Recently, a drafted proposal of a potential change was circulated to UYSA’s Competition Committee, Player Development Committee, and Board of Directors. The purpose of the circulation, as with all policy changes, was to begin the process of feedback and discussion on the proposed changes from key stakeholders and experienced voices in our soccer community. It is now apparent that the preliminary draft was prematurely circulated to parents, players, coaches, and other members of the soccer community without context, rationale, or an explanation of what the policy meant, or what the policy was specifically attempting to address. As with most policy discussions – research, feedback, and revisions are necessary to accomplish the intended goal. UYSA, through its staff, is currently working through that process and with our valued committees to gather information to ensure that any proposals presented for a board vote will meet the requirements and standards for changes to UYSA policy. Any final proposed policy will be made available to the public as per the rules for changes to UYSA policy.
Further, in order to address some of the inaccurate statements or claims that have been made as to the applicability of this potential policy change, UYSA provides the following additional statements:
UYSA’s Organizational Members are committed to work together to follow UYSA policy in an attempt to keep a fair and level playing field as it relates to many areas including tryouts, recruiting, standards, leagues, etc. The intent of this proposed policy is to protect UYSA’s standards and its Organizational Members from entities who are not held to those same standards of UYSA policy. This policy is not intended to apply to or impact any programming or sporting event that UYSA does not provide for their competitive leagues . Some examples of programming this policy does not intend to address, or impact are as follows: indoor soccer, 3v3 tournaments, recreation soccer, local Latino leagues, adult programming, futsal, high school, non-soccer sports, etc. This policy would not change the ability for players to obtain outside training. We encourage players to follow their team’s/club’s and UYSA’s outside training policies. This policy is not intended to apply to or impact our Organizational Members participation in any non-UYSA or non-USYS programming, i.e. ECNL, GA, EA, YPL, JPL, etc.
Thank you.