Football flourishes in U S but still need growth

Connecticut, May 29: The United States is no longer tops in international baseball or basketball, distinctions it held for years, yet the country has gained increasing prominence on the world soccer stage.

A surprise run to the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup brought unprecedented exposure and respect to a sport which had never made an impact. Even defeating England in the 1950 World Cup was considered nothing but an historical footnote.

Now, positioned fifth in FIFA's world rankings, the U S joins a handful of nations heading to a fifth consecutive finals next week.

Although still considered in its infancy, Major League Soccer has produced international-calibre players and a number of soccer-specific stadiums are under construction. The 12-team domestic league, which began in 1996, targets future expansion.

Positives outweigh the negatives, yet soccer hardly registers on the radar of the sports-saturated nation, despite the increasingly diverse ethnic population.

Attendance figures are regularly overstated, media coverage is minimal and soccer has a fraction of the television audience, compared with the National Football League, Major League Baseball and NASCAR, while collegiate football and basketball also dwarf it.

So while qualifying for World Cups is no longer be an issue -- until 1990, the U.S. had gone 40 years without an appearance -- promoting growth, on and off the field, remains crucial.

''U S soccer is in great shape,'' said federation boss Sunil Gulati, who was named president in March after Robert Contigulia stepped down after two four-year terms.

The USSF now has more than 30 million dollar in its coffers and several deep-pocketed sponsors for the national team and MLS, but interest wanes unless it is in the World Cup.
A native of Allahabad, India, Gulati has been intimately involved with soccer's inner workings for years.

He served as USSF's executive vice president (2000-06) and deputy commissioner of MLS (1996-99). He was a member of the U.S. World Cup bid committee (1986-88) and integral to helping bring the most successful finals in history to the U.S.

Gulati, who teaches economics at New York's Columbia University, sits on several FIFA and CONCACAF committees and is president of Kraft Soccer Properties, owners of the New England Revolution of MLS.

Reuters