May 25 – The US Soccer Federation (USSF) is cutting ties with commercial agency Soccer United Marketing (SUM), essentially ending a conflict of interest that has increasingly become uncomfortable for the governing body.
SUM is the commercial arm of Major League Soccer (MLS) and has represented the USSF for 20 years. From the end of this year the USSF said that it will sell sponsorship and media rights in-house.
“While US Soccer has made this important business decision, the federation is deeply grateful to Don Garber (MLS commissioner), Gary Stevenson and the entire staff at SUM for helping us reach so many of our goals and objectives during the past two decades,” said USSF secretary general and chief executive, Will Wilson.
USSF rights are currently bundled with MLS rights, but with the profile of both the men’s and women’s national teams growing and the US co-hosting the 2026 World Cup, the value of the federation’s rights will inevitably increase.
The SUM deal with the USSF has been cited as an anti-competitive conflict of interest recently in law suits against the federation. The now defunct North American Soccer League (NASL) complained the close links to the MLS resulted in the loss of their tier 1 league recognition in the US, while Relevent Sports similarly argued the relationship interfered with their attempt to stage regular season LaLiga matches in the US.
The legal costs of these two actions has been estimated at $9 million.
“Soccer United Marketing is proud to have worked closely with U.S. Soccer for nearly two decades to elevate soccer in this country,” said Garber in the joint statement.
“During the last two decades, SUM’s support of the federation was steadfast, and we achieved all of our goals to improve the commercial value of U.S. Soccer. While we will always be available to collaborate with them in our collective goal of advancing soccer in the U.S., Soccer United Marketing looks forward to focusing on new, exciting and valuable opportunities for Major League Soccer and future partners. A 20-year commercial representation relationship is extremely rare in the sports industry. We are proud of everything we accomplished together, and we wish U.S. Soccer well as they embark on this next chapter.”
SUM sell the rights for the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) for its US-based friendly fixtures as well as the global sponsorship portfolio of Concacaf.
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