Former U.S. Soccer Presidents, MLS GM Weigh in on Sunil Gulati's Role, Future

Alan Rothenberg and Bob Contiguglia both give their opinions on whether the man who succeeded them should continue in his role.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati is set to dig his heels in and run for re-election in February despite the U.S. men’s failure to qualify for the World Cup. But should Gulati run again?

Few respected soccer people in the U.S. are willing to speak on the record, but former U.S. Soccer presidents Alan Rothenberg and Bob Contiguglia and former Real Salt Lake owner and NBA GM Dave Checketts did speak for public consumption.

Rothenberg said: “Where matters stand now, I don’t see any better candidate even remotely extant. Therefore, [Gulati] should run. If somebody from the outside with tremendous credentials should appear, I might have to take a second look at it. And by the way, I think Sunil would, too. If he could keep his role on the 2026 World Cup and CONCACAF and FIFA, I think he’d be very happy. And running the World Cup would take a heck of a lot of time. But at the same time, it would have to be somebody who was clearly able to take the reins [of U.S. Soccer].”

Contiguglia said he thought Gulati had done a good job overall running the U.S. Soccer board and that he should continue.

Checketts, meanwhile, said: “I do feel that there will be someone who will emerge who has the ability to move the needle here. I think that Sunil should remain involved. I hope he does remain involved. But I would challenge him now to consider stepping aside so that someone else could give it a try. I think [U.S. Soccer] needs a different direction.”