The US Soccer Federation deserves a pat on the back. Bringing two big-name managers on board isn’t easy, yet they managed to secure Mauricio Pochettino and Emma Hayes for their respective men’s and women’s teams. Though that must have cost them a fortune, they managed to recover it by making hundreds of millions in profit. Then again, why did the USSF decide to fire over 30 employees, anyway?

Anthony Kyaw, a writer for The Athletic, shared the news about the American Federation terminating numerous employees. Apparently, these cuts affected various departments across the federation, including marketing, sales, sports, refereeing, and coaching. Despite the federation maintaining a workforce of 340 employees, the layoffs could account for around 9% of the total staff.

This doesn’t end here, as it will surprise you to know how all these employees were removed from the organization. According to Kyaw, the affected employees were being called into individual meetings, the HR department was simultaneously packing up their belongings. Surprisingly, they were not permitted to return to their workstations and were swiftly escorted out of the premises.

This is certainly a harsh way to let go of employees. Typical procedures involve providing some kind of notice period or warning to help ease their exit from the organization. However, the alleged manner in which US Soccer decided to part ways with the employees won’t sit well with many.

Of course, there can be various reasons for mass layoffs, but it still doesn’t explain why the Cindy Parlow Cone-led federation chose to proceed with them; not to mention the amount of bills they were pocketing!

US Soccer went with mass layoffs despite millions of profit!

Anthony Kyaw further reported that US Soccer had pocketed over $32 million of commercial revenue, courtesy of last year’s deal negotiated with Soccer United Marketing. Based on the financial statements for the current fiscal year ending on March 31st, they are projecting $110 million in revenue—a 243% increase over the past two years. Jaws dropped? Wait for it!

Much of this also comes from revenue generated by existing sponsors like Coca-Cola, Marriott Bonvoy, Nike, and Visa. In fact, we expect three additional brands to finalize deals with the USSF. When combining these sponsorships with income from matches played by its 27 teams, they anticipate an overall revenue increase of $200 million! For a nonprofit organization, this is gold.

Furthermore, the organization continued to thrive, leading the USSF to invest $250 million in the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center, a high-performance facility spanning 200 acres near Atlanta. Of this total, $200 million was raised through a bond issue that generated $3.2 billion in interest and sold out in just nine minutes, while Arthur M. Blank provided the remaining $50 million.

They also received significant donations from billionaire Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, who financed Pochettino’s hiring for the USMNT. But despite such a cash injection, they still went ahead to fire 30 employees. Surely the USSF has some explaining to do!