By OkayGoal 
Lucas Boland-Imagn Images
Matt Crocker has abruptly left his role as sporting director of the United States Soccer Federation. Crocker will, according to Fox Sports and other reports, take over a similar role with Saudi Arabia’s federation.
The timing of Crocker’s departure, just two months before the start of the Men’s World Cup on home soil, stunned the U.S. soccer community upon its announcement on Tuesday.
U.S. Soccer said that newly instilled chief operating officer Dan Helfrich “will provide executive oversight and support across the Federation’s sporting operations.” He will work with assistant sporting director Oguchi Onyewu and head of development for the women’s youth national team Tracey Kevins in the interim.
The new most immediately effects the men’s program that is about to play a World Cup on home soil, but Crocker oversaw the sporting endeavors of the entire federation, for both the men and women. Crocker orchestrated the surprise hiring of Emma Hayes as U.S. women’s national team head coach at the end of 2023. Hayes joined the federation full-time in 2024 and won an Olympic gold medal in her 10th match in charge.
“It has been a privilege to be part of U.S. Soccer during such an important period for the sport in this country,” Crocker said in a statement.
In a statement, U.S. Soccer CEO and secretary general JT Batson said Crocker “helped guide important steps across our sporting organization, and we’re grateful for his contributions.”
Helfrich, Batson, and U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone will work together on “next steps,” according to the federation.
The contract of U.S. men’s national team head coach ends this summer, following the World Cup.
Hayes and the U.S. women are just over a year from beginning their World Cup campaign.
And the U.S. is about to be the primary host, alongside Mexico and Canada, of the 2026 Men’s World Cup. (Saudi Arabia, where Crocker will work, is also in the Men’s World Cup field and could conceivably meet the U.S. men in the knockout stage.)
The U.S. is expected to be the primary host of the 2031 Women’s World Cup, and its bid alongside Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica is unopposed. Yet, FIFA’s expected approval of the bid was recently pushed back from the FIFA Congress this month in Vancouver to a date later in 2026.
That news comes with the White House and U.S. President Donald Trump yet to sign-off on government guarantees, and as 2026 Men’s World Cup host cities become increasingly and publicly unhappy with the financial structure of the tournament, as has played out in Foxborough, Mass.
The Athletic reported last week that Trump wants FIFA to adopt a transgender policy and alluded to a connection between that and the delay in approval of the 2031 Women’s World Cup bid.
The International Olympic Committee recently adopted a policy barring transgender athletes in women’s events.
