As the soccer world picks up the pieces from an embarrassing World Cup exit, Fox Sports’ Alexi Lalas is the latest one to catch some strays from a fractured fandom.
“Entertainment Tonight” host Kevin Frazier has heard enough from Lalas as USA soccer turns on each other in seemingly every way possible, with people lining up to criticize the team’s World Cup performance and its overall structure as a program from the bottom up — including the pay-to-play model.
“We gotta stop Alexi Lalas, man. What’s going on? What’s happening? Wow. Alexi, slow down, bro. Slow down,” Frazier said on the “Dan Patrick Show” on Thursday regarding Lalas’ takes on the team.
Frazier added that Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry “wanted to take him out” while working with him on the Fox Sports desk.
Lalas has been one of the few defenders of the current youth soccer system that has plagued the sport in the States, as kids and their parents often have to pay big sums of money – upwards of $10,000 per season at youth levels – to compete in travel leagues.
Lalas previously said he’d love it if “soccer was free to all,” but has asked, “Who is going to pay for all this free soccer?”
Frazier came in hot, having heard enough after another disappointing run for the USMNT in the international spectacle.
He took issues with Lalas’ views on the pay-to-play system.
“I’m like Alexi, what are you talking about? You benefitted from it — you know like a kid from the suburbs,” he said. “But back when the U.S. sucked, sucked, sucked in Italy, you were part of the problem. You are part of the problem. Stop talking about U.S. soccer like you know it. You don’t.
“I was so hot when I read — he had a recent tweet about ‘Oh, there’s nothing wrong with the system, blah blah blah.’ I was like shut up. Shut up.”
Lalas responded to Frazier — the co-host of “Entertainment Tonight” — in the comments of the clip from the show’s X account.
“Hey Kev, I’m good, but thanks for your concern. I’ve consistently said I’d love soccer to be free,” Lalas wrote Friday night.
“But who should pay for free soccer? Also, do you think those who work in youth soccer are greedy and should make less money? If so, why? Hope you’re well and I respect your passion.”
Frazier has raised these problems previously with those who believe that soccer in this country is being held back by exorbitant costs.
“We don’t want it to be the No. 1 sport [in the country],” Frazier continued.
“We want it to be the most profitable sport. And so what they’re doing is they’re making money off of kids in the suburbs. But those kids in the city…”
Lalas, who came up in the United States’ development program and eventually played for the USA from 1991-98, has said that youth soccer is a product that parents “pay for willingly,” and that the community just assumes that coaches and programs are all greedy and trying to rip everyone off.
As for solutions to the problem, some have brought up mirroring the system that Germany put into place during the post-2000 youth development overhaul.
The German government built 390 regional training bases so that there was at least one within 50 miles of any kid looking to learn the sport.
The investment cost the country €48 million after its launch in 2002 and cost € 520 million from 2002-10, but the success has been excellent for the country.
