The putrid business of competitive youth soccer

[Unregistered]

I love to coach, I love to play, and I love the game. I have played for 3 decades, coached high school for a decade and a half and now, after several years of dealing with the bull**** that has spread throughout youth competitive soccer, the only thing keeping me around, doing what I love to do, is the idea that if I leave there will be one less person involved who actually cares about the game and teaching it to our youth. One less person who treats it like a business. One less person...

[Unregistered]

Sad reality

I admit that youth sports in general have changed drastically over the last 30-40 years.
Today you still have inexpensive options like tackle football where the season is limited and you have a large pool of talented coaches that are unpaid. A kid can pay one small fee for the year and that is it.

But in the case of tackle football you only drive maybe 3 hours at the most for the playoffs.Every other game is close by so expenses are almost zero.

But that isn't the case with youth soccer. The system is what it is and we all have to deal with it. There isn't a ton of coaches, let alone unpaid.

The talent is so spread out that you need to travel, which bumps up the cost.

But we can't forget that in a capitalist society people will seek out business opportunities within their field of expertise and this is a good thing.

I love to coach, I love to play, and I love the game. I have played for 3 decades, coached high school for a decade and a half and now, after several years of dealing with the bull**** that has spread throughout youth competitive soccer, the only thing keeping me around, doing what I love to do, is the idea that if I leave there will be one less person involved who actually cares about the game and teaching it to our youth. One less person who treats it like a business. One less person...

[Unregistered]

Agree with OP. I'm shocked at the cut throat nasty business this has become. Sadly FYSA and USSF are willing participants. Late last week FYSA blasts an email spouting off about clubs found to be holding early tryouts risk losing their accreditation. Yet it's the big clubs who are doing it with their US Club NPL affiliation. I want to see FYSA have the balls to remove the big boys from FYSA, reality is everyone of those politicians are there because the big clubs got them there. Microcosm of what we are with DC and their lobbyists. The same thing that ills the country ills youth soccer.

[Unregistered]

Agree with OP. I'm shocked at the cut throat nasty business this has become. Sadly FYSA and USSF are willing participants. Late last week FYSA blasts an email spouting off about clubs found to be holding early tryouts risk losing their accreditation. Yet it's the big clubs who are doing it with their US Club NPL affiliation. I want to see FYSA have the balls to remove the big boys from FYSA, reality is everyone of those politicians are there because the big clubs got them there. Microcosm of what we are with DC and their lobbyists. The same thing that ills the country ills youth soccer.

I agree. It FYSA so out of touch with what is going on in soccer to not see the clubs who politically vote themselves into the US Club Soccer network of playing in the ecnl or fpl, get to hold tryouts a week before every other club. Do they not know the human nature of soccer and how hard competitive soccer tryouts are on the kids alone? Kids will go to the first tryouts available in search of an offer to be sure they can play on a competitive team. FYSA is leaving its loyal clubs in a lurch by not allowing them to have early tryouts and be competitive with the big clubs who are able to have tryouts a week earlier. What does FYSA not get about it?

[Unregistered]

I agree. It FYSA so out of touch with what is going on in soccer to not see the clubs who politically vote themselves into the US Club Soccer network of playing in the ecnl or fpl, get to hold tryouts a week before every other club. Do they not know the human nature of soccer and how hard competitive soccer tryouts are on the kids alone? Kids will go to the first tryouts available in search of an offer to be sure they can play on a competitive team. FYSA is leaving its loyal clubs in a lurch by not allowing them to have early tryouts and be competitive with the big clubs who are able to have tryouts a week earlier. What does FYSA not get about it?

The big clubs have the votes and put their talking clowns in place. The system is rigged. Until the smaller and kid level clubs organize it will only get worse.

[Unregistered]

I think someone already mentioned it, but soccer is very unique in the way it is run compared to a large number of youth sports.

Club soccer dominates where as in football, basketball, baseball and softball it is still high school that is dominate. When you see players listed in college rosters is mentions the club that they played for, not the school they went to. The Clubs know this, they know they have all the power and use it to take advantage of parents and players wanting a leg up and that opportunity to play at the next level. Soccer also almost demands that its player commit year round...just look at the season. It runs from October until...last week basically preventing the kids from playing other sports. Also, due to the cost of the sport and being able to participate, it leaves out a large percentage of the population that comes from low income families. This sport is big business and it is becoming more and more popular. Every year you will see teams post record numbers for kids trying out or even participating in the sport. I doubt it will ever change, but the sport is suffering because of it.

[Unregistered]

I think someone already mentioned it, but soccer is very unique in the way it is run compared to a large number of youth sports.

