Gulati is an economics professor at Columbia University.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Sunil Gulati, 55, the head of US soccer, and the only top soccer official from the Americas to be not indicted in the Justice Department’s sweep of allegedly corrupt 14 officials in North and South America, is a strong contender to be the next FIFA chief, after incumbent Sepp Blatter announced his resignation, on Tuesday.
Gulati, who was born in Allahabad and moved to Connecticut with his family when he was five years old, is no fan of Blatter, and had voted for Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein in the last election, four days ago. Now, he has emerged as a contender himself after Blatter’s step down.
Gulati released a statement on Blatter’s decision, today, touting “real and meaningful reforms” down the road for FIFA in the wake of the resignation.
“The announcement today by President Blatter represents an exceptional and immediate opportunity for positive change within FIFA. I commend him for making a decision that puts FIFA and the sport we love above all other interests. This is the first of many steps towards real and meaningful reform within FIFA. Today is an occasion for optimism and belief for everyone who shares a passion for our game,” said Gulati in his statement.
The Wall Street Journal, in a report today, which was published prior to Blatter’s resignation, had run a piece on Gulati, a Columbia University economics professor, who is a member of the executive committees of both FIFA and Concacaf, the regional soccer confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean, as well as the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, as having a clean record when it comes to business dealings with most of those who have been indicted.
“It would never occur to me that Sunil would be involved in anything like this,” Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer (MLS), who has known Gulati for 16 years, was quoted as saying.
Gulati is in his third four-year term at US Soccer, after having been elected initially in 2006 and re-elected again in 2010. He is the former president of Kraft Soccer for the New England Revolution in MLS. The rules of US Soccer allow him to teach full-time at Columbia.
MLS founder Alan Rothenberg had called Gulati, “the single most important person in the development of soccer in this country. Gulati is credited with spearheading the formation of a new professional women’s soccer league in the US, in 2012.
Gulati, who has worked for the World Bank too, is an alum of Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Connecticut. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Bucknell University and earned his M. A. and M. Phil. in economics at Columbia University.