U.S. Soccer announces a historic $30 million gift for the women’s program

Tuesday, U.S. Soccer announced that women’s soccer mogul Michele Kang will give the organization $30 million. This is the biggest grant ever made to the girls’ and women’s programs of the organization.

Through the next five years, the gift will help girls get more chances to compete and help female players, coaches, and referees get better at their jobs.

“Michele Kang’s gift will change the game of soccer for girls and women in the US,” U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. “It will impact generations of women and girls in our game.”

The gift comes just a few months after the US won its fifth Olympic gold medal. It was a big comeback for one of the best teams after a poor performance at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

This weekend, Kang’s Washington Spirit will play the Orlando Pride in the NWSL championship title match. Since becoming full owner of the D.C.-based team in 2022, Kang has become one of the most powerful owners in the sport.

She started the first group for more than one women’s football team last year. It includes the French club Olympique Lyonnais Feminin and the English team London City Lionesses.

Kang said the funding would help grow talent in all areas. For example, it would double the number of national team camps and create a digital platform for finding talent so that “no talented player is overlooked.”

She said that the U.S. can’t stay on top without big changes to their youth system, which she said was worse than those in England and France, even though the sport is becoming more famous in the U.S.

“The owners of the NWSL all came in with the goal of investing in and growing the sport, which we have been doing.” “So the results are pretty amazing, because both the number of viewers and the number of people who come to the show have grown,” she told reporters in New York.

“But this is not going to be permanent unless the entire sort of the pyramid structure and the ecosystem is there.”

With her money, more licensed female coaches will be trained (the goal is to double the number of licensed female coaches in the US from 40,000 to 80,000) and more female judges will be trained.

“Women’s sports have been undervalued and overlooked for far too long,” said Kang.

“I am committed to raising the standard of excellence in women’s soccer — both on and off the pitch — by delivering the resources female athletes need to reach their full potential.”