Insider Notes: Gulati Sounds Out State Associations for Support as U.S. Soccer President
We’ll know the official candidates for U.S. Soccer president by Dec. 12, and the big question now is whether incumbent Sunil Gulati will decide to run after serving for the past 12 years in the position.
Gulati is under pressure after the U.S. men’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, and his Italian counterpart, Carlo Tavecchio, resigned this week after Italy’s failure. I’m told that Gulati has been contacting nominating state associations to see if they’ll still support him. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, Gulati currently has the majority of the nominations that have come into U.S. Soccer for the election thus far.
Unless he announces he’s not running, Gulati should still be considered one of the favorites to earn four more years in power.
As for his competition, Boston lawyer Steve Gans, Massachusetts youth soccer official Paul LaPointe, Fox Sports analyst and former U.S. forward Eric Wynalda, current U.S. Soccer vice president Carlos Cordeiro, New York lawyer Michael Winograd, former U.S. left back Paul Caligiuri and former U.S. midfielder and NBC Sports analyst Kyle Martino have all said they're running, with the former two publicly claiming to have the nominations necessary to be on the ballot.
The election will take place at U.S. Soccer's annual general meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 10.
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