US soccer’s youth system is expensive, chaotic and overdue for reform

World Cup setbacks have renewed concern over America's costly, fragmented youth system. The real test is whether the urgency survives the next news cycle

A few years ago, the idea that the US soccer community at large was neglecting youth soccer was met with silence or ridicule.

At a May 2022 conference call announcing a new collective bargaining agreement that effectively ended the equal pay" saga, players were asked how they would build bridges with grassroots organizers who, in a fit of anger over perceived slights, nearly restored Carlos Cordeiro to US Soccer's presidency not long after he resigned under heavy pressure. They could have offered any vague platitudes about how they valued youth and amateur soccer. They fell silent.