S. Robert "Bob" Contiguglia (born September 14, 1941) served as President of the

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

from 1998 to 2006. Among his achievements as President of U.S. Soccer were: successfully hosting the

1999 Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

, convincing

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

to relocate the 2003 Women's World Cup to the United States after the original plans to host it in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

fell through, the U.S. women's team winning gold at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, and hiring Bruce Arena as coach for the United States men's national team. In May 2018, Contiguglia was selected to the

National Soccer Hall of Fame The National Soccer Hall of Fame is a private, non-profit institution established in 1979 and currently located in Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The Hall of Fame honors soccer achievements in the United States. Induction ...

. Contiguglia has played, coached, and managed soccer at several different levels. He previously ran for President of U.S. Soccer in 1984, but lost to Werner Fricker. He served as President of U.S. Youth Soccer from 1990 to 1996. Contiguglia was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and raised on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. He later became a resident of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. He earned an undergraduate degree at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, majoring in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

with a minor in English.United States Soccer Federation Elects New Chief
Accessed March 7, 2015. He earned a medical degree at the SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn, and became a nephrologist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contiguglia, Robert American nephrologists Association football executives American soccer chairmen and investors 1941 births Living people Presidents of the United States Soccer Federation SUNY Downstate Medical Center alumni Columbia Lions men's soccer players Men's association football players not categorized by position American soccer players National Soccer Hall of Fame members