Marcos is off to rediscover his Portuguese roots
Francisco Marcos, commissioner of the A-League and president of the umbrella USL, is spending the next 12 months in his native Portugal, but he still maintains a firm grasp on the reigns of the organization he started 15 years ago.
SOCCER AMERICA: YouÆre living in Lisbon.
FRANCISCO MARCOS: Yes, I am. IÆm on a quasi-sabbatical. IÆm going to be spending, officially, the next 12 months here. Spending one week a month in Florida, and on the phone and on the computer, all the other good stuff, the rest of the time.
SA: What brought the move on?
FM: ItÆs a little of everything. This was part of my agreement when they bought the old Umbro out and acquired the league as well. IÆm looking to the future as to whether IÆm going to sell the rest of my stock to them at the end of 2001 and then stay with them in some fashion or another. Will I stay as an executive consultant from 30,000 feet above? Or whatever.
But part of this has to do strictly with me and my family, without necessarily forgetting about the league. My son is nine years old, and IÆm desperate for him to learn Portuguese and the Portuguese culture, history and all that kind of thing. IÆm building a house in my hometown.
My family has been here since June 1. IÆve been coming here once a month, the reverse of what IÆll be doing the next 12 months, to get my family settled in, my son registered in school, get an apartment in the Lisbon area ready and all that kind of stuff.
ItÆs exciting overall because IÆve come back to my roots, including my soccer roots. I want to be a full-time fan of Sporting Lisbon, my longtime club. My son and I have both become members of Sporting Lisbon, and weÆre going to sit in the South Curve most of the time with the rest of the crazies and all that good stuff.
IÆm hoping to be doing some writing about it as well.
SA: What does the move mean in terms of your USL responsibilities?
FM: My title and my position donÆt change. IÆm still president and COO. All of the key meetings I will attend and preside over. I will be doing conference calls every week, and I will be doing daily calls such as this one. What I wonÆt be doing is telling [Associate Commissioner] David [Askinas] that we need to repaint some walls. IÆm not going to worry about that. IÆm not going to worry about the day-to-day running of the office, but IÆm still involved in everything from planning budgets, staffing and what have you. IÆm just not going to be leaning over DavidÆs shoulder every single hour. ThereÆs a lot of reasons behind that, including the fact that at the end of 2001 we need to sit back and decide if IÆm going to stay doing this, if I want to do it, or if they want me to keep on doing it.
Thankfully, in the last year, IÆve gone from dinosaur to being an Internet and e-mail semi-freak. That makes it a little bit easier to do this. I also have an opportunity to reload, if in fact I remain on board. ItÆs been 15 years now of doing nothing but USL, and we all need to see, myself included, if I have built something. Is it a castle in the sand? Is it built with glue? Am I the glue? We need to find that out.
by Soccer America associate editor Poul Swain