It’s official: Clavijo now in place at FC Dallas Stadium

The club announced their new move early this afternoon. Clavijo will now work with manager Schellas Hyndman for the Western Conference club.

The FCD website announcement even includes a picture of Clavijo in the aforementioned gawd-awful 1994 World Cup kit (r.i.p.). Clavijo would have been wise to negotiate a contract clause forbidding use of any 1994 World Cup images.

It’s not clear whether Clavijo will work under Hyndman or the other way around. That’s an important distinction; remember, technical director is a relatively new position in MLS. Five years ago, maybe only two clubs even had such a position. My guess: Hyndman will run the show.

We know this has caused problems elsewhere, as MLS clubs worked to (or in some cases failed to) clearly define organizational hierarchy. Most notorious example: the Colorado Rapids last year, when successful manager Gary Smith decided he could no longer work with TD Paul Bravo. Generally speaking, show me a club (or any business for that matter, big or small) without a clear chain of command, and I’ll show you a problem waiting to happen.

Daniel Robertson, who knows FC Dallas soccer the way Abercrombie knows Fitch, had a good take on things at his blog, BigDSoccer.

What this move tells me is that Dallas is extremely serious in keeping their international focus on Latin America as Clavijo is one of the only guys in MLS circles that knows the region as well as Oscar Pareja.

Robertson’s entire post on the hiring is here. Pareja, of course, left Dallas in January for the head coaching job at Colorado.