Hartford Athletic opens Dillon Stadium on July 13 with a 2-1 win over the Indy Eleven. Photo credit: Robbie Mehling/Soc Takes

The lower divisions of professional soccer can be an unforgiving place for owners. As Soc Takes has discussed before, owners constantly lose money in the pro leagues, and it doesn’t seem as though that will change anytime soon. Unfortunately, it is usually the players and staff who often face the brunt of cost-cutting measures. Occasionally, those owners’ decisions are clearly unfair to players. More often than not, owners manage to stay within the parameters of contractual obligations, but their handling of players/staff remains remarkably poor. Per information provided to Soc Takes, Hartford Athletic is an example of such a club, and Bruce Mandell an example of such an owner.

There are a myriad of allegations shared by club personnel regarding questionable practices by Mandell. Herein we report a subset; the ones we could corroborate from three or more independent sources.

In all cases, Hartford Athletic declined to make Mandell available or comment on the story.

Postseason friendlies: The club organized friendlies during the postseason, an unusual practice as players risk injury in meaningless games. The club gave players an option — via an email seen by Soc Takes — to forego the friendlies (termed as “club-directed activities”) in exchange for losing their last month of pay. Players communicating with Soc Takes shared that they feared injury in meaningless games that could impact new contracts for the 2020 season. The team plays a friendly against Portmore United this week. Meals: The club provided breakfast and lunch to players from February to May. After May, the club cut down on the number of times it provided lunch. In recent months, the club stopped providing lunch at all. As a comparison, Soc Takes confirmed with players at two other USL clubs that they are provided meals before and after training. Per diem reduction: Per the standard USL player contract, players must be provided a per diem during away matches. In lieu of a per diem, multiple players claim that they were given a flat $50 for a weekend, requiring players to purchase six to seven meals with that money. Soc Takes understands that other USL Championship clubs provide higher per diems, plus they often provide players with meals before/after games. Low salaries: Sources suggest that the highest annual salary for a player at Hartford Athletic is $44,000 and many players are making below $20,000. There is at least one player making $500 per month. Soc Takes confirmed that a player was signed on a $0 “incentivized contract,” on which he played for two months. After those two months, he was awarded a professional contract. A source with knowledge of contracts informed Soc Takes that the average salary for players at Hartford for the 2019 season was $17,000-$22,000. Prevention of additional income. Unlike other players around the league who have side hustles such as coaching or other jobs to make additional income, the club forbids its players from having any part-time jobs, despite their low salaries. Soc Takes was provided documentation that confirmed Mandell prohibited player requests to avail themselves of coaching opportunities in order to make extra money. Questionable approach to health-related decisions: Multiple players allege that Mandell intervened to prevent injured players from obtaining MRIs, chiropractic services and counseling. Multiple players corroborated this allegation. One player, Tyler David, shared his story which was not a direct corroboration of this allegation. David suffered a hip injury midway through the season. “I was waiting four weeks to get an MRI. Worker’s compensation company told me they weren’t being sent any request for an MRI from the club, so I didn’t get an MRI until later. I later found out that that I had a complete adductor tear and had to get a surgery two weeks later.” David reiterated that he does not know whether the delay was an insurance company error or team error. Unfair player fine: Early during the 2019 season, Mandell attempted to fine a player a week’s wages while the player was away from the club for the birth of his child. This was in spite of the fact that a clause was inserted into the player’s contract, specifying that he was to leave mid-August for the birth of his child, and that the club would pay for his flight. Soc Takes reached out to the player for comment and none was received. A potential transfer of an injured player: In September, OKC Energy approached Hartford Athletic to transfer a player who they did not know was injured (and would eventually need surgery). Athletic technical adviser, Paul Buckle, approached the player to determine if the player would be interested in a transfer to Energy. The player refused the transfer, and the transfer conversation ended. Soc Takes reached out to the player and the Energy to confirm. No comment was received at the time of publishing.

It is important to note that Mandell has never missed payroll and has seemingly met all the basic requirements of the USL player contract. However, given the multitude of complaints of mistreatment, the question must be raised of whether the ownership is doing right by its players.

* * *

Danish defender Nikolaj Lyngo signed for Hartford Athletic in early 2019 after having been trained as a youth player at Danish giants Aalborg. The player was omnipresent for the first three months of a difficult on-field season for the Athletic, during which he experienced some well-noted struggles. In early July 2019, the club informed Lyngo that he had two options: “I (had) the opportunity to stay at the club the rest of the contract or (go) home, with them paying for my flight ticket,” Lyngo told Soc Takes. Lyngo chose the latter option and estimated that he lost out on around $12,000 on his contract. When asked why he didn’t stay at the club and simply collect wages, Lyngo said, “Didn’t feel like (I was) wanted after the situation.”

Lyngo’s story is illustrative of Mandell’s handling of the club. It must be recognized that since Lyngo chose to leave the club, this would count as a mutual termination of his contract, and therefore would not be illegal. Some might even applaud Mandell for giving Lyngo agency — that he could decide his fate for himself. However, did Mandell utilize a heavily skewed power dynamic to get a young, possibly contract-negotiation-naive player off his books? Is there truly a choice between immediately going home to your family or sticking it out in a new country, without professional or personal support?

* * *

Soc Takes learned that Hartford Athletic players reached out to the USL Players Association (USLPA) to record concerns about Mandell’s handling of some of the aforementioned issues. In response to a request for comment, USLPA spokesperson Steve Gans said:

“A few Hartford Athletic players did reach out to player leadership of the USLPA on a couple of matters; I’m not going to go into what those are specifically. But, they (the unspecified issues) show why this comprehensive CBA (collective bargaining agreement) is needed, because there will be uniform standards and best practices throughout the league. Right now because it isn’t in place, it allows for a great variety for what one team might provide versus another team.”

A player told Soc Takes about Mandell, “It’s a shame that the conditions are the way that they are because there’s so much potential in Hartford and we have a great fan base. But one person leaves a sour taste in your mouth and ruins the whole thing.”

Mandell (and arguably other owners) are able to easily traverse this line between proper and improper because currently the line is infinitely thick. In the absence of a standard for things like per diem, salary, etc., players will continue to suffer the brunt of cost-cutting measures. In an environment of low salaries with few jobs at the top level, players are required to put up or shut up. Hartford Athletic reinforces that the USLPA is needed.

Hartford Athletic also raises a very important unanswered question: How many of these stories are there in lower-division American soccer?

Soc Takes reached out to the USL for comment over 24 hours before the publishing of this article.

WRALSportsFan.com’s Neil Morris contributed to the editing of this story.

On October 27th, #8 was clarified based on sources who reached out to Soc Takes after the publishing of the article.

Follow Nipun on Twitter: @NipunChopra7.

Support Soc Takes on Patreon for access to exclusive content and supporter benefits. Click here to become a patron today.