Get ready to be “blamed,” American soccer fans, if Jürgen Klinsmann “fails.”  He is definitely “our guy.” 

Other columnists patronized those of us who go on the blogs screaming for Bob Bradley’s proverbial head after the World Cup, mostly supporting Klinsmann.  If we do not succeed at the next World Cup (and “succeed” and “fail” are wiggle words for sports politicians and their supporters in the American soccer media), prepare for the status quo salivating to blame us for wanting Jürgen.

The truth of the matter is Jürgen is already behind the eight-ball, he should have been hired a year ago.  Not only did this happen at least one year too late (I would argue Bradley should have been fired after choking a two-goal lead to Brazil in the Confederations Cup Final), the youth program is a complete mess, nowhere near the level of where it needs to be, clearly not as promising as Mexico’s. 

The lost year compared to other programs can be recovered to a point.  Argentina is going to have to do that.  But America’s youth program is nowhere near as good as Argentina’s.  Most of our national youth coaches have been let go.  (So much for “Project 2010.”)

The only silver lining to this situation is, if Klinsmann gets the power he claimed he needed, he can start completely over, hire his guys for the other coaching spots.  He is trapped in the proverbial “no-man’s-land.”  Three years may not be enough time to revamp the youth program, even though that is the primary qualification many of us use to tout Jürgen, and keeping coaches past one World Cup cycle simply doesn’t work most of the time.  Just look at Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena. 

The real point is Sunil Gulati refused to give Klinsmann the power he needed the two previous times the job was available, and it’s not certain Klinsmann has the power he thinks he needs now.  If sports fans are going to tear into MLB Commissioner Bud Selig for letting the McCourt family buy the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first place, we must criticize 100 times more Sunil Gulati’s decision not to fire Bradley when he had the chance to a year ago.

To me, the “power” issue is silly.  Gulati is not a coach, and frankly, not a good administrator.  The New England Revolution (which Gulati also runs) is so poorly run, their fans are trying to organize to buy out the team to fire him. 

Gulati’s greatest value to Major League Soccer is the power he has running the United States Soccer Federation, where he can use his clout to prevent promotion and relegation.  It is the USSF, not MLS, that decides if MLS gets sanctioning. 

Gulati’s two jobs are a clear conflict of interest the American soccer media never talks about, one that would never be accepted in serious sports leagues.  Imagine Roger Goodell working for the New York Giants.  Bud Selig had to put his ownership stake in the Milwaukee Brewers in a trust.  Why do we allow this for American soccer?

The correct way to address the “power” issue is not having Gulati control everything.  It’s not giving Klinsmann a “blank check.”  It’s giving Klinsmann anything he wants but tell him that Gulati has direct authority to fire him at any time.  That’s how you do it.  Klinsmann should be under pressure, that’s the nature of the business.  Why shouldn’t it be otherwise?

If Klinsmann wants to improve American soccer, not only does he need to talk about revamping the USSF in terms of revamping the youth system, which frankly makes soccer “the rich kids’ sport” when it’s the “poor kids’ sport” elsewhere, he had to be an advocate for changing our domestic league. 

America cannot ever become a serious threat to win World Cups until we have a domestic system that has the continual pressures that promotion and relegation bring.  It’s not just the lack of superclubs that scare away American soccer players to other countries where maybe they play, maybe they don’t, since developing the American soccer program is not the concern of foreign club coaches. 

It’s the lack of professional teams in lower tiers that MLS causes with their “single-entity” control of American pro soccer that is killing development.

It’s not that a “foreign” coach is better than American coaches just because they are foreigners.  It’s that American coaches are not coaching in leagues with the different pressures of promotion and relegation.  If Bob Bradley had been an assistant at a major foreign club before he was hired as our national coach, that would have been greatly helpful for him.  Same with any other American coach.

The reason we don’t see more “major” soccer teams is the marriage of MLS’ deliberate controls with FIFA’s limit of 20 teams in the top tier.  Why do you think MLS is so desperate to get the New York Cosmos to pay $100 million in expansion fees to join them as the potential 20th team? 

This is why many top 50 media markets don’t even bother trying to field a team. They will permanently be “minor league” no matter what.  FIFA won’t be changing the rules for the “Peter Pan” of global football.  Nor should they.

