Three decades after first arriving in Dallas, the FIFA World Cup will return to the ​​Pegasus City with a total of nine matches, including blockbuster affairs between England and Croatia, Argentina and Austria, and Japan and the Netherlands. One man who is playing a crucial role in Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex’s hosting is Andy Swift.

Having worked as a statistician during the world’s biggest tournament, Swift has since been employed as a TV reporter and held management positions with Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas), MLS, Dallas Cup, and FIFA. Today, he serves on the Board of Directors as the Secretary of the North Texas Organizing Committee. Soccer America caught up with Swift about a plethora of topics, such as:

SOCCER AMERICA: It’s been 32 years since Dallas hosted a World Cup match. How much do you think Dallas’ soccer culture has changed since then? 

ANDY SWIFT: It has changed a lot, just like soccer culture in the U.S. has changed, and we’ve gone from a nation discovering the sport 32 years ago to developing into a soccer nation, so what’s happened in Dallas is reflective of what’s happened nationally.

But I think a lot of people are surprised, nationally, in this country and internationally as well about the history that soccer has in this market, even before 1994. It’s a strong soccer culture that goes back to the Dallas Tornado, one of the first teams in the NASL.

Obviously, FC Dallas is one of the pioneers in MLS as well, the Dallas Cup is one of the most important international youth tournaments in the world, and the roots of the women’s game and the women’s national team go back to the Dallas Sting.

When the USWNT needed to field a national team to go play in a tournament in China in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s, they used the Dallas Sting as the base for that team. They essentially sent that team to compete in China [in 1984], representing the U.S., so the history here goes back with development in youth soccer and professional soccer, but the 1994 World Cup was still a seminal moment just like it was in the rest of the country. It was a moment that helped raise awareness for the sport and helped introduce the sport to a lot of those that hadn’t followed it. It gave an opportunity for those that were already here and involved in the sport at a grassroots level, working to develop it at a grassroots level to further strengthen their efforts.

The World Cup coming to any country is a big deal, and it exposes it as a sport to those who normally don’t follow it. The difference is that now we’re a soccer nation: our market, specifically in North Texas, is further developed as a soccer market as well, so it’s a seminal moment, but it’s a seminal moment in a different way. Now I think it’s going to show how we are a soccer nation, how North Texas has really developed into a soccer market, and I think that’s the legacy of this tournament.

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