We could have a real shakeup in the U.S. Soccer presidential election, with the leading candidate in the race reportedly on the brink of stepping down.
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Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl is reporting that current U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati is “strongly considering not running for re-election.”
Gulati, 58, has overseen U.S. Soccer at his current capacity since 2006, when Robert Contiguglia stepped down from his position that same year.
Hearing from several sources tonight that US Soccer president Sunil Gulati is strongly considering not running for re-election and may support Soccer United Marketing president Kathy Carter for the position instead.
— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) December 3, 2017
As things stand, Gulati is one of eight candidates officially in the mix to run for the presidency in 2018, including former NBC Sports soccer analyst Kyle Martino and ex-USMNT players Eric Wynalda and Paul Caligiuri.
Wahl also notes in his Twitter post that if Gulati doesn’t run for re-election that he could potentially endorse Kathy Carter -- president of Soccer United Marketing.
SUM has come into question recently as corruption allegations continue to surface pertaining to payments made to the multi-billion dollar organization. Meanwhile, NASL’s ongoing lawsuit against the USSF also directly involves SUM because of its ties to both U.S. Soccer and Major League Soccer.