U S Soccer Federation

Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, toured the Kremlin Monday in Moscow, even as military vehicles rolled through the streets outside. Although he and his wife, Georgina, were told beforehand that it had been announced on state radio that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was ill and had resigned, Rothenberg was unprepared for the sight that greeted him as he left the Kremlin.

UCLA's Chris Henderson announced that he will forgo his remaining two years of collegiate eligibility and sign a contract with the U.S. Soccer Federation to play for the national team.

After coaching Mexico and Costa Rica in soccer's last two World Cups, Yugoslavian Bora Milutinovic said Thursday night he is eager to coach the United States in the next one in 1994. Milutinovic said from his Mexico City home that he will meet Monday or Tuesday in Los Angeles with Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. "I think there will be an offer, but I'm not sure," he said. Rothenberg would confirm only that the meeting has been scheduled.

The election of Alan Rothenberg to the presidency of the U.S. Soccer Federation was as sure as it was swift. Rothenberg, former president of the Clippers, mounted a surgically efficient campaign that was well-organized and well-backed. His resounding defeat of three-term president Werner Fricker last Sunday signaled the end of soccer's car-pool and bake-sale mentality. The sport's agenda is now set. The campaign was about money and control.

The three-way race for the presidency of the U.S. Soccer Federation is generating an atmosphere of acrimony and, in its wake, exposing the factionalism that has been a part of soccer's landscape for generations. Today's election will not be merely for the presidency--and the four-year term that will carry through the 1994 World Cup to be held in the United States--but also to set the agenda for the sport at a time of great change and much promise.