The United States is regarded as one of the top countries for women’s soccer. Not only with the national team being the most successful in the history of the sport, but the top-tierprofessional league (NSWL) is admired as well. However, in order to keep making the women’s game grow, the second-division will have a new league: the USL Super League.
First as a player, then as coach and now as sport business executive, Amanda Vandervort has worked for 20 years in soccer and now is the president of the USL Super League, which will start in 2023, right after the Women’s World Cup, with 10 to 12 teams in the first year.
Vandervort has experience working in all levels of soccer. She served as president of the Soccer Coaches Association in the US, then moved to Europe and worked as a Chief of the women’s office at FIFPro, before coming back to America and working as Vice President of Fan Engagement at Major League Soccer (MLS), for nearly a decade. Now, she’s embarking on a new journey to bring more opportunities to women and girls in soccer.
USL Super League: Expanding the women’s girl in the United States
With 20 years in the industry, Vandervort knows how it is to be a woman working in a business runed mostly by men. “It’s challenging but equally rewarding,”she said to Bolavip at Soccerex. “For me one of the most important parts of my career has been learning from everything, from the men’s game, from men in the industry, and being able to take that knowledge and apply it to build a really successful women’s professional league in the US.”
As a president of this new competition, she says equality is one of the core values of the project. “Players are going to be full professionals, and the pay is equal to our men,” Vandervort affirms. “It’s important to us to pay them equally and create equal standards and facilities.” These standards include pregnancy and maternity leave for the women across the league.
If Vandevort had to give a message for women and girls interested in playing soccer or being involved off the field, as she is, she would say to “have fun, first of all, soccer is about having fun,” she says, “live your dreams, if you really believe that you love soccer and you want to participate in this game, and you want to play as a professional, you can do that (…) Today we’re seeing more and more opportunities for girls and women to play soccer at all different levels, so there is a space and it’s a place where you can grow and build a career.”