Qatar, South Africa, Japan (whose women’s team beat us from a semipro league), all have “pro-rel,” but MLS fanboy is conditioned to think like a “trained flea” that “the infrastructure is not there yet” for pro-rel in America.  Rubbish. 

Qatar has two tiers of 12 teams.  A league of 16 teams, playing from late February to August can work in NFL venues and major college venues, could play a 30-game season easy. 

No need for taxpayers to buy “soccer specific stadiums,” just work with local governments and sports commissions on rent abatements and a little infrastructure.  Outdoor venues could roll out either an artificial turf system for soccer or a modular grass system, then change to artificial turf for football. 

Indoor venues would change over with two turf system, just like at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Washington, D.C. actually has to have a new stadium (RFK needs to be dynamited and rebuilt; it really is that bad), but not many other major cities do.  Most major cities could field teams in a few years without taxpayers building new venues.

If there was a “compromise” pro-rel system, one with two tiers of pro-rel for “major” markets and a more regionalized one in “minor” markets, it would revolutionize American sports. 

Start this in 2019, give everyone plenty of time.  Set a limit for the second tier at 12 teams starting out and only relegate two teams each year.  Force local governments to suddenly want to “play ball” because it is much less expensive to start a second-tier team this way than $100 million to play in stadiums that don’t sell out.  

Start adding teams to the second tier after a few years slowly until they get to 20.  Cities that get involved early will be rewarded, and MLS teams will get a huge head start.  How is that "unfair" for MLS teams?  

If people want to scoff at this, go ahead.  But keep in mind that FIFA gave us the 1994 World Cup on a promise to bring a top-tier league to America, and 17 years later, we still haven’t joined the adult football world, and now said, we won’t for the “foreseeable future.” 

If you don’t want pro-rel, fine, just don’t ask taxpayers to build stadiums for you and don’t expect FIFA to give us any more World Cups until we do.  Deeds, not words.

Unless Klinsmann has the guts to challenge the status quo here, not much is going to be accomplished.  His talk of “upside-down pyramid” would be fraudulent.

The other issue Klinsmann talked about in the past is the youth system.  Mainly, reaching out to the inner cities.  Futsal programs should be the way to go to introduce the game.  No, we don’t need perfectly manicured soccer pitches.  Frankly, the travelling teams and overpriced academies are hurting us, driving a lot of African-American kids out of this game.  

No wonder many "soccer kids" end up playing high school football and basketball. We don’t value high school soccer programs (don't forget taxpayers already pay many billions for high schools) and how they could help soccer development (soccer attendance is awful) due to dependence on these academies. 

Unless the academies are directly run by a professional team, we should not depend on them. Without a local pro team running an academy, high school coaches should be running the middle and elementary school programs, just like high school football.

Colleges are also a problem in soccer development.  Colleges are for “late bloomers” and really should be playing in the spring and summer like college baseball. Colleges would be of better use in having physical education programs improving their soccer coaching courses.

The real question is why Gulati failed to do this a year ago.  This clearly is to protect his own job.  But it shouldn’t.  He failed with the World Cup bid, foolishly kept Bob Bradley way too long and used his position to hold down growth in professional soccer with his conflict of interest.  Gulati and his mentality is the problem with American soccer.

The shame is if Klinsmann is serious about really changing American soccer; the next natural job for him is president of the USSF, which he can’t run for because conveniently that office is up for election months before the World Cup, not after.  

The election needs to be changed so after the 2014 World Cup. Klinsmann could step down as national coach and get "promoted" to president, where he can really do positive change for American soccer.

Ultimately, when Jürgen Klinsmann is at his press conference, he needs to be asked what power he actually has.  Does he think MLS is fine as it is, or that the youth program is fine as it is?  If he says “yes” to either question, he’s a fraud. 

I hope he truly “gets it”—no amount of change at his job alone will change anything long-term.  He needs to really speak out on changing our sport from the “rich kids’ game” to the “poor kids’ game” and phasing out the single-entity of MLS a high priority.  And we would need to unite and support him. 

Jürgen, at Monday's press conference you will have the most “power” you will ever have to start a real change in the perceptions and realities of American soccer.  Please don’t throw it away.

(Dennis Justice is running a “citizen-campaign” for President of the United States Soccer Federation.  His website is www.dennisjustice.com)

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