Morgan Reed

@CoachFrankCyp @YesThatBrooke We absolutely need to fix the solidarity payments and sell on fees system in US, but there aren’t nearly enough pro clubs in US to make it work. 30 MLS clubs in an area roughly the size of Europe. There’s 92 fully pro clubs in england alone.

@YesThatBrooke You know what’s an incentive on paying for all that to develop the player? Being able to sell their contracts to other teams to recoup their investment That’s how the rest of the world does it

Two days after the #USMNT defeat and I'm now 99 percent sure the calvacade of voices saying the key to fixing youth soccer is to "end pay to play" have *never* had a kid in youth sports. Because that shit's expensive.

@RussFinkelstein @YesThatBrooke what on earth? You realize the entire massive soccer economy of England exists in an area the size of N. Carolina. To use overseas model, the best way would be to have CA have an entire soccer economy with dozens of pro clubs, separate TV contracts, and pro/rel. That could work.

@YesThatBrooke What’s exceptional about America is our collective refusal to learn how things work abroad

@hector86mcl @YesThatBrooke None of this is accurate. EU grassroots has parent fees, same as US “rec”. You can’t equate grassroots with travel/academy. What rec doesn’t get you is consistent coaching and practice time. Grassroots in UK has better coaching b/c more people are familiar with the sport.

@YesThatBrooke NONE of those "problems" are an issue in the REST OF THE WORLD THAT EXCELLS IN FOOTBALL. Not one. All costs are absorbed by clubs, parents only need to bring the kid to the park. They are given the gear, shoes, they are brought to the games, etc.

@SamArcher755432 @YesThatBrooke We have a single entity MLS system with 30 franchises making very little money, USL has more clubs but they can’t afford the cost. EU based clubs could set up shop in US (they do!) but you can’t move kids to EU until 16 w/o a EU passport, which adds difficulty.

@YesThatBrooke Follow what Europe does. THE PROFESSIONAL CLUBS PAY FOR IT ALL, cover club fees, training, academies, etc. They see it as an investment. (It's why they have closed the gap so quickly with basketball)

@typicalhooman @ilWeats @BlastoiseCap @ManagerTactical because at that moment Salah had lost the ball and was now defending, not attacking. Look at where the ball is - it’s not his ball any more.

Argentina 🇦🇷 should be ashamed of this! Seriously, I feel bad for Egypt 🇪🇬… absurd calls from the ref.

@kageryu311 @mwogezacolline @ManagerTactical Are you seriously posting that image as a foul? the reason he’s looking down is because he’s already lost the ball. I am sure there are half-a-dozen other moments in thr box where there was gabby grabby BS, but that moment was never going to be called.

@mwogezacolline @ManagerTactical You can talk about teams capitulating but at the same time be fair and cover it when there are double standards of officiating.

@jasonzimdars @aakashgupta not good comparison. Women’s side in US (NWSL) is better and pays more than Europe. Just a handful of teams globally at NWSL level, and they are mostly underwritten by men’s (Chelsea, Barca, Arsenal etc.) Unless she’s playing for OL in France, she’s likely making minimum wage.

@aakashgupta I’ve got a neice who went through all the training in the USA, funded by her parents. Played in D1 college. Where does she play now? France. Even if people are willing to do this for their kid, there’s nowhere for them to play.

In Germany, a talented 14-year-old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year. That single inversion explains why "we will not" is the most accurate line ever written about US soccer. FIFA built a global system for this. Training compensation and solidarity payments send a cut of every transfer fee back to the clubs that developed the player, from age 12 onward. Develop one future pro and your academy gets paid for a decade. Barcelona's La Masia, Ajax, every Bundesliga academy runs on this logic. The kid is the asset. US Soccer refuses to enforce those rules. When Seattle's Crossfire Premier claimed its $60,000 share of DeAndre Yedlin's transfer to Tottenham, it got nothing. Claims on the Dempsey and Bradley transfers died partly because the federation couldn't even produce the youth training records. So American clubs earn zero dollars when a kid turns pro. They earn when a kid enrolls. Which makes the parent the customer, and the product is whatever keeps the parent writing checks: travel tournaments, hotel weekends, $500 showcase events, private training at $100 an hour. Elite pathways run $8,000 to $20,000 a year. A comparable academy spot in Italy costs about 120 euros. Follow the incentive one level deeper and it gets darker. A club dependent on fees can't cut its weakest paying players, so rosters optimize for retention over development. The scouting pool shrinks to families who can afford the cliff, which appears around age 11, exactly when development matters most. The country runs a talent filter sorted by household income instead of ability. Every four years someone proposes fixing this. The proposal always requires the people profiting from the $15,000 model to vote themselves out of business. They will not.

@EverythingRebs When a defender makes the decision to slide tackle, refs put more scrutiny on the action. framework is careless/reckless/exessive force. Punishment is nothing/Y/R. when you decide to slide, you are pushing everything up one level.

Another night of watching soccer and another night with no understanding how this is a red card. Let them play. Soccer fans, is this the right call?

