younothat
PREMIER
The financial demands of soccer in the United States are harming the diversity of the sport and holding the national team back
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-soccer-diversity-2018-5
"One of the biggest, if not the biggest, drivers of the growth of soccer in the United States has been immigration from Latin American countries, where soccer is overwhelmingly the sport of choice.
Within U.S. Soccer as a program, Latin-Americans are scantily represented, and it's a problem that is holding back U.S. Soccer, preventing talented youngsters from being able to inject some much-needed skill into American soccer teams.
"It's very difficult for young immigrant families to pay to play," said Herculez Gomez, a Mexican-American soccer player who played for the U.S. Men's National Team at the 2010 World Cup. "Often times these Latin-American kids . . . get overlooked because they don't have the funds. It's very much a suburban sport."
" U.S. Soccer is primarily a business enterprise, operated by businessmen to make a profit"
"At this level, we have people within the United States who make decisions based off financial reasons, or for other types of reasons that aren't sporting," Gomez said.
Another problem is that U.S. Soccer needs more representation within its organizational ranks.
"At the highest levels of U.S.S.F., there's not enough representation for Hispanic, Latino-Americans," Salazar said. "It's also representation in terms of coaching. If you look at youth national team coaching, there's not enough representation, if you compare it to the amount of kids who are actually playing."
These are not small or simple changes, and unfortunately, U.S. Soccer is an organization that appears resistant to change. But expanding the game so that it reaches kids of all backgrounds and making the national team more representative is utterly essential if the United States is to have a national team that is both more quintessentially American and more successful on the soccer field".
In Socal we have a better representation for Hispanic, Latino-Americans, but I guess the rest of the country could be lacking..
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-soccer-diversity-2018-5
"One of the biggest, if not the biggest, drivers of the growth of soccer in the United States has been immigration from Latin American countries, where soccer is overwhelmingly the sport of choice.
Within U.S. Soccer as a program, Latin-Americans are scantily represented, and it's a problem that is holding back U.S. Soccer, preventing talented youngsters from being able to inject some much-needed skill into American soccer teams.
"It's very difficult for young immigrant families to pay to play," said Herculez Gomez, a Mexican-American soccer player who played for the U.S. Men's National Team at the 2010 World Cup. "Often times these Latin-American kids . . . get overlooked because they don't have the funds. It's very much a suburban sport."
" U.S. Soccer is primarily a business enterprise, operated by businessmen to make a profit"
"At this level, we have people within the United States who make decisions based off financial reasons, or for other types of reasons that aren't sporting," Gomez said.
Another problem is that U.S. Soccer needs more representation within its organizational ranks.
"At the highest levels of U.S.S.F., there's not enough representation for Hispanic, Latino-Americans," Salazar said. "It's also representation in terms of coaching. If you look at youth national team coaching, there's not enough representation, if you compare it to the amount of kids who are actually playing."
These are not small or simple changes, and unfortunately, U.S. Soccer is an organization that appears resistant to change. But expanding the game so that it reaches kids of all backgrounds and making the national team more representative is utterly essential if the United States is to have a national team that is both more quintessentially American and more successful on the soccer field".
In Socal we have a better representation for Hispanic, Latino-Americans, but I guess the rest of the country could be lacking..