U.S. Soccer was hit with yet another lawsuit, this time filed in New York state court by
Relevent Sports, which promotes international matches, over its failure to grant sanctioning for
an Ecuadoran league match between
Barcelona and rival
Guayaquil City, scheduled for May 5 in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Complaint: Relevent Sports vs. USSF and Dan
Flynn The suit challenges the federation's power to deny foreign league matches and goes to the question of what constitutes "clear and convincing evidence that staging the match
would be detrimental to the sport of soccer."
The case
comes more than six years after another sanctioning case was decided in U.S. Soccer's favor. The facts and issues involved in
ChampionsWorld are very similar to those in the Relevent case.
Summary Judgment: ChampionsWorld
vs. USSF and MLS
Charlie Stillitano started Champions World and his role as a FIFA match agent was decisive in the legal road the case took, forcing FIFA arbitration. He is
executive chairman of
Revelent Sports, owned by Miami Dolphins owner
Steve Ross. Stillitano's role as a FIFA match agent is one of the factual issues in the Revelent case.
Relevent promotes the International Champions Cup and is increasingly involved with the representation of South American federations seeking to play national team matches in the USA. Relevent
and
LaLiga are also partners. LaLiga's efforts to play league games in the United States have so far been rebuffed by the Spanish federation and Spanish players union. One view is that the case
filed in the New York Supreme Court is a test case to open the door for LaLiga to enter the market.
Like ChampionsWorld, the Relevent case also goes to the role of
Soccer United
Marketing,
Major League Soccer's marketing arm that also represents U.S. Soccer. In ChampionsWorld, SUM was viewed as a rival international games promoter. In Relevent, U.S. Soccer is
viewed as conflicted by its relationship with MLS and SUM.
SA Reading: 2010: Federal court ruling threat to U.S. Soccer's authority 2012: U.S. Soccer wins six-year antitrust suit
Not sure why another group isn’t allowed to promote games? Free market? Good luck Charlie.