@UtdSMNT @LALACMSEA Odd fact, but his father George Weah was at the game. I know it shouldn’t impact, but when your Dad is a former Balon’d Or winner, and you get a chance to start on the biggest stage, it can mess with you.

@LALACMSEA Nah deadass. He’s playing like it, like something is actually off

I’ve watched Tim Weah play probably over a hundred times Tonight is the worst he’s ever played. He’s looking indecisive and slower than he always has

Just on the heels of another DMA-induced delay, the reintro of the U.S. version (AICOA) is bad news. Just like DMA, AICOA would degrade the integrated svcs small biz prefer & increase distro costs for startups: actonline.org/2024/07/03/for…

@DavidFellerath @jbarro sigh. We have won 4 world cups and the most recent olympics. Other nations are working hard to catch up, but US talent depth is unsurpassed. If you mean men’s soccer, sure. But for our women to be that good compared to our men suggests it’s not as simple as “it’s all pay2play”

@jbarro Incidentally, the prevalence of youth travel soccer is frequently cited as a reason the US always lags behind the rest of the world in international soccer, and this summer's World Cup is expected to be no exception.

I have never heard any parent speak positively about this travel-team private-league sports stuff. So why do they have their kids participate in it? (The answer is rarely "my kid is headed for D1") Don't schools have teams anymore? theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/…

@toddakavincent @kvlmason that’s not entirely correct. If a foul (holding) begins outside the box but continues into the box, a PK is given. thefa.com/football-rules…

@kvlmason The contact started well before the ball was kicked. Fouls are times to the initial point of contact, not when they end.

Sorry to get all rules police here but. On the penalty that Spurs were (yet again) not given. When Cucurella bundles Van de Ven to the ground (for which a foul was given - which in the area means penalty) the ball was in play. The rule is: the ball is in play once it is kicked..

@drake_sucks @grahamruthven This doesn’t fix anything b/c the issue isn’t that refs don’t see what you see; it’s how we interpret it. We see the shirt pulls and the grabbing, but if we call it, then people yell “it’s a contact sport”. Refs aren’t blind, it’s about how we are taught to manage the game.

@grahamruthven I’d be in favor of going to one managers challenge per game

We gave it a shot. It was awful. Get rid.

@grahamruthven Problem isn’t VAR, problem is the way we interpret the LotG. We say “contact sport” does that cover shirt pulls? It’s a Law 12 foul, but if called people say “game’s gone”. Half the slide tackles probably violate a strict read of Laws, but we love them. it’s PGMOL issue not VAR.

@pgklee @CFC__Women Thank you. When training for reffing, a shocking number of fellow students and instructors will say stupid shite like “women don’t mean it” and “men are more dangerous”. yet talk to players: they are just as ruthless and frankly sneakier + they like cold, calculated revenge.

@CFC__Women This referee in 51 women’s matches, including today’s 52 has never issued a red card of any kind. This is not atypical, unfortunately. The women’s game has a problem with not sanctioning fouls.

How is this not a red card?

@Ripamaru @IHateSoccerPod you know most college football programs lose money, right?!? Football programs, especially the non-P4 teams, take money from tuition and student fees. By your logic, any football program that isn’t break-even should be closed down.

@IHateSoccerPod Nobody would show up. Which is why those programs don't have a right to keep taking money spent by football and basketball fans to support those programs.

One of the reasons Arkansas had to get rid of their tennis programs is that they don’t charge for admission. Soccer programs need to start charging for admission. HS soccer games charge. Yet D1 soccer programs don’t? No wonder it’s about to be extinct.

@wolffy71 @IHateSoccerPod yep, let’s hope for more opportunities! But I’m not crapping on the college system for women because the men’s programs aren’t stacking up. College path means pro-bound girls had years of incredible competition that’s hard to replicate, and opportunities for women outside of pro.

@morganwreed @IHateSoccerPod That may be true but if theres a demand for female players, like there is in the US, the country will fill the need. You're already seeing girls leave universities and join clubs. As the game grows that just gonna happen more and more. Who knows how far that trend will go.

People are desperately begging for soccer in America to be more like the European model. They’re about to get what they wished: Not with promotion and relegation; But with no college soccer of note. It’s going to be GONE

@IHateSoccerPod @wolffy71 Jason, go to over and watch women’s football at anything below very top teams. Their best players are fantastic, but it’s paper thin. Moreover pay is poor, facilities and support uneven. College is a pathway they don’t have. Talk to girls there they do envy US opportunities.

@morganwreed @wolffy71 Envy of the world? It’s this mentality that got us into this ECNL vs. MLSNext mess.

@DJL06824 @IHateSoccerPod No, American football killed all the non-revenue sports. NCAA D1 is 105 (!) football full rides, and 105 roster limit. yet only 10% are profitable. Title IX doesn’t dictate number of scholarships or which sports. it just says “if you take tax money, it must be spent equally.”

@IHateSoccerPod Title IX killed collegiate men’s soccer

@wolffy71 @IHateSoccerPod asinine take. US women’s soccer is incredibly successful and is the envy of the world. We have depth and talent. The “rest of the world” wishes it had our women’s programs.

@IHateSoccerPod It works for the rest of the world. And they seem to prefer it. So its probably the best way tbh