Soccer roundtable: What is the fallout of the Reyna-Berhalter scandal?

Well, the findings from the latest independent investigation were worse than I expected, and I expected them to be bad. Still, it was a bummer to learn that not only were the intimate partner violence aspects of what Gregg Berhalter had already admitted doing to his then-girlfriend Rosalind true, but the extra details of her striking him in the face, him pushing and kicking her twice before getting tackled by a bystander were a graphic reminder that there are no angels or innocents in this messy saga.

Sure, it was way back in 1992, no criminal charges filed, and there’s a redemption arc of trusting forgiveness to their love story and the strong family they’ve built together. But the fact that over 30 years later, longtime “friends” were ready to weaponize that incident by disclosing it because neither Berhalter or his brother, both USSF employees that represented national sporting interests, had done so back when he was in the interview process for a top coaching position with the U.S. goes to show that full transparency wasn’t there from the start.

The investigation rightly put U.S. Soccer on blast by revealing that numerous times Claudio Reyna complained inappropriately to people in the organization and when these staffers pointed out that shouldn’t be allowed, they weren’t apparently heeded in any significant way. If anything, Claudio, and his wife, Danielle, who also had an open line to complain directly to the sporting director of the USSF, Earnie Stewart, were indulged again and again until the line of revealing Berhalter’s 1992 incident was crossed.

But all the red flags before that were ignored and the couple certainly weren’t reined in for complaining about referees, travel arrangements, accommodations, etc, on behalf of their son.

Yeah, yeah, Claudio is a legend, Gio is a supreme talent, sorry, no, that shouldn’t grant special status above everyone else on the team.

» READ MORE: A timeline of the Reyna-Berhalter scandal that rocked U.S. soccer

The number one thing I took out of the investigation report is something I had long suspected, and this confirmed. Yes, Gregg Berhalter has a share of the fault on a few levels, from the inexcusable act of intimate partner violence to throwing Gio under the bus anonymously. But this is a Reyna scandal much more than a Berhalter scandal, and we ought to be clear in describing it that way.

How is it excusable that Claudio didn’t just throw his weight around once with regards to Gio, but for years? How is it that Claudio created an atmosphere around U.S. Soccer of expectation that he would demand Gio get special treatment? When Earnie Stewart said he’d never seen anything like it in 20 years in the sport, that wasn’t a throwaway line. He was Claudio’s teammate for so long, and a front-office leader at multiple clubs in the Netherlands before taking over the Union, then going to U.S. Soccer.

And by the way, that tawdry line where Claudio demeaned female refs shouldn’t just be social media fodder. He was a candidate for the sporting director job that Stewart ended up getting, and that job includes oversight of the women’s national team program — and all the extended national teams like beach soccer, Paralympic and Power (wheelchair) teams, and futsal. I can’t imagine those players would have been happy with their sporting director having such an attitude.

If anything, though, I’d say U.S. Soccer has indulged Claudio for years, going back to when then-manager Bruce Arena let him take time off from qualifying before the 2006 World Cup because Claudio didn’t want to travel from Europe for Concacaf games. Claudio was basically, “Call me for the World Cup,” and showed up right before that. Arena allowed it, and I don’t think many other national team coaches would have.

I was in Germany covering that Cup and to me it seemed Claudio didn’t have great cohesion with his teammates in that tournament, something that might have been built over a qualifying campaign. Anyway, if Stewart, Brian McBride and others in the Fed had to deal with an entitled Claudio and kept appeasing him and no one had fortitude to tell him, “No, stop this,” is it any wonder it got as bad as it did or that the entire Reyna family seems clueless about how out of line they behaved?

I’ll defer to your experience there, but I certainly believe it. Claudio Reyna isn’t just a Hall of Famer, he’s on the U.S. men’s team’s Mount Rushmore. His reputation is in tatters now, and he has to know it. It’s sad, in a way, but what he did is so inexcusable that I have no sadness in me — even for someone who gave so many fans so much joy as a player.

