Complicating the work of getting things done is U.S. Soccer’s unusual structure. The federation presidency is an unpaid position with a four-year term, but it is hardly akin to running a community soccer club. The president oversees an organization with over $130 million in the bank, $125 million in annual revenue, more than 160 full-time staff members and 4.4 million registered players. The day-to-day operations and much of the business are managed by a paid chief executive, Dan Flynn, but the president still must navigate the competing interests of an entrenched web of state associations, adult and youth programs, coaches, referees and current and former players.

The biggest priority for the new president is ensuring the joint American-Canadian-Mexican bid to host the 2026 World Cup is up to snuff. That bid is due at FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, in the middle of March, after which the volunteer president must crisscross the globe to lobby for support ahead of the June vote to award the hosting rights.

The winner of Saturday’s vote also will oversee the process of hiring a new coach for the men’s national team — a position that has been vacant since Bruce Arena resigned in October after the team failed to qualify for the World Cup — and also the creation of technical director positions for both the men’s and women’s national team programs.

And then there are the lawsuits. U.S. Soccer faces at least five expensive legal challenges at the moment, including at least two lawsuits filed by the backers of one candidate, Eric Wynalda; another challenging its authority to oversee the sport being heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport; and a separate complaint with the United States Olympic Committee being pressed by another candidate, Hope Solo.

An unresolved claim of wage discrimination filed by members of the women’s national team with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission looms in the background, too.

Even if the new president has all the right solutions, that does not guarantee they will be able to implement them. The problem, one past president said, is that the new president has little power to resolve any of the biggest issues, or press any of the significant structural changes they are proposing, all by themselves.

“They can certainly advocate for things and try to get the board to get into a particular direction, but they cannot go and decree something,” said Robert Contiguglia, the U.S. Soccer president from 1998 to 2006 and a member of the board since 1990. “It’s not going to happen.”