What makes soccer a compelling subject for your scholarship?

Soccer is effectively a private business with a public mission, which makes it a rich area for research and writing. Unlike most American sports, where the league is the governing body and sets its own rules, soccer is governed by national and international organizations that are largely unaccountable despite ostensibly being governed by their members. Given the influx of money in the sport in the last 50 years, especially at the global level, this has created significant legal pressures on outdated corporate governance structures. Compounding those pressures is the fact that soccer is considered a public good by its fans, despite being run as a private enterprise. This has increased the calls for transparency and accountability from both politicians and fans.

You recently told SoccerAmerica that you started playing when you were 4 years old. Please describe some highlights of your playing career.

I grew up playing rec, travel and high school soccer in Cleveland, Ohio. I was a three-year letterman in soccer and was recruited to play in college, but I was also recruited by college debate programs. I ultimately concluded that I was better at debate than soccer and decided it would be better for my career to hone my analytical and argumentation skills rather than my left-footed cross. I continued to play soccer in college and law school, playing on a University of Chicago Law School team that won the university-wide championship, and then went on to play in adult leagues and in regular pick-up games for years.

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