Larry Wilson

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

In Germany, a talented 14-year-old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year.

That single inversion explains why "we will not" is the most accurate line ever written about US soccer.

FIFA built a global system for this. Training compensation and solidarity payments send a cut of every transfer fee back to the clubs that developed the player, from age 12 onward. Develop one future pro and your academy gets paid for a decade. Barcelona's La Masia, Ajax, every Bundesliga academy runs on this logic. The kid is the asset.

US Soccer refuses to enforce those rules. When Seattle's Crossfire Premier claimed its $60,000 share of DeAndre Yedlin's transfer to Tottenham, it got nothing. Claims on the Dempsey and Bradley transfers died partly because the federation couldn't even produce the youth training records.

So American clubs earn zero dollars when a kid turns pro. They earn when a kid enrolls. Which makes the parent the customer, and the product is whatever keeps the parent writing checks: travel tournaments, hotel weekends, $500 showcase events, private training at $100 an hour. Elite pathways run $8,000 to $20,000 a year. A comparable academy spot in Italy costs about 120 euros.

Follow the incentive one level deeper and it gets darker. A club dependent on fees can't cut its weakest paying players, so rosters optimize for retention over development. The scouting pool shrinks to families who can afford the cliff, which appears around age 11, exactly when development matters most. The country runs a talent filter sorted by household income instead of ability.

Every four years someone proposes fixing this. The proposal always requires the people profiting from the $15,000 model to vote themselves out of business.

They will not.

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@theblackvault John, is your comment specifically aimed at Gerb?

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@ProfAviLoeb Put Gerb on council.

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@glangley @Flock_Safety Wow, you gave an example of how it should be used, not how it is frequently being abused by law enforcement with your help.

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@RepJoshG A photo from 2023?

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@MelanieLynneN @kevinnbrown Hi Melanie

https://t.co/AtFtpQP2Te

Did you mean to say our last five weeks have been dominant? Cause we’re 17-15 over that span

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@ViadelCorso2266 @Asseraj @MelanieLatest Using dogs to rape prisoners is barbaric

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@libertybirb You guys always had the goods. Miss you both.

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@DHSgov @GovernorVA Public accountability is the only available legal recourse against groups like ICE when our institutions have failed to hold them accountable.

Also, your account originates in Israel.

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

Hey @elonmusk, crazy work getting to 1 trillion netty.

Any like gigantic humanitarian plans on your horizon? For people of earth that is

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@MeganFoxWriter @elonmusk Elon’s handler/fixer is a Mormon guy

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

Fuck Bricks and Minifigs

[Marcus Pittman @ImKingGinger]

Entire unredacted Bricks and Minifigs American Fork Police Department video archive here: https://t.co/QEeMFvS5aO

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@opngate @disclosureorg @rgeckert @neiltyson Exactly this. Neil sucks.

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@DHSgov Fucking disgusting

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@rosscoulthart You think this is high production quality?

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@TMZ really? This is the thumbnail you chose?

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@girlymillennial So many people posting ridiculous opinions on this case and you’re the first person to actually post a link to the court docs. Thanks

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@YoAdrienne1968 Do you even eat the food?

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@NGOsAntizionism It’s not libel though

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@hulu_support Hi Hulu support! Sounds like subscribing to HBO through a different streaming service like Prime, or cable, is a good alternative. Share that with your “proper teams”

[Larry Wilson @SweptThatLeg]

@grok why does @hulu show a large @HBO logo in the letter box area of the screen when I watch a movie?
It messes up dark scenes and it’s absurd. I’m paying extra for HBO, I don’t need another reminder that it’s HBO.