SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP SCYSA - sued by US Club Soccer, AYSO and Coast FA

SCYSA is being sued by US Club Soccer, AYSO and Coast FA for practices that are contrary to USSF guidelines. Other state soccer associations are also being sued as well as USYSA.
The complainants are only asking the respondents to cease and desist all discrimantory practices and meet the USSF requirements

http://www.usclubsoccer.org/Files/US%20C...gust%202009.pdf

Anyone care to fill me in? What are the "discriminatory practices' in question?

go to the link... around page 4 you will see the issues in question

Does anyone else get an uneasy, sort of sick feeling when adults start suing each other over youth sports?

Guarantee that everyone of them.....will say its all about the kids.

I read through about 30 pages of this. SCYSA grievances are listed beginning on page 24. Note, this is a 208 page document which includes all the exhibits used.

From what I read the complaints are USYSA and affiliates grieving the requirements for non-USYSA organizations purchase additional insurance and not allowing the USYSA affiliates to use their player/rosters to participate in other sanctioned tournaments. Not being a lawyer I'm sure there is much more that I didn't understand as well as being unable to communicate this more eloquently.

I glossed over the SCYSA complaints and you pretty much understood it, dhunter. The main complaints were that SCYSA insurance does not apply to any non-affiliated organization, that a fee of $50 must be paid by any non-affiliate intending to participate in a "sanctioned" SCYSA tournament, and that SCYSA teams are "sanctioned" or allowed to play in unrestricted or unaffiliated tournaments or to travel to play non-affiliated clubs.

Basically, it looks like SCYSA enacted a bunch of rules to try to keep their players in SCYSA and away from joining additional teams or switching organizations. Instead of being allowed to play teams from any organization and playing in any tournament, everything is funneled exclusively towards SCYSA/USYSA related events.

It seems that AYSO, US Club Soccer, and the other named organizations want there to be a relaxed flow of play amongst the varied units so that a Club Soccer team can play in USYSA tournaments or against teams outside of their own sanctioned Club league seasons without their incurring some sort of obscure fiscal penalty.

The leadership of Coast FA has been beating this drum for many years, even trying to rally for the cause. It's kind of strange since they are members of both, and dual roster their players, so this really shouldn't be an issue for them. It became an issue for them when they tried to get others on board for a league sanctioned under US Club for younger teams, to include an alternate state cup. This league had fees associated with it. It didn't take off as they had hoped because there were other teams/clubs that didn't want to dual roster players to be able to have the insurance coverage, since they would be participating in unaffiliated play.

This has always been about the insurance. The $50 per non USYS sanctioned team for participation in a USYS sanctioned tournament ensured insurance coverage for that team. That $50 per team was paid to SCYSA. Different clubs have approached this different ways. Some adjusted the entry fee and paid the SCYSA out of total receipts from the tournament, rather than pass that additional fee directly to the "unaffiliated" team that wanted to participate. Other clubs, as noted in the exhibits have chosen to directly charge that team directly.

In the end, follow the money, and you'll see why adults are suing. I agree with BigDaddy, each one of them will say it's about increasing the development of the players.

Seems interesting that Coast FA had two members of their administration who were suspended last spring. I don't think there is any love lost between them and SCYSA.

It's not about the insurance, it may be the excuse they are using, but that's not why they did it. They want to use players whenever and wherever they can. Any players. It doesn't matter what club or what age or where they come from, they want to throw teams together all the time, no matter if it is by the rules or not. SCYSA requires rules.

And you know that the admin of US Club soccer is located in Myrtle Beach, and I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure that some of their kids play for Coast FA.

HHS1976, most likely there is some underlying reason other than insurance. From what I have read, tournaments require a $50 fee for non-USYSA affiliates. Is that really a deal buster? That would cost the average family $3 - $5 per team. It does seem kind of silly doesn't it.

O15... i have to basically agree with you...in fact if I read the complaint correctly AND the complaint's exhibits are correct, it would seem that was the intent of USSF.
Since the children are squabbling it may be time for daddy USSF to step in and say enough, create one entity with multiple levels. This would be in essence to USSF's benefit and their goal of funneling the right players to the higher levels and fit the academy process better. In fact it should even create promotion and relegation for all levels and essentially creating a profesional atmosphere.

