KEVIN PAYNE is the CEO of US Club Soccer. Payne, who has been in that role since Jan. '15, has been involved with the sport in the U.S. since the late '80s. La Liga joined the organization's efforts to grow and improve the game in the U.S. when it came on board as a long-term technical partner in Aug. '15. US Club Soccer executed five La Liga Formation Methodology courses in '16, with 750 coaches from 250 clubs and organizations attending those clinics. From Jan. 11-15, US Club Soccer participated in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Convention in L.A., which drew 11,540 attendees, including 5,899 coaches -- the second-best attendance in the NSCAA Convention's 76-year history. One of the highlights of the convention was a classroom session led by former Real Madrid player RAÚL, who is now La Liga's U.S. country manager. Payne spoke to SBD Global about the reasons US Club Soccer partnered with La Liga, the impact that clubs like Bayern Munich and Barcelona opening U.S. offices could have on the sport in the States and the future of CONCACAF.
On Raúl's classroom session and the recent convention ...
KEVIN PAYNE: It went really well. I suspect attendance was down a little bit from the East Coast conventions, but from our perspective, it went very well. Our classroom session with La Liga was the most crowded classroom session I've ever seen. There was probably 100 people sitting on the floor in the aisles.
On his ties to La Liga ...
PAYNE: Before I was even here at US Club Soccer, when I was chairman of the technical committee for U.S. Soccer, I felt that it was important that we try to develop some ongoing relationships with organizations, federations, leagues or even large clubs that had a demonstrable record of success in developing players so that we could better learn how they had achieved that success, and try to take the things that they had learned and that they did, and turn them into an American process. La Liga was always our first choice at US Club Soccer, and then before I even really had a chance to try to reach out to them, I got contacted by Nike, which said La Liga was interested in doing something here in the United States. Nike suggested to La Liga that if they were going to work with a youth soccer organization, we were the ones that they should work with.
On La Liga being the first choice ahead of other top European leagues ...
PAYNE: Why would we use the Premier League? They've not done a very good job of player development at all. They have the lowest percentage of domestic players of any of the top leagues in Europe. Our feeling is La Liga is the best league in the world on the field. And it's hard to dispute that when you look at their record in European competitions. ... Their style is more modern. The important recent changes in playing style and so forth seem to have come from Spain. Whether you accept that they're the best league or not -- certainly they're among the best leagues -- but they have, by a pretty significant margin, the highest percentage of domestic players. It just made sense to try to look to the best. And their culture is one that when they try to go into a new market to begin to have a bigger effect there, the first thing they do is try to think about how they can support that market, how they can help that market. They're doing that in China, for instance, they're doing it in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf states, and now they're doing it with us. The EPL has never done anything in this country except try to suck money out of it. So that's not who we're interested in working with.
On the emphasis on coaching ...
PAYNE: When I met with La Liga, they said, 'How could we be of the greatest assistance?' And I said I believed that the greatest help they could give us would be in helping to further educate and develop coaches. ... There's a number of countries in Europe that have overhauled their approach to the game in a pretty systematic and comprehensive way. In every instance, the first pillar that they relied on was the notion that if you want better players, you need better coaches. And if you want better coaches, you have to develop a culture of coaching education. We have been, in many ways in this country, a licensing-driven coaching culture where guys get their license and they think, 'OK, now I know it all.' ... In addition to the licensing process that they will undertake with U.S. Soccer, we think it's very important for them to also continually educate themselves to what other people in other countries are doing to better train players.
On La Liga, Barcelona and Bayern Munich all opening HQs in the U.S. ...
PAYNE: Obviously if Barcelona is here and active and trying to be constructive, we hope that will help the game as well. I know that Bayern Munich has done some good things with GPS [Global Premier Soccer] and others. We hope that all of these different efforts will expose our coaches here in this country to different ways of thinking.
On the impact that major tournaments like last year's Copa América Centenario have on the sport ...
PAYNE: I think that's always a big deal. It raises the excitement level. Clearly the sport is a very big deal now. ... Our sport is a very, very important part of American culture. It just raises the attention level even more when the top teams and the top players are competing, particularly when it's a real competition here in the United States. If we're successful in earning the World Cup for 2026, it will be by far the biggest sporting event that this country has ever seen and by far the most successful World Cup that the world has ever seen.
On whether the U.S. will bid to host the 2026 World Cup by itself or in a joint bid ...
PAYNE: There's no question that the United States could stage the event by itself, even with the increase to 48 teams. There's no question that we could stage it by ourself. We have more stadia that meet the criteria for the World Cup than all of Europe. In that regard, logistically, we don't need Mexico or Canada. But if we need them politically, whether or not we determine that we need them in order to win the vote, or if we think it's the right thing to do for the development of the game and CONCACAF, then I'm all for it. My assumption is that the vast majority of games will still be held in the United States.
On CONCACAF President VICTOR MONTAGLIANI ...
PAYNE: I've known Victor for quite a while. We don't work together a lot, but we have known one another and we've had conversations. Victor's doing a good job of providing leadership. CONCACAF, in spite of all the problems and in spite of the corruption, it has come a long way since, say, 1990 or thereabouts. It was a really backward organization. Its events weren't important. We could barely get people to go watch the CONCACAF Championships, what's now called the Gold Cup. It was really challenging to get people to pay attention to those kind of games. Now, that's not the case any longer. CONCACAF still needs to rid itself of the unfortunate reputation of corruption. It needs to strengthen its members, top to bottom. Certainly economically, the United States and Mexico, and to a lesser extent Canada, are in very good shape. Some of the Central American countries are in pretty good shape and are playing well, Costa Rica most notably, but we need to find ways to strengthen the infrastructure and the institutions of the entire CONCACAF family, particularly the Caribbean countries and some of the smaller Central American countries. ... Having the prospect of a World Cup in this region hopefully will help that in every country.
Hangin' With runs each Friday in SBD Global.