As far as what I want U.S. Soccer to do now, well, move forward and away from this, but with guidelines in place to prevent future line-crossing. As a basic policy, no parental complaints about coaches, referees, flights, etc to U.S. admin officials, no matter their status, yes, Golden Ball winners and country presidents included, as if George Weah would ever. The national youth teams should have a director to whom all families can direct specific feedback, and the senior-level teams should have their union representation meeting regularly with U.S. admins.

Legitimate issues that affect players beyond the ones complainers are related to should be addressed in such processes. Crystal Dunn pointing out that U.S. Soccer photo shoots from her youth team days up to senior level didn’t have make-up and hair people, nor photographers that knew how to work with Black hair and skin tones, is way different than, “I want my kid’s red card rescinded.”

“As if George Weah would ever” is a terrific line. U.S. Soccer did say in a statement when the report was published that the investigation “identifies a need to revisit U.S. Soccer’s policies concerning appropriate parental conduct and communications with staff at the national team level,” and the governing body “will be updating those policies as we continue to work to ensure safe environments for all participants in our game.”

Let’s hope that happens. Given what Cindy Cone has been able to do as president with pushing through changes on equal pay and player abuse, I’d like to think she’ll be able to enact reforms here, too.

Coincidentally, this weekend is U.S. Soccer’s annual general meeting, in San Diego this year. I wonder if the delegates, who mostly come from youth and adult amateur soccer organizations, will have anything to say about the Reyna scandal.

Make a four-year coaching cycle standard, too. Seems like Bora Milutinovic was the last coach parting for U.S. Soccer where both parties were like, “Thanks for everything, and good luck out there.”

Arena wanted to stay on forever, even after his ideas got stale; Bob Bradley was burnt mostly by one bad game, but also by the exhaustion of everyone pretending it was normal and fine for a dad to coach his son on that level. Jurgen Klinsmann was all talk and little tactics beyond almond butter and head games, but he was granted so much power at the various levels that the sunk cost of getting rid of him was in the millions of dollars.

» READ MORE: U.S. Soccer investigation shows Claudio Reyna’s history of interference and complaints over Gio Reyna

Berhalter has been fine, but not worth keeping on for a team that wants to keep improving. That can be true without trashing his tenure, which has been solid. But please, cycle in some new blood and ideas, and make it a normal expectation that the position has a limited shelf life.

You and I agree on this, and we’ve both written it before. I promise our readers that there are things we don’t agree on, but we’ve been around the block enough in the sport to see what happens when managers go stale. And in particular with Jurgen Klinsmann... well, you said it, so I will claim don’t have to.

Without some structure and accountability of mistakes in running U.S. Soccer like a good ol’ boys club, the reputation of the organization will stay tattered. Whoever comes into the positions of sporting director and general manager also needs to understand their role in this rehab. Don’t dodge the press like McBride did. Stewart wasn’t much better. The deserved scrutiny on U.S. Soccer for at least a while needs someone willing to face it and tackle tough questions. This country is hosting the World Cup soon.

That’s part of the reason it was a relief, personally, to see the Nations League roster out and Gio Reyna on it. The sooner everyone on the team can put this incident behind, with new policies in place to prevent a recurrence, the better. Get back to what it’s supposed to be about, soccer. Get working on 2026. Give Gio the chance to show that he deserves a roster spot for his play and that he’s much more than a nepo baby while his parents fade away from influencing anything in the soccer scene and perhaps focus more on simply being his parents.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that there was any debate about whether Gio should be called up this month, but I kind of was. Of course, he should have been called up. It helps close the book on the scandal and makes it clear — as Anthony Hudson has done out loud — that while Gio also has a little of the blame, his parents have a lot more.

» READ MORE: Gio Reyna, Zack Steffen return to USMNT for this month’s Concacaf Nations League games