US Club Soccer, LaLiga North America expand long-term partnership

(Via US Club Soccer) – US Club Soccer and LaLiga North America have announced an expansion of their technical partnership first signed in August 2015.

The long-term extension continues a valuable relationship in youth soccer that has provided various coaching education resources to the American game, directly educating thousands of coaches and impacting even more players. It also points to LaLiga North America’s commitment to growing soccer in the U.S.

LaLiga North America is a joint venture between LaLiga and Relevent Sports, which serves as the exclusive representation of LaLiga in the U.S. and Canada for all business and development activities. The operation supports the league’s growth in the U.S. and Canada through consumer-related activities including youth academies, development of youth soccer coaches, marketing agreements, consumer activations, exhibition matches and plans to have an official LaLiga Santander match played in the U.S.

“Growing the game at the grassroots and youth level is one of the main strategic pillars of our joint venture,” said LaLiga North America CEO Boris Gartner. “US Club Soccer’s expertise in the growth of soccer clubs and the development of players of all ages make them perfect partners to help us achieve our goals.”

“The partnership with LaLiga has been so beneficial for our members. We knew from the beginning of our partnership that LaLiga North America genuinely wanted to help improve soccer in the United States, and they’re delivering on that promise,” said US Club Soccer CEO Kevin Payne. “We believe we’ve only scratched the surface in terms of our collective impact and are excited to bring even more resources to our members from the best professional league in the world.”

The staple of the US Club Soccer/LaLiga North America partnership has been LaLiga Formation Methodology, a coaching education series led by UEFA-PRO coaches and LaLiga methodology experts, Gari Fullaondo, Hugo Blanco and Zunbeltz Fullaondo. Through 14 courses – ranging from introductory to intermediate levels and soon, an expert level – throughout the country, nearly 1,500 coaches have participated from more than 400 clubs and organizations. LaLiga has also highlighted the annual United Soccer Coaches Convention, delivering educational sessions in the classroom and on the fields with US Club Soccer to tens of thousands of spectators. In total, LaLiga instructors have devoted about 350 total hours of instruction to help develop better coaches, and in turn, better players.

In 2019 and beyond, the two organizations plan to increase their Players First commitment by creating additional coaching development opportunities, extending LaLiga scouting to US Club Soccer members, offering exclusive benefits to Players First-licensed clubs and others.