President's Letter - February 18, 2019 

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Supporters of U.S. Soccer, 

It was wonderful to see many of you at our Annual General Meeting this weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona.  You can see many of the great pictures here. My only regret is that we couldn’t spend even more time together!

Whether you attended in person or watched the live stream of our National Council Meeting, I want to thank you for making this year’s session such a great success.  I also wanted to share the tPresident’s Repor and note a few highlights.

We approved an 18 percent increase to our budget, the largest increase in several years—to a record $136 million, including new investments in teams and player development.  We were also very pleased to announce a number of new initiatives and developments, including:

• a new strategic review of women’s soccer to sustain the competitive edge of our women’s programs for years to come;
• a new department at U.S. Soccer focused exclusively on supporting our Extended National Teams;
• a new amateur cup between the champions of our USASA Amateur Cup and the UEFA Regions Cup;
• welcoming three new Member Organizations: Asociacion Nacional Futbol en EU, U.S. Youth Futsal and United States Association of Blind Athletes;
• sanctioning the National Women’s Soccer League for 2019 Division I professional competition; and,
• granting the National Independent Soccer Association Provisional Division III Status.

We also had several important developments on the personnel front.

We’re thrilled to welcome former USWNT star, Gold Medal Olympian, coach and Hall of Famer Cindy Parlow Cone upon her election as our new Vice President.

We congratulate technology executive Patti Hart on her election as a new Independent Director, replacing Val Ackerman.

We thank John Collins and Angela Hucles for their dedicated service on the board as they conclude their tenure.  John will step down next month and will be replaced by a new At Large representative. The Athlete Council will select a new Athlete representative.

We paid tribute to Dan Flynn on the announcement that he will step down later this year as our CEO and Secretary General after 19 years of dedicated service.  We will conduct a thorough search for his successor and work for a seamless transition.

Finally, we welcomed Richard Groff as our newest Life Member and bestowed our highest honor—the Werner Fricker Builder Award—on April Heinrichs for her lifetime of excellence as a player, coach and technical director in the women’s game.

In short, our time together in Scottsdale put us on a great footing for the year ahead.  And, as always, it couldn’t have succeeded without the strong commitment and partnership of you—our members.  

On behalf of myself and the entire board, we are committed, as always, to being your partner and to working with you every way we can to grow the game at all levels.

In that spirit, here’s looking forward to another great year!

Carlos