Change was coming to Columbus Crew, but did it have to start with Bezbatchenko? | Arace
Change is inevitable for the Crew and, as it turns out, Tim Bezbatchenko is the first one to go.
The Crew had a meteoric rise to success last year. They shocked the league and won the MLS Cup under then-new coach Wilfried Nancy – and they did it without Lucas Zelarayan, arguably the greatest player in franchise history. Zelarayan was sold to a team in Saudi Arabia at midseason.
Success attracts attention, and thus Crew fans have for months been wondering who was next to be poached.
Would star striker Cucho Hernandez be sold because of an offer that Bezbatchenko, the team’s president/general manager, couldn’t refuse? Would one of the young talents, such as midfielder Aidan Morris or goalkeeper Patrick Schulte, be off to Europe next week? And wherefore Nancy, who has captivated a growing audience with his audacious, uncompromising, possess-and-attack style?
As it turns out, the Dispatch has learned that Bezbatchenko will be the one to leave.
Related Tim Bezbatchenko article: Columbus Crew GM Tim Bezbatchenko leaving for EPL job
Bezbatchenko leaving the Columbus Crew
Bezbatchenko, 42, the architect of two MLS Cup championship teams in Columbus, has accepted a job to run AFC Bournemouth of the English Premier League, the world’s best and richest soccer league.
He is believed to be the first American to assume a leadership position on the technical side of a top-flight, European club.
Bournemouth is owned by American businessman Bill Foley, who also counts the NHL Vegas Golden Knights and soccer teams in Scotland and France among his holdings. It is believed Bezbatchenko will oversee the three soccer teams under the umbrella of Foley’s Black Knight Sports & Entertainment operation.
A notable, even remarkable, five-year era will end, and a management team Bezbatchenko has groomed will take over.
Tim Bezbatchenko: The Columbus kid
Bezbatchenko, who grew up in Westerville, was an accomplished player at DeSales High School and at the University of Richmond. He played minor-league soccer before his knees gave way. He got a law degree at the University of Cincinnati, worked as a contract guru in the MLS league office in New York and went on to build a powerhouse with Toronto FC.
His teams in Toronto and Columbus have shelved a ton of hardware, including three MLS Cups in eight years. He returned home to Columbus in 2019, after Save the Crew saved the Crew, and was tasked with rebuilding a gutted front office and resurrecting a decimated academy system. In his second year on the job, the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Crew won the MLS Cup under coach Caleb Porter.
Bezbatchenko inherited Porter, who was hired by ownership. When the time came to part ways, Bezbatchenko had the chance to get his own man. He went after Nancy and paid to get him out of his contract in Montreal last year.
It has been a brilliant partnership.
Bezbatchenko and Nancy instituted a “one-team” concept and began installing Nancy’s possess-and-attack system on every rung of the organizational ladder. The system is brazen in its relentless pursuit of scoring and notable for its holistic view of team building. By the end of Nancy’s first season, Crew 2 had returned to the MLS Next Pro championship game with a retooled roster, and the senior team shook up the league by beating LAFC, the defending champion, to win the MLS Cup.
This season, Nancy led the Crew to the final round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup by knocking off Mexican powerhouses Tigres (quarterfinal round) and CF Monterrey (semifinal). The Crew lost the championship game to CF Pachuca by a 3-0 score at Estadio Hidalgo Saturday night. After the game, it was revealed that nearly the entire Crew roster and staff of coaches was suffering from what was suspected to be food poisoning.
Where does MLS stand in the bigger picture?
MLS is among the top 15 soccer leagues in the world, or thereabouts, depending on the eye of the beholder. It’s in the same echelon as the Danish Superliga, the Scottish Premiership or the Bundesliga – the Austrian one, not the German one.
MLS can lure old stars such as Lionel Messi and all his friends with help from Apple TV. It attracts, with greater frequency, younger players such as Hernandez. Yet, America’s top-tier league is a second-10 league, globally speaking.
MLS has ambitions of getting into the top five, in spitting distance of the EPL, the German Bundesliga, Spain’s LaLiga, Italy’s Serie A and Ligue 1 of France. For now, though, it still isn’t quite in the range of top-10 Liga MX of Mexico. That said, MLS is playing a long game, and there are signs of an upward trajectory.
There’s more money coming in, pushed primarily by Apple TV’s all-platforms rights deal – worth at least $250 million per year through 2032. Here’s another marker: Former Crew owner Anthony Precourt paid a then-record $68 million for the Crew in 2013; the newest MLS franchise in San Diego paid $500 million to join the league and will begin play next year.
Foley paid around $133 million to become majority owner of Bournemouth last year. Bournemouth has been a “yo-yo club” in the EPL – regularly threatened with relegation to the EFL Championship – and Foley has more ambitious designs. Bezbatchenko has ideas.
Tim Bezbatchenko departure will a chasm
While Bezbatchenko has many talents as an executive, foremost are probably his organizational abilities and his keen sense of people and talent. He's also, by acclaim, a great guy.
The current Crew roster is littered with homegrown players (Morris, Schulte, and Sean Zawadzki, to name a few), bolstered by players acquired via trade (Malte Amundsen and Rudy Camacho, to name a couple) and studded with select, big-ticket acquisitions (Hernandez and Diego Rossi).
Crew teams have thrived from the academy level on up under a young, dynamic leadership group. Other teams have noticed. Last year, Crew 2 coach Laurent Courtois was hired to coach CF Montreal’s MLS team. Earlier this year, the Crew’s leading scout/recruiter, Neil McGuinness, was poached by LAFC to be technical director.
Bezbatchenko’s departure will leave a chasm in the front office. He and Nancy often talk about building something that is bigger than any individual, which is part and parcel of their grand concept. Yet, it’s hard to imagine the Crew without their young, effervescent, personable and accomplished leader.
Bezbatchenko came home to resuscitate the team he grew up supporting. His success was soaring. Now, he’s off to the biggest league in the world.
Sigh.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: EPL's AFC Bournemouth lures Columbus Crew executive Tim Bezbatchenko
