Last week (aka a lifetime ago) US Soccer announced the abrupt shutdown of the decade-old "Development Academy (DA)" for youth players. This event is worth mentioning because the Columbus Crew Academy was officially a DA program for U14 to 19-year-olds.
Shortly after the public announcement by US Soccer, Don Garber and MLS issued a statement that said they would pick up the slack in MLS areas. So, the Crew will likely just transition over to whatever MLS calls the new academy.
Open questions are things like - What becomes of academies not near MLS cities and Will MLS even have the money to run these types of things in a post-pandemic world - are still open because nobody seems to care enough to ask them or think them through.
On a personal knowledge note, I've never been close enough to the Crew Academy to really speak in-depth on it. I DO KNOW, however, that it is an insular group filled with relatives, coaches kids, former player's brothers, and assorted players that were selected from expensive pay-to-play programs.
Take from that what you will.
No comments:
Post a Comment