number of MLB games being played and certainly no where near the number of NCAA Division 1 Football games that occur on a typical Fall Saturday.

The US should not be meekly creeping up to the cool kids table and asking to sit down. The US should lead the world by doing what only the US can do, staging a truly world class event for the world's sport; not just every four years but every year. FIFA likes to talk about soccer being the World's sport and then spends the bulk of their time figuring out how to eliminate countries from playing. Things that do not change remain the same. The system was always corrupt and designed to make sure the pie was divided among the good old boys who played by their rules. But that doesn't work any more. The US and the world wants more from soccer and the world will respond to our leadership. Let's not change FIFA let's show them for what they truly are: irrelevant.

Sunil Gulati should not be blamed for poor performance in bidding for the Cup but he does deserve criticism for having a limited and narrow view of what is possible for US Soccer. He should have spent more time watching soccer in the streets of the major cities of the US visiting the bars and street level wide screens with the young people of America and less time hob nobbing with a bunch of old people in Jo'berg.