KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Nov. 5, 2021) – The U.S. Soccer National Council voted to amend specific bylaws last week that included giving United Soccer Coaches representation on the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors. The Association, as an Associate Member (members that do not register players), now has a vote for the At Large board member. This change was included in the successful passage of extensive structure and governance changes made during an extraordinary National Council Meeting on Oct. 21 in Chicago.
“I was pleased to be invited to serve on the Task Force that tackled the structural changes necessary to meet the federal and U.S. Olympic & Para-Olympic Committee (USOPC) governance requirements for U.S. Soccer,” said United Soccer Coaches CEO, Lynn Berling-Manuel. “It was months of hard work, negotiation and compromise by a lot of good people. We were up against a hard deadline, but we finally got there.”
The change of Associate Member voting status to include a vote for a Board member was approved as part of the larger changes needed to comply with the requirement that official National Governing Bodies have a minimum of 33.3% athletes in their voting structure, boards, and committees. This adheres to a new federal law and a USOPC bylaw regarding the representation of athletes on sport national governing bodies. The definition of athlete includes having played for one or more of the U.S. National Teams.
United Soccer Coaches first began its efforts to change the bylaw to obtain board representation in 2019.
The new voting structure will go into effect on December 1. Under U.S. Soccer’s previous bylaws, Associate Members had all rights and responsibilities of membership except being able to vote for the board member that represented them. Currently, United Soccer Coaches is the only Associate Member of U.S. Soccer.
According to Soccer America, the new structure will include the following:
New National Council voting shares:
Athletes 33.3% (+13.3%)Adult 20% (-5%)Youth 20% (-5%)Pros 20% (-5%)Other 6.7% (+1.7%)New board of directors:1 President1 Vice President2 Adults4 *Youth (+2)3 *Pros (+1)7 Athletes (+4)3 Independent1 At-Large21 Total (+6)*One Youth member and one Pro member alternating as voting and non-voting member through March 2023 National Council Meeting.
To learn more about this step towards enhancing representation in American soccer, you can read the summary by Paul Kennedy in Soccer America.