Who killed the American Open Pyramid?

With the explosion of the Open Pyramid movement in the United States over the last few years more and more people have started digging in to the history of the formation of the current structure of the USSF's pyramid. Recently some wonderful documents have started to surface including this gem from a USSF white paper...

According to a 1989 white paper by U.S. Soccer that was revealed today by Daniel Bonaire on Twitter from documents gleaned from veteran soccer journos, the federation was working on a three-tier structure in the United States, in an open system with the opportunity for any club in the United States to participate. The plan was supported in 1988 by U.S. Soccer, according to the New York Times, under the presidency of Werner Fricker, who was head of the U.S. Soccer Federation until 1990. A faction of US Soccer membership wasn't happy with the idea, however, and took steps to get Fricker ousted from U.S. Soccer and replaced.

That group would go on to create Major League Soccer.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE


Read the entire USSF white paper after the jump...