Sakiewicz has come under a lot of fire recently from the Philadelphia Union fans and his latest plans may have fans scratching their heads a little harder.
In a recent interview with Mcall.com, Sakiewicz stated the following :
“The Union has been awesome and we’re looking to launch a minor league team next year and we’re looking for a home for them. And the Allentown/Lehigh Valley area is an area we’re looking at as well as others. The whole sport, in general, is growing and expanding.”
So the first question here is why would he pump money into a Minor franchise when the Major one is in a state of financial need?
Well, as dark as it may seem, this may actually help the Union. Soccer affiliates are very different from what we see in Baseball or the NHL. In Soccer, a perfect example would be Watford FC and their partnership with Udinese, or Charlton Athletic and theirs with Belgian side Standard Liege.
The partnership in European football allows players to be loaned to and from the club for free. So if the minor side has an exceptional young player, he may well get loaned/transferred for a lower, sometimes free price over to the Major side to play for them instead. It would also give Curtin a chance to send players who are in need of match fitness to a team who can grant them that. Watford loaned a huge amount of players a few seasons back and the side reached the SkyBet Championship playoffs. The only problem was, all of the players returned to the Italian side at the end of the year. For a team with depth issues however, this may actually be strangely…one of the best things for Sakiewickz to say for a long, long time.
