ORLANDO, Fla. — When the national council meeting of the United States Soccer Federation is gaveled to a close here on Saturday, U.S. Soccer will have a new president for the first time in a dozen years.
That person will have a lot of work to do.
The defining feature of the eight-person race to replace Sunil Gulati, U.S. Soccer’s president since 2006, has been acrimony. Candidates have criticized each other’s platforms in surprisingly personal terms and accused rivals of conflicts of interest. Online, supporters have seemed to make things worse, lobbing (often unsubstantiated) accusations of corruption, payoffs, bullying and worse.