Two major developments this week, coupled with a significant deal struck earlier this year, underscore a clear trend: the most powerful figures in American finance are now central to how U.S. soccer is shaping its next decade.

Pochettino Extension Backed by Griffin

U.S. Soccer confirmed Monday that Mauricio Pochettino will remain head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team through 2030. The contract extension is supported in significant part by a philanthropic leadership gift from Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of hedge fund and financial services giant Citadel.

Griffin is once again the lead donor behind the arrangement, according to a person familiar with the gift, with additional support coming from Scott Goodwin, Adam Freede, and several commercial partners. The extension builds on a role Griffin first assumed in 2024, when his contribution helped U.S. Soccer bring Pochettino on board ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico—the first time the tournament will be played across three nations.

MLS Names Larry Berg as Third Commissioner

On the same day Pochettino's return was confirmed, Major League Soccer announced its third commissioner, succeeding Don Garber: Larry Berg. Garber has led MLS since 1999, a tenure spanning the league's growth from a struggling single-entity startup with 12 teams to a 30-club enterprise. Berg is a co-owner of the marquee MLS franchise LAFC and a roughly three-decade veteran of private equity and private credit giant Apollo Global Management, where he eventually rose to senior partner. He joined 26North—the private equity firm backed by Josh Harris, whose Philadelphia 76ers recently signed LeBron James—in 2023.

Speaking at a press conference at MLS headquarters in New York, Berg pointed to his private equity background as both a key reason he was selected and a driving force in how he plans to lead the league.

"I do think there's a lot of characteristics in private equity that apply to other things, which is not a surprise," Berg said. "It applies to everything. It's about sense of urgency. It's about rolling up your sleeves, being in the trenches, asking good questions, aligning people toward a common goal. There's a lot of parallels, and I had a lot of experience on many boards, which gives me a lot of experience in governance."

Those same qualities, he said, served him well at LAFC. "I had invested in soccer clubs before, but I had never helped run a soccer club. But I do think those things translated, and I think will translate here as well."

Berg's LAFC co-owner Bennett Rosenthal—co-chair of the succession committee that selected Berg and co-founder of private-equity giant Ares Capital Management—noted a particular parallel between Berg's approach and how private equity typically functions in sports ownership.

"Private equity and quote 'regular business' comes in and generally takes control of the company on more than 50%, installs their own management team, makes necessary changes to benefit the shareholders," Rosenthal said. "In sports, private equity is a great source of capital… but the most they can own is 30%, and they have no governance rights."

He added: "I think it's important for Larry to understand that some people have a 'He's a private equity guy' [mentality, but] Larry's a very broad-based business person."

"Keep the Owners Who Hate You Away from the Ones Who Are Undecided"

In his acceptance remarks, Berg leaned more heavily on his 12 years as an owner than on his finance career. Addressing the league's ownership group, he said he had "seen firsthand" the commitment, passion, and long-term vision that have transformed MLS.

"You invested when there were no guarantees. You believed where many people didn't, and together you built something truly remarkable," Berg said. He framed the commissioner's role primarily as one of managing that ownership group: "At the end of the day, this is a governance job with 30 owners and a lot of constituents."

Jimmy Haslam, the Columbus Crew owner—described as a more traditional truck-stop billionaire than a private equity figure—served as the committee's other co-chair. He emphasized that the league's broader ownership base was deeply involved in the search process, not just the final outcome.

"We had five other owners who were members" of the succession committee, Haslam said, and "the ownership involved in the process was tremendous." He also credited Garber with building that ownership group in the first place, noting that the outgoing commissioner had recruited 28 of the league's 30 current owners.

Haslam added that Berg's business background helped build confidence among the ownership group during the search. "Larry's private equity background, and the understanding of factors of success, meaning people, process and culture, it's what we built at LAFC," he said. "That really helped Larry in the process, and it really helped get our partners in the league a lot of confidence that Larry's going to be able to collaborate, take in a lot of data and make great decisions, which I think is what makes a great private equity investor."

Outgoing Commissioner Garber reflected on ownership dynamics by recalling advice from his former boss, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, when Garber left the NFL to take the MLS job in 1999.

"He said two things then that I thought about for many years, but sitting here today are no longer relevant," Garber said. "The first thing was, 'You're going to see what life is like without leverage.'"

The second, Garber recalled to laughter: "In order to be successful, you need to keep the owners who hate you away from the ones who are undecided."

Garber said neither observation applies to the league he is handing off. "They are so connected with each other, and they're so connected with our leadership and the rest of our staff," he said of MLS's current ownership group. "We no longer have to think about what we need to do to get them to align."

Managing Commercial Rights

The third element of this financial shift operates below the MLS first-team level and predates this week's announcements. In April, MLS and KKR formed a 50-50 joint venture called Hometown Soccer Holdings, in a deal reportedly worth $150 million to $200 million, to centrally manage commercial rights for most MLS NEXT Pro clubs. MLS NEXT Pro, launched in 2022, serves as the league's professional development tier, bridging academy programs and first-team rosters.

Under the arrangement, affiliated MLS teams retain control over soccer operations—coaching, player contracts, and travel—while the new venture assumes responsibility for venue relationships, ticketing, marketing, local media, and other revenue-generating functions.

Berg referenced the deal directly during the press conference. "We recently partnered with KKR on our MLS National League," he said. "I think that institutional capital… and obviously, having had a 30-plus year experience of private equity, it puts me in a good position to work on specific things like that."

Private equity's push into major U.S. leagues has accelerated sharply since 2019, when MLB became the first league to permit institutional investors to buy minority team stakes. The NBA, NHL, and MLS soon followed, and even the NFL opened the door to PE ownership in 2024. Fortune has tracked this shift over several years, from an early 2023 look at the surge in PE sports investments to more recent reporting on billionaires increasingly treating sports franchises as a top "trophy" asset class.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.