End of an Era for U.S. Soccer
BOSTON — Alan Rothenberg has spent the last week in Hawaii, honing his golf game on one or another of Maui’s many courses.
While wandering from tee to green--and occasionally from rough to bunker and back again--he has had time to reflect on his eight years as president of U.S. Soccer.
Today, his presidency comes to an end. But whether that also means an end to the most successful era the sport has enjoyed in the United States, is, like one of Rothenberg’s long-iron shots, up in the air.
Where American soccer goes from here is anyone’s guess. It could hook left, slice right or, if Rothenberg maintains a less visible but firm grip, it could fly straight and achieve even more.
Before he took office in 1990, the federation lacked direction. As Doug Logan, commissioner of Major League Soccer, said this week, it had been nowhere and was going nowhere.
“He took an inward-looking, lethargic organization and breathed life into it,†Logan said. “He gave it some international stature and got the ball rolling with regard to developing the sport in this country that is unparalleled from the standpoint of history.
“Certainly, when you take a look at where we are, a good bit of it is due to his leadership, his vision and his stubbornness. That’s a double-edged sword. That’s both an accolade and a criticism. But we would not be here today if he hadn’t stubbornly clung to pushing us all to greater heights. I think we owe him a lot.â€
That view gets no argument from other soccer leaders.
“I think probably the thing he brought to the game was vision and belief, and through all the stuff he’s done in the last eight years he has really raised the awareness of soccer as a sport in this country,†said Marla Messing, president of the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
“The federation and the soccer community has gained a lot of respect in the sports world because of Alan’s personality,†said Sunil Gulati, deputy commissioner of MLS and a candidate for executive vice president in today’s U.S. Soccer elections in Hawaii. “Everything that’s happened in those eight years--from corporate success to on-field success, the ’94 World Cup and the start of MLS--has brought a whole degree of credibility to the sport that wasn’t there before.â€
There are two candidates seeking to replace Rothenberg. One is Robert Contiguglia, 56, a kidney doctor from Denver, an A-licensed coach, former chairman of the United States Youth Soccer Assn. and unsuccessful USSF presidential candidate in 1986. He has Rothenberg’s endorsement.
The other is Lawrence Monaco, 60, former deputy law counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives. A former player, referee and administrator, Monaco, from King George, Va., is former chairman of U.S. Soccer’s rules committee and the federation’s incumbent executive vice president.
But both candidates have what is widely viewed as one serious flaw: Neither is Alan Rothenberg. They lack his charisma and, it would seem, his vision.
“I have seen where Alan has been called a dictator,†former U.S. national team coach Bora Milutinovic said last week. “But if you have a good dictator, why not keep him for 20 years?â€
There is a fear in the soccer community that no matter who is elected, a leadership vacuum will result. On the other hand, some believe that because Rothenberg will stay on U.S. Soccer’s board of directors as immediate past president, he still will be pulling the strings.
“I don’t think that’s fair to either of the two guys running for president,†Gulati said. “Alan will be a member of the executive committee, but I don’t think there’ll be any string-pulling. Those guys are smart guys who have been around the federation a long time. I don’t think either one is planning to be a puppet.
“Alan will still have a say, because if they’re smart they’ll respect his opinion based on experience and intelligence and gut feeling and so on, but I don’t think there’ll be any string-pulling.â€
Logan, however, would not mind if there were.
“If pulling strings behind the scenes is for the betterment of U.S. soccer, then let him pull all the strings he wants,†Logan said.
Chances are that Rothenberg will drop deeper into the shadows from now on, at least at the U.S. level. He remains a vice president of CONCACAF, however, and is very likely to be given some role within FIFA in the not-too-distant future.
Meanwhile, the eight years at the helm have brought success but also have taken their toll.
“We were talking the other day about the amount of responsibility and obligation that he assumed [when first elected],†Rothenberg’s wife, Georgina, said. “He wasn’t really quite aware of all that it was going to be when he came in. He took it very seriously. I think he’s done an unbelievable job, but of course I’m his wife.
“It’s been a very wonderful experience. I think he feels that he did a fine job. I think he feels that amidst a lot of the criticism that he stuck to what he felt was the right thing to do. He didn’t let that [criticism] get in his way if he felt he was doing the right thing.â€
Rothenberg, 59, has ridden out the criticism, the lawsuits, the occasional bad press and all the other slings and arrows aimed his way since 1990. Usually calm, he has sometimes snapped in private when the pressures have built, but such outbursts, at least those aimed at the media, have been rare.
“I have pretty thick skin, having been in public for a long time,†he said. “At the same time, I don’t think I’m insensitive. Sometimes, what people have written or said has stung. But I think it [reaction to his presidency] has been fair, it’s been positive.â€
He steps aside with a sense of relief but also accomplishment.
“Overall, there is a sense of pride in knowing that so much progress has taken place in the last eight years and that I’m leaving the federation in a lot better position than I found it and I think poised to continue to grow and hopefully realize the dreams of Project 2010 [a plan aimed at a World Cup championship for the U.S. by that year] and make us a true competitor in the World Cup,†he said.
“When I first got elected, the five things that we set out to do were to professionalize the federation, to unify a very fractured soccer community, to build our national team program, to put on a successful World Cup and to launch a professional first-division soccer league.â€
Put check marks next to each of the five.
* The federation has grown from an organization of 14 employees and an annual budget of $5 million in 1990 to 82 employees and a budget of $38 million this year.
* The professional, amateur and youth divisions of U.S. Soccer are more united than before, especially on major issues.
* U.S. national teams, men’s and women’s, have consistently qualified for world championships, with the American women winning a world title in 1991 and an Olympic gold medal in 1996.
* World Cup ’94 was an organizational and financial success, and the U.S. will host the Women’s World Cup in 1999.
* Major League Soccer, now in its third season, added expansion teams this year in Miami and Chicago.
Still, even if U.S. Soccer did not have a two-term limit, Rothenberg, who succeeded Werner Fricker in 1990, would have stepped aside today.
“Eight years is more than enough,†he said. “It’s a volunteer job. It’s cut into my personal life. It’s curtailed my ability to be a more full-time lawyer. It’s somewhat hampered what I can do from a business standpoint. . . . I think enough is enough at this point.â€
But don’t read that to mean Rothenberg is dropping out of sight, especially now that he and a group of partners have purchased the San Jose Clash for $25 million.
“I don’t think I’m an expert yet, but I’m not as dumb as I used to be,†he said of his soccer knowledge.
Nor is he concerned that the work of the past eight years will be undone by his successor. “I think we’re on the right track,†he said. “We have so many programs clearly in place. We have some very unique contracts, including the one with Nike, that pretty well assure that the direction we’re going in will continue. . . . Also, I’m not disappearing from the scene. I think we’ll make sure that everything that’s been done that I hope is good will continue to be done.â€
In the meantime, another golf course beckons. There is a lot to be said for being a former president.
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THE CANDIDATES
ROBERT CONTIGUGLIA
* A 56-year-old Denver doctor who played college soccer at Columbia, Contiguglia is an A-licensed coach, former president of the Colorado Youth Soccer Assn. and former chairman of the U.S. Youth Soccer Assn.
LAWRENCE MONACO
* A 60-year-old former government attorney from King George, Va., Monaco was deputy law counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Law Revision. A former player and referee, he is U.S. Soccer’s executive vice president.
Rothenberg’s Term--Highlights of Alan Rothenberg’s eight years as president of U.S. Soccer include the United States winning a women’s world championship in China in 1991, staging a successful World Cup in 1994, winning a gold medal in women’s soccer at the Atlanta Olympic Games and launching Major League Soccer in 1996.
