We’re less than a month away from the start of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup where our Women’s National Team will look to defend their title and hopefully add a fourth star above the crest. As we get closer to kick off, we anticipate sending more information about upcoming promotions and other opportunities for you to be a part of the efforts to rally the country and support the team in France next month.
The May Membership Call to discuss the information in the newsletter and answer any additional questions you may have will be held on Thursday, May 23 at 1 p.m. CT. You can find call-in information here.
U.S. Center for SafeSport Updates: Temporary Measures and Administrative Holds
As of May 20, the U.S. Center for SafeSport (the Center) issued two updates regarding some internal processes. While these updates do not change any reporting duties for you, we want to be sure you are always informed on these topics.
Publication of Temporary Measures: Going forward, the Center will only publish temporary suspensions on their Centralized Disciplinary Database and will no longer publish temporary measures that relate to specific individuals. The intent behind this update is to better align the information on the database with the intended goal of providing relevant information to the public rather than those instances that only impact individuals.
For example, if an interim suspension is issued where an individual is not permitted to have any unsupervised coaching with minor athletes, that Temporary Measure will be listed on the Center’s database. If the interim suspension mandates that an individual is not allowed to contact a specific individual, that will not be listed on the database.
For U.S. Soccer members, this still means that if we or the Center communicates a Temporary Measure to you, you are required to adhere to it, regardless of whether it is posted on the Center’s Centralized Disciplinary Database.
Administrative Holds: an administrative hold is currently used by the Center when a complaint is filed, but the Respondent is no longer actively involved with a sport under their jurisdiction. This acts as a suspension for that individual, as anyone under an Administrative Hold is prohibited from participating with any NGB unless or until that issue is resolved by the Center.
For example, if the Center receives a complaint an incident that took place in 2019 and the about an individual has not been active with any NGB since 2010, he/she will be placed on an Administrative Hold, and that matter will only be investigated and adjudicated by the Center if that individual attempts to begin participation again.
The Center is going to extend the use of the Administrative Hold to now include those individuals where they were under the jurisdiction of the Center at the time of an alleged incident, but are no longer actively participating.
As another example, an individual participated with an NGB from 2005-2010, and the Center receives a complaint in 2019 about an incident that took place in 2007. Because that individual has not been active with an NGB since 2010, the Center will place an Administrative Hold on that individual unless or until that individual attempts to re-register with an NGB, at which point they will begin an investigation and adjudication on the issue.
Again, please note that even though the Center will not actively investigate and adjudicate these scenarios that result in an Administrative Hold, you should still report any allegations of SafeSport violations to local authorities, the Center, and U.S. Soccer in order to fulfill your reporting duties.
WNT Everywhere Starts This Week
You may recall us discussing a Women’s World Cup activation at Member Meetings called WNT Everywhere. This campaign will present each WNT player to audiences throughout the U.S. via a mural, a poster, or both. And then using our new app, fans will be able to align their mobile phone with one of the eye-catching murals and posters to unlock exclusive content about the U.S. WNT players that will not be available anywhere else.
We’re set to launch this campaign on Thursday and will distribute digital versions of every poster that you can print and share, post or otherwise distribute among your Members.
Murals will be available in San Francisco, Atlanta, Orlando, St. Louis, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, and Cincinnati. Once we go live with WNT Everywhere, we will send a message out with details in regards to where those murals are, what players are featured, and then also, the link to the digital poster files.
In addition to WNT Everywhere, in the coming weeks, you will see episodes of Behind the Crest posted, as well as the always popular 23 Stories feature series on each player on the roster. We are also working on updated graphics for every player that you can customize by dropping your own logo in to the artwork. As we get closer to the tournament and the excitement increases, we will be sure to keep you all informed of our content and communication plans with as much notice as possible so be on the lookout for future emails for all things WNT.
Third Round of 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Starts on May 29
After two weeks and 41 games, there are currently two Open Division team left in the 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: the Florida Soccer Soldiers who beat Division II (USL Championship) professionals Charlotte Independence in a penalty shootout and Orange County FC who beat similarly named Orange County SC – also on PKs.
Soccer Soldiers, out of Miami Beach, already took down former NASL pros Miami FC in the First Round and will face North Carolina FC (USL Championship), while OCFC, coached by Paul Caliguri take on Eric Wynalda and the Las Vegas Lights (USL Championship) in the Third Round. You can find all results and recaps here.
The magic of the U.S. Open Cup continues in the last week of May when the 22 Second Round winners face off on May 28-29 for the right to face Division I (Major League Soccer) clubs when they enter the tournament in the Fourth Round on June 11-12. All the U.S. Open Cup Third and Fourth Round games will be available to watch live on ESPN+.
Beach National Team Qualifies for 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup!
The U.S. Beach Soccer National Team clinched a berth at the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup with a dramatic, penalty kick win over El Salvador after the teams drew 3-3 through three periods and added extra time. This is the fifth time the USA has qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup since 2013. The 2019 World Cup will take place this November in Paraguay.
Two days later, the team fell to Mexico 6-2 in the final of the 2019 Concacaf Beach Soccer Championship. USA captain Nick Perera scored twice to finish with 13 goals to capture the tournament’s Golden Boot as top scorer. He also set a new USA record for most goals in a Beach Soccer World Cup qualifying tournament, surpassing his own record of 11 set in 2013.