How Earnie Stewart’s departure from U.S. Soccer affects the women’s team

There’s little doubt that Earnie Stewart’s departure from the U.S. Soccer Federation will affect the men’s program more than the women’s program. Stewart had more direct involvement with the men’s program and a lot more experience with it as a Hall of Fame ex-player.

But it wasn’t one-sided. Stewart was a regular presence at U.S. women’s team games, often with general manager Kate Markgraf. She reported to him, as did outgoing men’s national team GM Brian McBride.

That piece of the U.S. Soccer hierarchy has been important. Having a clear No. 1 leader atop the sporting side of the governing body meant the GMs didn’t have to report to someone whose work includes business considerations, not just soccer ones.

Stewart’s contract with U.S. Soccer was to run through 2026. It’s not known when Markgraf’s contract expired; she was hired in August 2019. President Cindy Cone said in a news conference Thursday she hopes Stewart’s successor is in place before the women’s World Cup starts in late July. Until then, Markgraf will report to CEO JT Batson, who reports to Cone, a Hall of Fame former player in her own right for the USWNT.

With the World Cup coming and the Olympics next year, Markgraf isn’t going anywhere for a while. Cone and Batson made that clear as they discussed Stewart’s exit.

“We have real confidence in our women’s national team leadership, in Kate and Vlatko [Andonovski, the manager] and team,” Batson said, “and are super excited for what they’re up to this summer and the women’s World Cup.”

» READ MORE: Earnie Stewart and Brian McBride leave U.S. Soccer

U.S. Soccer’s ongoing internal review of its sporting structure — which is separate from the outside legal investigation of the Reyna/Berhalter scandal — now has grown so big that the governing body hired consulting firm Sportsology to help with it. Cone said Sportsology’s role will include judging just what the job titles should be.

“Once we have more clarity on what that department should look like moving forward, we’ll determine the leadership and support that is needed,” she said. “We do still have a GM on the women’s side, and we’re very happy, and think we have the best team in place for our women’s national team as we head into the women’s World Cup.”

It’s possible that there won’t be GMs anymore. It’s also possible, Cone said, that the men’s and women’s national teams won’t have the same structure. That could present an optics issue if fans think the sides aren’t getting equal treatment, but Cone is open to going that way.

“We do recognize that the teams sometimes have different needs,” she said. “And so we’re going to be evaluating that over the next period of time, along with Sportsology, to determine what is the best structure for our men’s national team. Is it the same as the women’s national team, or does it need to be slightly different?”

It would be surprising, to say the least, if the next era’s structure leaves the women’s team short. Cone isn’t just a former star player, she secured the equal pay deal for the current players that none of her predecessors could.

“We’ll evaluate the GM position along with all the other positions in the sporting department as part of this holistic review that we’re doing,” Cone said. “And, as I said before, we’re not dead-set on having the exact same structure on the men’s side as we have on the women’s side. And we’re going to be evaluating that and seeing what changes we need to make.”

The U.S. women’s team’s next gathering is next month, for the annual SheBelieves Cup tournament it hosts. The Americans will play Brazil, Canada, and Japan in a round-robin format, touring Orlando, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., and suburban Dallas. The tournament starts Feb. 16 in Orlando — coincidentally the day after Stewart’s last official day with U.S. Soccer.

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