NASL and U.S. Soccer have certainly had their differences recently, and they continued on Wednesday.
New York Cosmos owner and NASL board member Rocco Commisso has called for U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati’s firing, along with the rest of the U.S. Soccer board of directors, following the USMNT’s 2-1 defeat on Tuesday against Panama.
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The loss for the USMNT has prevented the U.S. from advancing to the World Cup for the first time since 1986, which prompted Commisso to speak out against the federation and its current presiding staff.
“Frankly, the leadership of U.S. Soccer has failed all of its stakeholders: players, fans, sponsors and those of us who have invested in professional soccer,” Commisso said in a statement released Wednesday night.
Commisso and the NASL are currently waiting on a U.S. District Court decision regarding the league’s standing as Division II status in the ranks of U.S. Soccer.
The USSF recently opted not to extend the league’s status as DII, causing a stir amongst NASL supporters and promotion/relegation believers.
Commisso is calling for major changes to be made within U.S. Soccer, from the top all the way down.
“The real causes of last night’s debacle, however, weren’t actually present on the field or on the sidelines in Trinidad,” Commisso continued. “Instead, the result was a byproduct of larger, systemic problems within the sport in our country. The blame must be placed squarely at the feet of U.S. Soccer’s management, led by Sunil Gulati.
“The first step in ensuring that American soccer consistently performs at a level that spares all of us the kind of negative emotions generated by our National Team’s failure to qualify for the World Cup is for Mr. Gulati to resign. It is his only honorable path forward. The USSF Board members and senior management personnel appointed or nominated by Mr. Gulati should follow him out the door.”