Lost Locker Room: The Collapse of Global Premier Soccer

by Stephen Griffin

I had a FRONT ROW SEAT– watching egos, greed and corruption in action. I never thought I would find myself involved in an international criminal investigation led by the U.S. Department of Justice. All this… because I wanted to be involved in youth sports.In October 2019, the U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies, executed a search and seizure warrant at the headquarters of Global Premier Soccer, one of the largest youth soccer organizations in the United States. Who could have known that an international fraudulent visa scheme had been perpetrated inside a youth soccer club? Or, that professional soccer clubs had also enabled and participated in the scheme.The next eighteen months would not only reveal who was involved , but exactly how it was executed, and the scope and scale of the scheme. It seemed that every day more evidence and testimony came to light as former employees and victims found the courage to come forward and, effectively, crowdsource the investigation.It quickly became apparent that the youth coaches had been victimized - underpaid, over-worked and provided substandard living arrangements. Some suffered even worse treatment. Unfortunately, we realized that the fraud didn’t end with obtaining fraudulent visas for soccer coaches.There would be other victims. Perhaps this one youth soccer club would pose an existential threat to the U.S. soccer system as we know it.StoryTellerUK2021

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 10, 2021