McCombs Alum Works to Make World Cup Accessible
- Jul 9, 2026
In 2006, McCombs School of Business alum Will Acheampong’s father pulled him out of school to watch a soccer match on TV.
The game was the United States versus Ghana at the FIFA World Cup in Germany, and Acheampong (BBA ’21) says watching that game with his Ghanaian father is a core memory. Now, 20 years later, Acheampong serves as a strategist on the U.S. Soccer Federation’s strategy team at their headquarters in Atlanta.
The federation is leveraging the Pathways Strategy, an outreach initiative to make soccer easier to join, navigate and stay connected to by lowering costs, expanding access and improving experiences across all levels of the game.
This summer, that work is happening at the highest possible volume, with the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S. for the first time since 1994. Though the organization has been preparing for this monumental event for almost a decade, Acheampong says the federation doesn’t see this summer as the end of something, but as the beginning of something bigger.
“People often talk about how expensive and inaccessible soccer is,” Acheampong said. “Our goal for this World Cup, especially through the Soccer Forward Foundation, is to figure out how we can make soccer more accessible and use the excitement from this moment to make soccer one of the more popular sports in the country.”
Acheampong’s advice to current students who are interested in a sports career is simple: Don’t start in sports first.
“The best advice I can give, especially in the sports landscape today, is start your career doing something where you can develop the skills necessary to be an effective part of the ecosystem,” Acheampong said. “The sports ecosystem has become incredibly complex. The more that you can have a strong foundation in finance, management, consulting, etc. — skills like that will help you pivot into the space you want to be in.”
After years of preparation, Acheampong got his full-circle moment. On June 27, he gave his father a new memory to hold onto: the two of them together in the stands in Philadelphia, as Ghana faced Croatia in the 2026 World Cup.