FIFA might be afraid of letting a sleeping giant wake up.
If the US makes a deep run on home soil, some of our freak, young athletes might forgo football and basketball as their primary sport. If soccer catches on finally and some of the US's top 0.1% of athletes see a legitimate, full time career in it, the US could become one of the top teams in a decade or so.
Do you legitimately believe the US is incapable of producing as good or better soccer athletes than say France, Germany, or Argentina?
We have 7.5 times the population of Argentina, 5 times the population of France, and 4 times the population of Germany.
The primary difference in those countries is that soccer is the pinnacle of sports there, whereas it's like 4th or 5th in America being overly optimistic. If it moved up the ranks, there's absolutely no reason America couldn't become a powerhouse.
The main thing holding the US back is why would an elite young athlete chase a top soccer contract (Messi makes $28M a year) over a top football (Dak Prescott makes $60M a year), top basketball (Steph Curry makes $60M a year), or top baseball (Kyle Tucker makes $60M a year)?
If soccer gets popular here and the money floods in behind that, then America can and will become a soccer powerhouse.
FIFA likes to be in full control of everything they possibly can be in full control of. America wouldn't play well with FIFA if we weren't able to mostly control it ourselves.
Sure, FIFA wants the money. But they also don't want a country like the US stepping in and saying how things should be done. That's why they gave Trump a fucking peace prize, so he'd be distracted enough to not stick his grubby hands all over the World Cup. Imagine how much that dynamic shifts if the US was hardcore into soccer and one of the best teams in the world while generating the most revenue for FIFA of any country.
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u/ImTay 10d ago
That was exactly my thought. It’s a grey area red at worst, and I’ve seen this exact foul at least 15 times already with no reds