Perspectives: It’s not ‘football’ here, but soccer cases abound

The proposition last summer by President Donald Trump to change the American term “soccer” to “football” has advocates of both sports murmuring.

The president made the remark after attending the FIFA Club World Cup final soccer match in the nation’s capital last spring, shortly before receiving a FIFA award in preparation for this year’s  World Cup Championship tournament. The tournament has been played at 11 venues in this country for the first time, along with five in co-hosts Mexico and Canada. The 104 matches started on June 12 in Toronto and will culminate Sunday, July 19, at the MetLife stadium in New Jersey, outside of New York City.

Alas,  none of the three host teams will be in the final two semifinal games  this week leading up to the grand finale. All three lost in the Round of 16.  On July 4, Canada was shut out by Morocco 3-0 in Houston, and Mexico was knocked out at home 2-1 by England. A couple of nights later, the United  States was beaten decisively  in Seattle by Belgium  4-1 to the dismay of many Americans who were enthralled by the team’s early successes, including soccer buffs as well as the uninitiated who probably couldn’t tell a yellow card from a yellow belly  sapsucker.

Like the National Basketball Association, which has had eight different champions in the past eight years, including this year’s New York Knicks, the FIFA titlists have varied in recent years, no two-peats in this century.

The president’s observation last year that he “can do that, I think I could do that” with an executive order changing the name of the game  may not be an idle one, considering his alteration of  the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America” in the early days of his current second term. See Perspectives, “Gulf name change recalls Calhoun case here” in the March 3, 2025, edition of Minnesota Lawyer.

Whether the name of the game played in this country dating back to 1866 changes in the hearts and minds of followers and participants of the sport remains to be seen. But regardless of nomenclature, the sport of soccer has had its share of litigation  in various  forums here in Minnesota.

The denouement of the five-week extravaganza that attracts enormous attention around the globe, including here in Minnesota, provides an opportune occasion to review how the game has by whatever means made its impact on, and been affected by, jurisprudence in this state.

“Football” [soccer] is a simple game; 22 men [and women] chase a ball for 90 minutes.”
English soccer broadcaster Gary Lineker (1960- )

*****

“A winner is a person [who] gets up one more time than she is knocked down.”
U.S. women’s soccer star Mia Hamm (1972- )

*****

“Soccer is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
Soccer immortal Pelé (1940-2022)

Job jousts

Several cases decided by the state and federal courts have dealt with soccer-related jobs.

In Wright v. Robbie, 1988 WL 123222 (Minn. Ct. App. 1988) (unpublished), the ousted general manager of the Minnesota Strikers professional soccer team sued for breach of contract under a two-year agreement with the team after he was fired following the club’s first year in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

A Hennepin County District Court judge granted summary judgment for the ousted executive, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed. Although the contract stated that salary was “guaranteed” for only the first year, the “plain reading” of the contract and intent of the parties was for two years of compensation. This was reflected in another paragraph of the contract, which provided that if the club were sold to “another entity … any new entity shall guarantee [his] employment … through the duration” of the contract.

A high school teacher licensed to coach soccer failed to obtain reinstatement after other unlicensed personnel were hired to coach the girls’ varsity soccer team in Hartzberg v. Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 196, 1997 WL 292175 (Minn. Ct. App. 1997) (unpublished).

The coach did not have his contract renewed after 13 years due to complaints from many quarters, and his next two successors were not licensed to coach soccer.

The Court of Appeals upheld the school district’s position under Minn. Stat. sec. 125.191, which allows school boards to hire coaches who are unlicensed if they are deemed to have the “knowledge and experience necessary to coach the sport.” This gave the school district the “authority to hire the most qualified applicant regardless of licensure.”

A youth soccer program coordinator was entitled to damages and reinstatement of his job because of age discrimination in Kehoe v. Anheuser Busch, Inc., 96 F.3d 1095 (8th Cir. 1996).

The 61-year old man was terminated from the coordinator position and passed over for a newly created administrative position, which went to a 23-year old former summer intern. Following a trial for age discrimination, the man won a jury award of $60,000 in damages and an order for reinstatement to the next available soccer position.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed because the employer’s grounds for denying him the new position — his lack of capabilities and competence — was pretextual. Discrimination was reflected in disparaging statements that were made about the claimant, including terming him an “old fart,” calling the place where he worked a “retirement center” where he had been “put out to pasture,” and referring to giving him a gift of “senior golf.”

