Let me preface this with the fact that we did reach out in a pair of ways over a week ago to also speak with his opponent, Cindy Parlow Cone, the curreent USSF VP. There was no reply fromo the Federation, so we are unable to give her equal time. A reply after this post would be too late, the idea was to ask each the same questions, and put the responses out at the same time, giving neither the advantage of hearing them and seeing the others answers. I would think that maybe we are too small which is fine but a reply would have been appropitate, anyways........
John Motta was more than gracious with his time for Soccer Long Island Magazine, giving us over an hour with little to no notice, we covered a wide range of topics, and there was a great deal of good back and forth, both of us went on different paths at times which was great. He has put out no less than two items on himself, one being a position page that we will repost to the Facebook of Socceer Long Island Magazine, that will allow insight as to why certain things were not asked and what he is seeking to do. My thoughts are very much in line with his oon most issues.
Q: Why run now and not a year ago?
A: He wanted a full term, not to just take over the balance of the term from now USSF Prez. Carlos Cordiero. Of late he has 7 years at the helm of US Adult Soccer, that was the group to afford sanctioning last season for the NPSL and local team NY Cosmos. He felt it was time for a change and this position would be for him the next logical step.
Q:What makes you unique for this position?
A: He has the time to do the job, his family runs his business, allowing him to be available to the members. Cordiero especially with the Tri nation World Cup coming here will be traveling the globe, the VP would them be here in the states to handle other items.
Then we moved onto his position statement. We discussed many things not covered here as they did not apply directly to the positon of VP. Due to time constraints, these were gone over in varying depths.
National Team: With Gregg Berhalter being still rather new to the position of HC, there needs to be a wait and see period as to what his strategy will be.
-This makes sense as there is a pre existing pool of players that has to be gone through, his most recent camp with many new, younger players was not just for the full NT, but also the Olympic Team, U-23.
Youth Programs: The quantity of scouts is of course a finite number. In the past the looks players had would come from ODP, fed by towns and leagues and it did okay, why did that system have the back turned to it with the advent of the DA? (these are far limited in comparison). He suggests a return to ODP, higher level soccer, US Club ID Program, Regional play of better town players, etc. then brought together for the scouts to have one unified place to see the players.
Adult Programs: Motta suggested an Open Cup for amatuers, to be played on the off years for that of Europe. Mar. 15 there will be a game with the UEFA Champ and the US conterpart to be played possibly in or near Newton.
Latinos: A group of people should be formed who are visible to the community heading it. That group with it's unique knowledge of the population would then determine the plan of attack to get out to them in a better way. Being sure to hit the hot points of this large group.
Staff: In his business, he has a presence over a large geographical area. Now he is able to mange them, get out to them. be sure they are doing as they should and hearing of their comments, so this is old hat to him as he would travel to the various soccer groups in the nation.
Referees: Himself being a high level ref affords quiite the unique perspective to this most important aspect of the game. One objective is to assure that the $2million that is put towards PRO, to develop is well spent. The quantity of officials is of course an issue due to a myriad of factors: retention, abuse, a revlolving door & other options. One suggestion he had for this would be that in a league, each team would have 1-2 fully certified refs, paid for at the expense of the team.
Legal: As a result of his decades in the private sector, he is displeased by all the lawsuits ongong with the Federation. He realizes a great deal of money is being spent on both sides, soccer people v soccer people. John feels through his experiences, that if parties were to sit and talk it out many of these things would be resolved, saving the lawyers as a last resort.
Professional Div: Motta feels as if the NWSL has turned the corner and it is now time for them to stand on their own. The federations of Mexico, Canada and the US each subsidze the NT players, the USSF handles much of the administrative things of the league as well. This is what they should now be doing, he wants to see it stand on its own but knows the assistance at this time should continue as it is vital.
We want to thank John Motta very much for his time.