Soccer development service
Gulati has a longstanding involvement in the administration of the United States Soccer Federation,with former USSF president and Major League Soccer founder Alan Rothenberg calling Gulati "the single most important person in the development of soccer in this country". [7] Gulati first became involved with the USSF through his employment as a youth coach and administrator in local Connecticut leagues while attending college. [8] Gulati became a prominent volunteer federation staffer and adviser in the 1980s during the presidency of Werner Fricker,and began working in the game full-time upon taking the job of deputy commissioner of Major League Soccer when the league was formed following the 1994 FIFA World Cup hosted by the U.S.,which Gulati played a major role in organizing.
Gulati was elected USSF President in March 2006, [9] [6] succeeding Robert Contiguglia;Gulati had served as federation vice president for six years and played a key role in major USSF board decisions for many years prior to his election as president. In February 2010,he was re-elected for another four-year term as USSF president. [10]
In February 2009,Gulati announced that the USSF would bid for the right to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. He chaired the World Cup U.S. Bid Committee Board of Directors [11] and visited 20 of the 22 member voters on the FIFA Executive Committee. [12] The United States,however,was not selected to host either World Cup. In 2011,he was recognized and awarded the 2011 Trailblazer Award from the Association of South Asians in Media,Marketing and Entertainment (SAMMA) for his outstanding contributions to the world of U.S. sports.
In 2012,Sunil Gulati spearheaded the formation of a new professional women's soccer league in the United States. [13] The previous two attempts to form a women's league by the Women's United Soccer Association and Women's Professional Soccer folded in three years. On October 21,2012,the USSF,the Canadian Soccer Association,and the Mexican Football Federation made a joint announcement on the creation of a new women's soccer league with clubs playing in Boston,Chicago,Kansas City,New Jersey,western New York,Portland,Oregon,Seattle,and Washington,D.C.,Gulati advocated a "sustainable economic model",with the new league having a unique feature of the three federations paying the salaries of their national team players who play in this league. [14] [15] [16]
In 2018,after the US failed to qualify for the World Cup,Gulati chose not to run for re-election as president,and was succeeded by Carlos Cordeiro. Gulati remained the chairman of the USSF's ultimately successful joint bid with Mexico and Canada to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Career in academia
Because the United States Soccer Federation has a full-time professional staff handling the federation's day-to-day business,Gulati is able to maintain a parallel,full-time career in academia. Sunil Gulati is a senior lecturer in economics at Columbia University,having also previously served on the Columbia economics faculty from 1986 to 1990. At Columbia,Gulati teaches principles of economics,global economics,and sports economics. The sports economics class is often heavily over-subscribed,with students known to camp out overnight to secure a place. [7]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
