Sunil Gulati

Watch out for Sunil Gulati (for those not in the know, he is a native of Allahabad, India and heads the US Soccer federation and also the New England Revolution soccer team in MLS) in the coming days. Widely credited with turning around the US soccer set up from a rag tag bunch to a quite credible force, he is a clear example that Indians can be efficient sports administrators when allowed to do their job without the sort of interference that plagues the Indian setup. Matthew Futterman in the WSJ has a short interview with Gulati as he discusses the 2018 World Cup bid. An excerpt:

WSJ: With FIFA and the IOC so taken with how their events can help transform countries, what can the U.S. offer FIFA?

Mr. Gulati: We don’t need to build any stadiums in the U.S. or a single hotel, or a highway to host the World Cup. So you start from a basis of not asking for any public funds. The U.S. has shown it can be a powerful force in the soccer community. We set an attendance record in 1994 that will not be broken this year. We’re the top international ticket buyer so far for this event. Our television rights payment is the highest, and we have more registered players than anyone. Imagine if the game ever really, really took off in our country, the entire economics of the game changes for FIFA.