Saturday, January 2, 2010
Glavin
Tony Glavin may hold the key to locking up a compromise that would smooth the stormy waters of U.S. professional soccer.
Glavin, a popular player with the St. Louis Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1980s, told Globe-Democrat.com that he heads a group which owns the rights to field a United Soccer League team at the Division II men’s professional level in St. Louis. The rights that belong to Glavin’s group conflicts with AC St. Louis, a team formed in December to play in Division II in the new North American Soccer League.
The USL and the NASL have been at odds while seeking separate sanctioning from the U.S. Soccer Federation to operate at the men’s Division II level in 2010. On Wednesday, the USSF refused to sanction either league and gave them seven days to compromise if they wish to be sanctioned.
If the two leagues are to reach an agreement by the USSF’s deadline, sources outside St. Louis told Globe-Democrat.com on Friday that the negotiating parties must determine who has the rights to field a team in St. Louis — Glavin’s group, or the AC St. Louis ownership group headed by Granite City attorney Jeff Cooper.
In an e-mail to Globe-Democrat.com, Glavin wrote that his group, Champion Sports Management, Inc., has the right of first refusal on a St. Louis-based USL team at the Division II level. Glavin is the president and majority owner of Champion Sports Management. Further, “we have been working on putting an investor group together for a USL-1 (Division II) team, to start play in 2011,” Glavin wrote.
Glavin operates Tony Glavin Soccer Club in Cottleville. The club has boys’ and girls’ teams in various age groups at a complex with five outdoor fields, an indoor facility, locker rooms and a club house.
Critical to the current U.S. soccer situation is the club’s connections with the USL. Part of Glavin’s soccer operations is the St. Louis Lions, a team that competes in the USL’s Professional Development League. The PDL competes on the fourth tier of U.S. men’s soccer. Division I, comprised of Major League Soccer, is at the top of the pyramid; USL-1 had been the nation’s Division II league through 2009; and USL-2 is the country’s Division III league.
Champion Sports Management also owns the Lions, who began play in 2006. Glavin is the Lions’ head coach.
The USL and NASL appear to be working on an agreement with USSF guidance. Both sides released statements on Wednesday saying they were open to a compromise. USSF President Sunil Gulati and Chief Executive Officer/Secretary General Dan Flynn met with NASL and USL representatives on Thursday and have scheduled more meetings in the next few days.
On Friday, it was reported that the USL had dropped lawsuits it brought against three of its franchises that had jumped to the NASL. Speculation is that a completed compromise would have the NASL teams playing under the USL banner in 2010 and then operating as the NASL in 2011.
Sources say that the St. Louis rights issue is one of the major remaining obstacles to an agreement and speculate that the most likely solution would be Cooper’s group buying the rights from Glavin’s group.
Comments
Stagweiser (anonymous) says...
Ol Cooper thought he had it all figured out huh ? Gotta play ball with Tony now . All this over kick ball ?
January 2, 2010 at 1:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )