With the Gregg Berhalter scandal lurking as a backdrop, the United States Soccer Federation officially underwent some changes on Thursday.
Sporting director Earnie Stewart left for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands, while United States men’s national team general manager Brian McBride “decided to move on” after three years — a move communicated prior to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to a U.S. Soccer release.
Stewart will stay on until Feb. 15. McBride’s tenure will end Jan. 31. The decisions were independent, the release stated, but ESPN and The Athletic, citing anonymous sources, reported Jan. 20 that the USMNT wouldn’t retain McBride.
“When the opportunity arose to return to the Netherlands to pursue an exciting and challenging role that was near my family, I could not turn it down,” Stewart said, in part, in the U.S. Soccer release.
United States Soccer Federation CEO JT Batson said Thursday that Berhalter’s investigation had “no impact whatsoever” on these decisions, according to ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle. The Athletic reported that president Cindy Parlow Cone added that Berhalter “remains a candidate” to keep his position as head coach of the men’s national team.
The U.S. Soccer release stated that the new sporting director will “oversee” the hiring of the USMNT’s head coach, a process that Parlow Cone wants completed by the end of the summer, according to Carlisle. Anthony Hudson has served as the interim head coach amid the Berhalter investigation, as Berhalter’s contract expired at the end of 2022.
The USMNT has been engulfed by drama following the conclusion of their run to the World Cup knockout stage, where they lost to the Netherlands in the Round of 16. Danielle Reyna, wife of former USMNT star Claudio Reyna and mother of Gio Reyna, contacted Stewart on Dec. 11 about Berhalter kicking his now-wife’s legs in 1991 while attending college.
Her move followed Berhalter’s critical comments about Gio Reyna — though the current USMNT player was not specifically named in the statement — for “clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field.” Berhalter claimed that he was blackmailed throughout the World Cup for the domestic violence incident.
Source: New York Post
