NEW YORK — Want to know why the U.S. men's soccer team is sitting home instead of playing in the World Cup in Russia? One big reason is American soccer has become a "rich, white-kid sport," according to decorated women's goalkeeper Hope Solo.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion is no stranger to controversy. She didn't pull any punches while discussing the U.S. men's national team failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup after the U.S. women's team won it all in Canada in 2015.
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The sport is too expensive for many Hispanic-American, African-American and rural kids to adopt at a young age, Solo told moderator Bonnie Bernstein on Tuesday at the Hashtag Sports conference. That robs the U.S. Soccer Federation of the type of young talent that rises through the ranks in other nations.
If she were a kid today, Solo said, her family would not be able to afford her soccer dream. What does it say, then, to the Hispanic and African-American communities when we tell them their kids probably won't get the chance to play for their country?
"My family would not have been able to afford to put me in soccer if I was a young kid today"
— Hashtag Sports (@HashtagSports) June 26, 2018
- @hopesolo #HS18 pic.twitter.com/vR6sV1qLDA
“We have alienated the Hispanic communities. We have alienated our black communities. We have alienated the underrepresented communities, even rural communities, so soccer in America right now is a rich white-kid sport," Solo said. "Then we have to ask ourselves: Well, no wonder why we are not qualifying for the World Cup when we have alienated a huge population of really talented youth soccer players. And that’s the state of the game right now.”
"Soccer in America right now is a rich white kid sport" @hopesolo #HS18 pic.twitter.com/mcgQh4n3x0
— Hashtag Sports (@HashtagSports) June 26, 2018
Solo helped lead the U.S. women's team to Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012 and a World Cup title in 2015. Fox Sports' telecast of the USWNT's 5-2 victory over Japan in the title match of the 2015 FIFA World Cup still ranks as the most-watched soccer game in U.S. TV history.
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Solo recently ran unsuccessfully for president of the USSF, losing to former vice president Carlos Cordeiro. Before the election, she slammed Cordeiro as an establishment candidate who did little to help female players establish pay parity with their U.S. male counterparts.
"I was a player for 20 years, and I saw first-hand what Carlos Cordeiro's idea of change is. You cannot, as a vice president, claim you are the lone voice for change while all of this happened under your watch," Solo said during her fiery speech. "And you as delegates cannot buy that. He was part of a federation that generated millions of dollars off the backs of its players, and much of it off the back of its women's players, who have been the economic engine of this federation for years, yet treated like second-class citizens."
Solo was arrested on assault charges in 2014 in Washington state in a case involving her nephew and half-sister. The charges were later dismissed. During the 2016 Olympics in Rio, she slammed the Swedish women's team as a "bunch of cowards." U.S. Soccer terminated Solo's contract after those comments, citing "conduct that is counter to the organization's principles."