But if you follow the money... it will not happen.

Looking at the complaint and the names of the individuals who are filing it, it's all about money.

Been Around,

Explain how it is about money? Who is going to gain money if the USSF finds in favor of AYSO and US Club Soccer.

It seems that clubs will save money because they won't have to pay $50 to go to a tournament and buy insurance they already have. That $50 won't go to US Club or AYSO.

It is about freedom of play within/among USSF affiliates. USYSA has the ability to choose who is "sanctioned and unsanctioned" play when it comes to insurance. They choose only USYSA teams to be sanctioned.

Each State Association has its own individual insurance policy with differing limits and "bought" from different companies. With 55 State Associations and 55 different policies why do they say US Club and AYSO are "unsanctioned" they would only raise it to 57 different policies. Also USSF bylaws state that you may not charge more than $25 for an additional policy and SCYSA charges $50. It is only a few dollars difference but... still not within the rules.

This has nothing to do with the money but it is the only stick US Club has to beat USYSA with. USYSA and state Associations spend a lot of time developing coaches, leagues and refrees, US Club wants to poach off those resources without paying for any of it. There is huge fights at the USSF level because USSF has not had the balls to stand up to the member groups and keep them from poaching from themselves. USSF deserves this, and more. I am not sure why they ever thought it was a good idea to allow multiple youth goods that would compete against each other with zero ground rules. For example SCYSA spends a lot of time helping in the training and the organzation of the the refress. I realize that Refs report directly to USSF and are reponisible for thier own training but SCYSA helps because it is in their best interest and SCYSA trys to keep clubs from playing tournaments on top of each other so that we have refs for everything on a weekend but US Club can have their own tournaments and games without regard to the SCYSA schedule. We have also seen some very bad coaches kicked out or suspended from SCYSA and go to US Club. And these are coaches that should never coach again but US Club and SCYSA do not communicate about suspensions or people being expelled.

My point is that this has nothing to do with money or anything in the lawsuit. There is some very bitter feelings and neither side with admit in public to any of it...

Anybody wondering if this lawsuit has anything to do with Steve Cothran's stepping down in mid-season a week ago or so?

I would doubt it. It probably had more to do with Steve's job being completely thankless, he worked harder that anyone on the board, he brought in most of the money for the board and was abused the most by clubs, coaches and parents.

The job Steve did should have been a paid job from the board, because you need someone working 40 hours a week to keeps things somewhat happy. Steve is a very nice and only ever want to do right to the majority of the people. Unless they find someone that is not working and has all the time in the world, then things will be very bad at the end of this season and the start of next.

Wow! I just saw that Barry was not re-elected and Michelle Jenkins is now the VP. That breaks up one of the married couples. Jill Simmons is now the Coastal person. That breaks up the second married couple. Now they just need to break up the last remaining married couple. I took a lot of heat for supporting a rule that would keep voting members from being related to each other. They rarely voted against each other so their votes where always counted as double, which I felt was a problem and so did several clubs.

it's time for fred to move on. he's been on the board too long.

many seem to be jockeying for a regional or national gig with usys and using scysa as a spring board.

did barry land a regional gig?

mary does a good job w/odp. steve will be missed.

Mary does a good job with ODP, my little one went through for one year, only positive things to say about Mary.

from someone not in the know, the behind the scenes jockeying of politics, egos, & power grabs are a depressing reality of youth sports. the more i know, the less i wanna know.

AMEN!!!!!!!

Barry did not go to a regional job.

I have heard more about why and how Steve left and all I can say is that I am disappointed and surprised by his actions. It may have been time for him to leave after all.

Mary does a good job with ODP, and she saved it from disaster many years ago. But now that it is on solid footing again it may be time to break it back up between a Boys and Girls ODP administrators. That way the last of the major problems can be worked out.

I have heard more about why and how Steve left and all I can say is that I am disappointed and surprised by his actions. It may have been time for him to leave after all.

Can you expound on this???

Mary may be an administrator, but a soccer person she is not. Her biggest weakness is her inability to separate the two!

I have not looked at the forums for a few days.

But I would rather not expound on this on the forums. If you see me out on the soccer fields and know me then come by and I will explain.

Fair enough