Former Sporting KC coach sues, alleging ‘monopolization’ of KC youth soccer
A youth soccer program founded by longtime Sporting Kansas City assistant coach Zoran Savic, and meant to grow youth soccer in the Lee’s Summit area, has filed a lawsuit against the Major League Soccer club’s owners, accusing the team of monopolizing its influence over youth soccer in Kansas City.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 29 in Jackson County Circuit Court, accused Sporting KC of undercutting Savic’s youth program, the Missouri Valley Soccer Club, before he resigned from his position with the professional team in December 2024, after a 16-season run on staff. The lawsuit said Savic departed with “years” left on his coaching contract amid the dispute, which he alleged cost his youth program more than $3.3 million in damages.
The lawsuit alleged Sporting KC’s “monopolistic and anticompetitive” conduct has seen the club either affiliate with or drive other competitive youth clubs from the market, leaving families with fewer options to affordably participate in youth soccer.
Because of its professional affiliations, Sporting has “tremendous influence and control over competitive youth soccer coaches, players and their families,” the lawsuit said. Sporting indirectly owns or controls 49 of 62 turf fields for competitive soccer in the Kansas City metro and has “abused” its influence by keeping competing clubs from its fields and practice facilities, “a key element to the success of any competitive soccer club,” the lawsuit said.
By affiliating with the majority of competitive youth soccer clubs in the area, Sporting KC “has secured the majority of coaches, coaching prospects, and players who followed their teams to SKC,” the lawsuit said.
Alongside the monopolization allegations, the lawsuit also accuses Sporting of interfering with MVSC’s business and contracts with its coaches, who had non-compete clauses in their contracts, as the team ended its affiliation with MVSC. Attorneys wrote that the team induced coaches to terminate their agreements with MVSC and join the Sporting umbrella, anticipating that players would follow them.
The lawsuit seeks damages over the dispute.
“This case is about the monopolization of competitive youth soccer in Kansas City,” attorneys for Savic wrote. “Defendants have engaged in pervasive and widespread anti-competitive conduct with teams, coaches, players, facilities, equipment and pathways to collegiate and professional soccer. Plaintiff seeks fair compensation for direct antitrust injury and a level playing field for other clubs, coaches and players in Kansas City.”
A Sporting KC spokesman referred The Star to an attorney for the club.
In a statement reported by the Kansas City Business Journal, Sporting attorney Dan Blegen said, “We welcome the opportunity to share the facts of this case, which was filed by a disgruntled former coach. We trust that the legal process will fully validate our position, as well as our counterclaim.”
Missouri Valley Soccer Club
The dispute centers around MVSC, a Sporting KC-affiliated youth soccer program Savic founded in Greenwood in 2018 as the club sought to establish a presence in Lee’s Summit, the lawsuit said. As it got established, the youth program invested millions of dollars in fields and facilities and attracted top coaches, attorneys wrote.
In 2022, as Sporting KC secured lease rights as the primary tenant for the Central Bank Sporting Complex, a large multi-sport facility in North Kansas City, Savic was told by Dan Popik, the team’s vice president of youth soccer, that the club was increasing its presence in Missouri youth soccer and needed teams in North Kansas City to fill the new fields, the lawsuit said. Attorneys for Savic said Popik clearly expected him to transfer coaches and players to the Northland complex.
“...Savic conditioned the transfer on SKC’s promise to mitigate the tremendous economic impact of teams leaving plaintiff’s club, such that SKC would not charge player fees, tournament fees or field rental fees for plaintiff’s remaining club teams,” the lawsuit said. “Savic hoped these expense offsets would allow (the youth program) to rebuild teams and players while remaining financially solvent.”
Then, also in 2022, the lawsuit said, Popik informed Savic that the club planned to terminate its affiliation with his group in favor of a new, competing affiliate called Sporting City East, which is now based at the Swope Soccer Village. MVSC was directed to forfeit a sponsorship and fully rebrand as Sporting poached most of the club’s coaches and players, attorneys wrote.
The effect, they said, was “devastating” financially.
Players, coaches and staff left Savic’s program, which hemorrhaged money and was stuck with more than $1.5 million in debt on its facility loans, the lawsuit said.
When Savic met with Sporting President Jake Reid in 2023, he advised the club executive of how devastating the loss of coaches and players was and mentioned he had “legal recourse” to address the harm, the lawsuit said.
Reid bluntly told Savic, “If you do that, you are done here,” attorneys wrote.
A longtime Kansas City soccer figure
Savic has long been a notable figure in soccer in Kansas City, and Sporting KC hailed him as he departed in 2024, noting his time as a TV commentator, coach and player going back to his time as a star goalscorer for the Kansas City Comets starting in 1982. Savic was named to then-manager Peter Vermes’ coaching staff as an assistant in August 2009 and continued on in his role through the end of 2024.
The club won the 2013 MLS Cup, three Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup titles in 2012, 2015 and 2017, and made 11 appearances in the MLS Cup Playoffs during his time on staff.
“Zoran has helped our club experience tremendous success as a loyal member of the technical staff,” Vermes said in a statement announcing Savic’s departure in 2024. “We thank him for all of his contributions and for his continued role in growing the game of soccer in Kansas City. His competitive spirit and commitment will be missed.”
Peter Mallouk, who previously owned a minority stake in the team, recently purchased a majority stake in Sporting KC in a sale valued by Forbes at roughly $700 million.
This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
