FCD President Dan Hunt is Taking Your Questions! Gina Miller sits down with FC Dallas President Dan Hunt to talk about the offseason. Have a question? Leave them in the comments. Posted by FC Dallas on Thursday, November 9, 2017

FC Dallas owner and president Dan Hunt knows US Soccer has some problems it must solve in the wake of the US men’s national team’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

He just doesn’t think pay-to-play is one of them.

While many in American soccer have pointed at the high costs associated with competitive youth soccer as an issue hindering the development of talented American players, Hunt thinks the topic is a bit of a red herring.

In an interview on Friday on FC Dallas' Facebook page, Hunt indicated that he thinks the recent growth of fully-funded academies (youth clubs that pay all costs for their participating players, something FCD does with their youth teams) has made pay-to-play less of an issue for developing top players in the US.

“I’ve said it before in multiple interviews, we’ve got to cast our net wider to continue to make sure we get quality players,” he said. “I’ve heard allegations [that] pay-to-play limits – it does not. That is, I think, farcical at best. And the reason I say that is because these kids that are the top talent, they’re identified and they have different opportunities than other players…. I think that’s just wrong. But I do think we have to cast broader nets.”