But a gender-discrimination soccer claim failed in Grandson v. University of Minnesota, 272 F.3d 568 (8th Cir. 2001).

The case was brought as a class action by female students at the University of Minnesota who sought injunctive relief and monetary damages for unequal treatment under Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson dismissed the case, and the 8th Circuit affirmed.

One of the claimants, a varsity women’s soccer player at the Duluth campus, could not pursue her charge of failure to grant her a scholarship under the “rigorous standards” for damage claims under Title IX because there was no evidence of “prior notice to a University official with authority to address the [complaint] and a response demonstrating deliberate indifference to the alleged violation.”

Soccer sites

Sites for soccer have also been the subject of lively litigation.

In Star Centers, Inc v. Faegre & Benson, 644 N.W.2d 72 (Minn. 2002), claims of malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty were dismissed against a law firm that allegedly failed to disclose to a client the financial problems of a prospective lender, which the firm had learned while defending the financier in a separate lawsuit.

The firm’s nondisclosure to its current client, who was seeking to develop an indoor soccer facility, was not actionable because the firm “did not obtain information from [the other litigation] that was material to its representation” of its soccer developer client in this case.

Creation of an athletic center, including soccer fields, at a historic site at Fort Snelling did not violate the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA) in State By Fort Snelling State Park Association v. Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, 673 N.W.2d 169 (Minn. Ct. App. 2003).

A Hennepin County District Court judge denied declaratory and injunctive relief that would have prevented the Minneapolis Park Board from converting the fort’s polo grounds to a site for soccer fields and other sports. The Court of Appeals affirmed.

While the century-old polo facility was protected by MERA as a “historical resource,” the soccer pitches and venues for other sports in the area would not cause “material adverse effect” to the site; the development would have some “positive effects of reinvigorating the area on the presently abandoned historical buildings”; and it would provide means by which “more people would learn the history of the [fort] by visiting the site.”

A YMCA summer camp, including special soccer youth programs, was exempted from real estate taxes as charity in Young Men’s Christian Association-Olson v. County of Cass, 1987 WL 12473 (Minn. Tax Court 1987).

The Tax Court concluded that the camp qualified for exemption under Minn. Stat. sec. 272.02, subd. 1(6), and Article X, Section 1, of the state constitution as a charitable institution, noting its stated purpose of “being helpful to others without immediate expectation of material reward.” Since it operated at a financial loss and was available to all youths, “regardless of race, color, and creed,” it satisfied charitable standards for tax exemption.

Perspectives Problem: What country has won the most FIFA World Cups? Answer below. 

Injury issues

In Rasivong v. Lakewood Community College, 504 N.W.2d 778 (Minn. Ct. App. 1993), a soccer player shot during a gang fight that erupted at a soccer festival could not sue the state community college where the event occurred.

Reversing a Ramsey County District Court judge, the Court of Appeals held that the school’s decisions not to cancel the event or hire more security guards, despite rumors of potential “trouble” between youth gangs, fell within the “discretionary” action statute, Minn. Stat. sec. 3.736, subd. 3(b), which immunizes state institutions, including community colleges. The college had no duty to warn of potential trouble because the shooting assault “was not foreseeable.”

A drive-by shooting at a soccer field in Richfield resulted in a conviction of the driver on first-degree murder in State v. Souvannarath, 545 N.W.2d 30 (Minn. 1996).

Upholding a conviction of first-degree murder in Hennepin County District Court, the Supreme Court rejected the driver’s claim of insufficient evidence. He was “much more than just passively acquiescent” in the incident, since he gave the pistol to a passenger, who did the shooting, and then “disposed of the murder weapon,” which constituted aiding and abetting first-degree murder.

Soccer is growing in popularity in Minnesota and the rest of the country. The ongoing World Cup extravaganza will probably generate more participants and followers of the game and, inevitably, more litigation too.

Answer: Brazil (5).

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PERSPECTIVES POINTERS

Minnesota 2026 High School Soccer Champions

Boys

Edina: Class 3A

Blake: Class 2A

St. Cloud Cathedral: Class 1A

*****

Girls 

Stillwater: 3A

Mahtomedi: 2A

Providence Academy: 1A

Marshall H. Tanick is an attorney with the Twin Cities law firm of Meyer, Njus, Tanick, Linder & Robbins, PA.