Ex-USWNT star, Cindy Parlow Cone re-elected U.S. Soccer President

By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women’s Football Journalist

Two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup winner and incumbent President of United States Soccer Federation (USSF), Cindy Marie Parlow Cone has been re-elected for a new term of four years as she fended off a challenge from her predecessor, Carlos Cordeiro.

Cone won 52.9% of the weighted vote from the USSF’s National Council, and will now serve a new, four-year term that will expire in 2026, just a few months before the U.S. will co-host that year’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico. Saturday’s tally was the closest final ballot in U.S. Soccer history.

“The moment of division is now in the past. We are one Federation. We are one team. I promise to be the leader for all of us soccer,” Cone said following the vote.

 “I have never been more excited and more hopeful about the future of our beautiful game. Our national teams are young, exciting and full of promise. Our professional leagues are at the vanguard of driving our sport for the grassroots soccer as vibrant, healthy and changing lives every day. And we are assumed to host at least one World Cup and show the world what we have to offer”, she said.

Continuing Cone said: “Now is the time for all of us to work together. No more divisions. We don’t have time for all of that. Our moment is now and I promise you that each and every one of you have a friend and a partner and as president of U.S. Soccer.”

As recently as three months ago, Cone looked like she might run unopposed. She had taken over following Cordeiro’s resignation in 2020 when legal filings from the USSF in the equal pay lawsuit made disparaging remarks about the women’s players stating they “do not perform equal work requiring equal skill [and] effort” because “the overall soccer-playing ability required to compete at the senior men’s national team level is materially influenced by the level of certain physical attributes such as speed and strength.”

Following Cordeiro’s resignation, Cone navigated the USSF through the COVID-19 pandemic, and under her watch the USSF secured a settlement in the equal pay lawsuit, as well as a new media rights deal with Turner Sports.

But dissatisfaction with Cone’s performance within the grassroots state associations led some voters to push Cordeiro to run for his old job. There were also concerns that the USSF under Cone was squandering an opportunity to grow the sport that comes with hosting the World Cup hence Cordeiro announced his intention to run in early January.

Yet Cone was able to secure enough votes- she secured several public endorsements from members of the Athletes Council, which held 33.3 percent of the weighted vote — to win re-election. On the eve of Saturday’s election, Cone had received the endorsements of 32 players on the United States women’s national team.

A serial winner in her playing days, Cone scored 15 goals 60 games playing for Atlanta Beat FC from 2001–2003 but she excelled as United States Women National Team (USWNT) from 1995-2006 scoring a total of 75 goals in 158 international matches for Team USA. She played against Nigeria’s Super Falcons in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Group A tie at Soldier Field in Chicago with Nkiru Okosieme scoring in the 2nd minute.

Cone previously served on U.S. Soccer’s Referee Committee, Medical Advisory Committee, Appeals Committee, the Athletes’ Council, and Youth Task Force.

She was elected as interim Vice President of USSF on February 16, 2019 and re-elected for a four-year term in February 2020. In March 2020, she was named President after the previous president suddenly resigned. In February 2022, she was elected to a full four-year term in her own right.

Parlow Cone was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2018,[3] the Tennessee State Soccer Association Hall of Fame in 2019, [4] and the Memphis Sports Hall of Fame the same year.