The dynamics that Cindy Parlow Cone faces in her reelection campaign as U.S. Soccer Federation president are pretty unusual.
It’s one thing to be the first woman to have held the job, and as a former U.S. national team star player at that. It’s another to have gained the job because her predecessor, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned amid scandal in early 2020. Then Cone had to win a one-year term in early 2021, in an election that ended up uncontested.
Only now, as U.S. Soccer’s four-year election cycle reaches its official presidential election year, is Cone running for a full term. To top off the unique circumstances, her opponent is that same predecessor — who was also Cone’s boss when she was vice president from Feb. 2019 to March 2020.
“When Carlos resigned and I became president, it was interesting to be thrown into it, quite possibly in one of the more challenging times in U.S. Soccer’s history,” Cone told The Inquirer in an exclusive interview on Monday. “On top of it, with the pandemic, I literally became president the day our country shut down … There were a lot of challenges, but working through it, and building up a team, and changing the culture at U.S. Soccer, I think this is why I feel like I want to do it again.”
Her reference to changing the culture is about a specific stretch of time. In the first half of 2019, a series of complaints about the Federation’s work culture was posted on the business networking website Glassdoor. The complaints became so fierce that they were featured in the New York Times in late June of that year, right in the middle of the U.S. women’s team’s World Cup title run.
“When I came on, I think everyone knew the Glassdoor reports of the ‘toxic culture’ at U.S. Soccer,” Cone said, invoking the specific language used in one of the complaints.
“I knew from the get-go that, one, we needed leadership, and we needed a senior team in place that was working together,” she said. “We needed to get rid…