Phil Woosnam, Long-Time NASL Commissioner, Dies

Phil Woosnam, the Welsh professional player who came to the United States and served as commissioner of the North American Soccer League for 15 seasons, died Friday in Georgia, as reported by the New York Times.

After playing more than 300 matches for Leyton Orient, Aston Villa and West Ham United, and earning 17 caps for Wales, Woosnam came to the United States in 1966 and played for the NASL Atlanta Chiefs beginning in '67 and became coach of the team in '68.  The following year he became coach of the U.S. National Team.  A year later he became commissioner of the NASL, a post he held for 15 seasons.

I had occasion to get to know Phil a bit when I worked for an upstart soccer publication called Soccer Weekly, that lasted just one year.  He was a nice enough guy and as I recall reasonably accessible, but we always had the impression that he felt the league didn't need us.  We were hoping for some contacts with sponsors as potential advertisers but never got it.

Afterall, the NASL was on an upswing, growing from nine teams and average attendance of 5,954 (usually in large stadiums) in 1973 to a high point of 24 teams and average attendance and average crowds of 14,440 in 1980.  But it wasn't part of the sporting fabric of the country.  It wasn't regularly on television or in Sports Illustrated, or talked about at the local bars.  And that's where Phil and the other powers of the league missed out: by not helping the grass roots local media.  Maybe the league would have ultimately failed anyway, given the over-expansion, the tanking of the economy in the '80s, and the over-spending on player salaries, all of which contributed to the demise shortly before the 1985 season.  But the free publicity of lot os small media outlets around the country couldn't have hurt.

Phil Woosnam went from his commissioner's post to the marketing arm of U.S. Soccer and is given some credit for getting the men's World Cup for the United States in 1994.  In 1997 he was elected to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, a well-deserved accolade.