Nine days after the USMNT were eliminated from the 2024 Copa América at the group stage, head coach Gregg Berhalter was fired.
Berhalter’s dismissal was the correct, if easy, way forward for the national team after a poor showing. But any review of this summer’s failing must be broader than one coach. Questions about the quality of the current squad are fair, but there is another potential culprit: the pay-to-play model.
The notion of paying to play is prevalent throughout youth soccer in the US – and is nothing new. Nor is the contention that the model is hurting the game’s development in America, from the grassroots right through to the senior international teams.
After the USWNT were eliminated from the 2023 World Cup at the earliest stage in their history in the competition, fingers were pointed at the coach, squad and the exclusionary model that may harm youth player development.
Related: ‘It’s only working for the white kids’: American soccer’s diversity problem
The term ‘pay-to-play’ essentially refers to the often exorbitant fees required of the parents and carers of young people participating in organized youth sports. In soccer, youth clubs can typically cost families thousands of dollars a year with coaching costs, administration fees and travel expenses. Clubs in California have a sticker price ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 a year.
It has long been suggested by those who oppose pay-to-play that the system is too restrictive; that to breed a healthy soccer culture within the US and, ultimately, capture the best talent for the national teams, more children need to have access to the sport.
“Unfortunately the model, I believe, is getting worse in soccer than when I played competitive soccer [growing up],” Alex Morgan said in 2019. “It’s a very inexpensive sport and the fact that we’ve made youth soccer a business is, I think, detrimental to the sport.”
A study by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association in 2018 found that more than 70% of children within the pay-to-play system came from households who earned more than $50,000 a year; 33% came from households making more than $100,000 a year.
According to the US Census Bureau, the median household income in the US that year was $61,937. But that figure dropped below $50,000 in seven states. The USCB survey also found that Hispanic households…