The United States men’s national team is out of Copa America.
There were plenty of controversial moments that led to the USMNT losing in Copa America group play to Uruguay. The lone goal of the game, scored by Uruguay, appeared to have a player offside. Uruguay was allowed to continue playing despite a referee signaling for a yellow card on the U.S. that should have stopped play. Play was later ruled dead for a foul when Christian Pulisic had an advantage along the sideline.
Though all of those moments undoubtedly had an impact on the game, the result, a defeat for the United States, was one that stings a team that felt like it had long been on the rise. Yet a series of rough international performances since Gregg Berhalter returned as the team’s head coach in 2023 has left many questioning whether he is still the right coach for the job.
The stunning elimination on home soil for the United States caused some to reflect on Berhalter’s initial hiring in 2018, and wonder whether his brother, Jay Berhalter, might have had a hand in hiring him for the position.
How could that be the case, and is there any truth to the belief that nepotism landed Gregg Berhalter the USMNT job? Sporting News takes a look back.
MORE: Calls for Gregg Berhalter to be dismissed intensify after Copa defeat
Who is Jay Berhalter?
Jay Berhalter is currently the executive vice president of business development at Major League Soccer and Soccer United Marketing. He has been the executive vice president with MLS since 2022.
However, prior to that position, he had been the chief commercial officer for U.S. Soccer. He left the position in 2020 following reports of negative, anonymous workplace reviews that criticized both Jay Berhalter and then-U.S. Soccer CEO Dan Flynn of leading an organization that did not listen to its workers, according to a 2019 reporter in The New York Times.
Flynn had been expected to retire during the summer of 2019, and many viewed Jay Berhalter as his likely successor. However after Flynn stepped down in September 2019, following the report, a U.S. Soccer source told Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl that Berhalter was eliminated from the pool of candidates to replace Flynn because Berhalter was not well received in reviews from U.S. Soccer employees. Jay Berhalter left U.S. Soccer not long after the report came out.
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In The New York Times’ report on workplace dissatisfaction, one anonymous review on GlassDoor noted that “We are okay with nepotism here,” while mentioning both Jay and Gregg Berhalter. Much of the report noted that top-level executives at U.S. Soccer prevented advancement for others in the organization because the same group of executives have held the senior roles for more than a decade.
Did Jay Berhalter hire his brother Gregg to be the USMNT head coach?
That report only fueled the fire that Jay Berhalter might have influenced the decision to hire his brother as the USMNT head coach. In his role as U.S. Soccer chief commercial officer, Jay Berhalter did not appoint Gregg to the role, but he had a technical role that saw him hire Earnie Stewart to be U.S. Soccer’s general manager.
A FanSided report noted there were 33 candidates and 11 finalists for the USMNT head-coaching position, but Stewart interviewed only two candidates for the USMNT position: Berhalter and former FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja. Ultimately, Berhalter was the selection.
U.S. Soccer maintained from the start that Jay Berhalter was not involved in hiring Gregg Berhalter to be the USMNT head coach.
In the 2019 U.S. Soccer report into Gregg Berhalter’s alleged domestic violence incident, Claudio Reyna reportedly interviewed for the USMNT general manager position. The report noted Reyna was asked in a panel, on which Jay Berhlater was a panelist, who he would recommend as the team’s head coach if he were named general manager. Reyna said he would recommend Gregg Berhalter as the head coach.
That statement fueled further speculation that Jay Berhalter’s presence on the panel forced candidates to recommend Gregg Berhalter to be the head coach.
This background info from the US Soccer report is why Jay Berhalter’s involvement with the 2019 interviews for the GM position was a pretty blatant conflict of interest. His presence created a climate where GM candidates like Reyna may have felt they had to recommend Gregg pic.twitter.com/0FHj20BfQI
— Steven Bank (@ProfBank) March 13, 2023
Gregg Berhalter was again named head coach in 2023, continuing his run as the leader of the program. That second appointment came after his brother had left U.S. Soccer. However, that hasn’t stopped speculation as to whether Jay Berhalter might have had a hand in bringing his brother back as the head coach.
Eric Wynalda, a former analyst with FS1 and ESPN, said in an interview with BolaVIP that both Jay Berhalter and MLS commissioner Don Garber sit on the U.S. Soccer board even after Jay Berhalter left. Wynalda said that Matt Crocker, who in April 2023 was named Stewart’s successor as technical director, was “brought in by Jay Berhalter, who is still the puppet master in this entire operation” and claimed Crocker was “brought in to do absolutely nothing.” Crocker brought back Gregg Berhalter to be the USMNT head coach in 2023.
There has never been any official word that Jay Berhalter was directly involved in the hiring of his brother. Instead, the only connections have been that he has hired those who wound up hiring Gregg Berhalter. As many speculate how Gregg Berhalter got the position, those connections will be all it takes to draw the line to his brother.