By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 9 – Major League Soccer chief Don Garber has issued a hard-hitting response to the provocative suggestion by FIFA’s new reform guru that football is not a serious sport in the United States, accusing the former International Olympic Committee director-general of treating his country with disdain.
FIFA has already disowned comments by Francois Carrard, who has received nothing but criticism since questioning in a Swiss newspaper why American authorities were spending so much energy investigating corruption in football when the game was “just an ethnic sport for schoolgirls” in the country.
“It’s factually incorrect,” Garber told his audience on the final day of the Soccerex forum in Manchester. “He’s in a minority. Sure we are an emerging soccer nation and have a long way to go before people think about the United States in the same way they do about, say, Germany, France, Italy, Spain or England. But look, for instance, at the record of our national team.
“And the fact is 27 million people watched the men’s World Cup and the majority on English-language TV. We are proud of the growth of the game. It’s something we should be applauded for, not used as a criticism. A 20-year-old league that attracts an average 21,500 people to our games shows (Carrard’s) facts are wrong. You’d like to hope that when you have those that are responsible for reform or governing our sport you’d look at a country like ours as one that is committed to diversity and not, frankly, treated with disdain.”
It was the separate investigations into corruption the by US and Swiss authorities that prompted FIFA’s reform process but Garber was not prepared to say whether the US probe, which has snared a number of former CONCACAF powerbrokers, would adversely affect the United States’ chances of hosting the World Cup in 2026.
“That’s not a question for me but the league will support any US World Cup bid just as it has in the past,” he said. “Any thought as to what impact what’s going on with the DoJ will have on it I just don’t want to comment on.”
But Garber did express his concern about how CONCACAF, after several attempts at reforming itself, has once again lost credibility in the eyes of the outside world.
“Certainly it’s frustrating and disappointing,” he said. “Would that adversely affect any World Cup bid? I’d certainly hope we’d be evaluated on the merits of any bid we put together.”
Garber also played down reports that the MLS is in talks with the Premier League over setting up an Anglo-American Cup that would involve the English champions and FA Cup winners.
The MLS, now in its 20th year, has experienced a considerable growth in popularity over the last few seasons. Stadiums are invariably sold out when the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool cross the Atlantic for pre-season tours.
Over the last two years all three clubs have participated in the International Champions Cup – an annual friendly tournament – but Garber is hoping to create a more formal competition, to be staged in New York.
Garber floated the idea on the fringes of England’s Euro qualifier with Switzerland on Tuesday but told reporters in Manchester: “We have talked about it but we are not IN talks about it, there is nothing to say in terms of the realism. Over the years we have aspired to try to figure out a way to do a tournament which I think would be good for MLS and Premier League…and would allow the Premier League to bring in their sponsors and get their international broadcasters involved in something that has a multitude of teams coming over here together. That was the concept but we are not in any specific discussions.”
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