Hope Solo World Cup champion talks with Bonnie Bernstein at the Hashtag Sports 2018 conference at the TimesCenter on Tuesday, June 26th. (Photo: Kevin Hagen, AP)

Former US goalkeeper Hope Solo said Tuesday that football in the United States had become a "white and rich child sport" and that the cost high level of sport harmed "the state of the game".

"My family could not afford to put me to football if I was young today," Solo told the Hashtag Sports conference in New York.

"This obviously alienates so many communities, including Hispanic communities, black communities, rural communities and under-represented communities. Football, at this time, has become a rich and white children's sport.

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The double Olympic gold medalist also blamed the high cost of the system of youth to explain why the US men's national soccer team has failed to qualify for this summer's World Cup in Russia.

"You have to see why our American men are not qualified for the World Cup and that comes down to our youth system," said Solo. "And that's because we're alienating so much talent into the youth system, and it breaks my heart because these kids are passionate about the game and they're full of talent, but we get them says if you do not have money "

In arguing his point of view, Solo said that the average price of a child who plays soccer in the United States is 15 $ 000 a year. However, recent Time Magazine figures for 2017 indicate that the average is $ 1,472. We do not know what statistics Solo was referring to.

Solo helped the US Women's National Team win a World Cup title in 2015. His contract with US football was terminated after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after making comments reviews on the Swedish national team. Solo recently led an unsuccessful campaign to become president of the US soccer federation.

U.S. Football legend Landon Donovan recently shared similar sentiments with USA TODAY Sports, saying "football has become a sport that only rich people can play." If you are a parent earning $ 30,000 a year, how can you pay $ 3,000? – $ 4,000 to play football?