STOCKHOLM: No chance now, but wait till 1994, That’s former English star Bobby Charlton’s forecast for the US soccer team, a long shot in its first World Cup since 1950, but with plenty of promise down the road.
“The Americans have no chance in this World Cup, but they could be a surprise in 1991,” said Charlton, who was the guiding force behind the English team that won the 1966 World Cup at Wimble.
To become a challenger, American soccer has to overcome “a lot of problems first,” he said. One is the lack of a national league.
“In the U.S. they don’t have the grassroots, the growth from the bottom that we have in England,” Charlton said. “But once they start playing properly. I think there’s a future for the states. What US soccer needs is a structure, like American football.”
Charlton thinks soccer will get a big boost because the United States will host the 1994 finals. “They could get full houses in a lot of places,” he said. Maybe not for a match between Cameroon and Romania but the Americans will support a big event.”
The US proved six years ago that it could support big time soccer. During the Summer Olympics the soccer tournament drew 1,421,627 fans for an average of 44,426 per game. A record US crowd of 101,700 matched the gold medal between France and Brazil in California. Soccer, not track and field was the No. 1 spectator sport in the 1984 games.
Chariton fears that hooliganism, a continuing problem in the sport, could disrupt the World Cup finals next June in Italy.
“We don’t have problems inside the grounds,” he said, “The problem is when the fans travel.”
Article extracted from this publication >> March 30, 1990