Club soccer dominates where as in football, basketball, baseball and softball it is still high school that is dominate. When you see players listed in college rosters is mentions the club that they played for, not the school they went to. The Clubs know this, they know they have all the power and use it to take advantage of parents and players wanting a leg up and that opportunity to play at the next level. Soccer also almost demands that its player commit year round...just look at the season. It runs from October until...last week basically preventing the kids from playing other sports. Also, due to the cost of the sport and being able to participate, it leaves out a large percentage of the population that comes from low income families. This sport is big business and it is becoming more and more popular. Every year you will see teams post record numbers for kids trying out or even participating in the sport. I doubt it will ever change, but the sport is suffering because of it.

Agree about the growing numbers. A coach left our Florida club a few years ago to be DOC at a small start-up club in rural downstate Illinois - out in farming country where he grew up. He just told me it grew from 0 to 120 to 540 kids in 2 seasons.

[Unregistered]

I think someone already mentioned it, but soccer is very unique in the way it is run compared to a large number of youth sports.

Club soccer dominates where as in football, basketball, baseball and softball it is still high school that is dominate. When you see players listed in college rosters is mentions the club that they played for, not the school they went to. The Clubs know this, they know they have all the power and use it to take advantage of parents and players wanting a leg up and that opportunity to play at the next level. Soccer also almost demands that its player commit year round...just look at the season. It runs from October until...last week basically preventing the kids from playing other sports. Also, due to the cost of the sport and being able to participate, it leaves out a large percentage of the population that comes from low income families. This sport is big business and it is becoming more and more popular. Every year you will see teams post record numbers for kids trying out or even participating in the sport. I doubt it will ever change, but the sport is suffering because of it.

Sure, but this does not address why some clubs get to have a monopoly with early tryouts over others. Make it at least a level and fair playing field to start with at tryouts, US Youth Soccer!

[Unregistered]

I admit that youth sports in general have changed drastically over the last 30-40 years.
Today you still have inexpensive options like tackle football where the season is limited and you have a large pool of talented coaches that are unpaid. A kid can pay one small fee for the year and that is it.

But in the case of tackle football you only drive maybe 3 hours at the most for the playoffs.Every other game is close by so expenses are almost zero.

But that isn't the case with youth soccer. The system is what it is and we all have to deal with it. There isn't a ton of coaches, let alone unpaid.

The talent is so spread out that you need to travel, which bumps up the cost.

But we can't forget that in a capitalist society people will seek out business opportunities within their field of expertise and this is a good thing.

Youth sports are NOT an appropriate market for capitalist / free market theory. To suggest so is plainly ignorant.

For one thing, youth sports can not operate as an efficient market, and is a text book example of market failure. Resources in the market can not be evenly distributed, and other factors effect decision making besides market value.

Secondly, youth sports become exploitative when free market principles are applied. We have child labor laws. Yet, coaches yell at kids and crush their spirit, because those kids did not win, and therefore did not advance that coaches career. Many top soccer coaches are now essentially running child-labor factories for the benefit of the coach. Those coaches feed parents all sorts of BS, and the parents allow their children to be exploited.

Free market strategies would also encourage coaches to use concepts like 'planned obsolescence". Force the injured player to play now, to win now, and advance the coaches career, while knowing that playing now will irreparable damage the player physically. Coaches become encouraged to use players for maximum value now, and discard they as soon as they are obsolete.

The pay-to-play system that exists in soccer is completely inappropriate and wrong. No reasonable child psychologist or educational specialist would look at this system and have anything good to say about it.

Yet there is absolutely no real drive within the sport to change the system.

US Soccer is going backwards. It is becoming a rich kid sport, where coaches can sell BS to parents who will allow them to exploit their child.

[Unregistered]

The system is what it is and we all have to deal with it.


But we can't forget that in a capitalist society people will seek out business opportunities within their field of expertise and this is a good thing.

"we all have to deal with it" is exactly how things get out of hand why bad situations don't get fixed. We all have to deal with it is rarely true, it is just what is easiest for most to accept.

It's not the capitalism that bothers me per se. What really troubles me are the shady antics of adults when there is very little to gain financially.

[Unregistered]

I love to coach, I love to play, and I love the game. I have played for 3 decades, coached high school for a decade and a half and now, after several years of dealing with the bull**** that has spread throughout youth competitive soccer, the only thing keeping me around, doing what I love to do, is the idea that if I leave there will be one less person involved who actually cares about the game and teaching it to our youth. One less person who treats it like a business. One less person...

So please tell us what you did about the problem during the many years that you had the bully pulpit of coaching High School?

[Unregistered]

Sure, but this does not address why some clubs get to have a monopoly with early tryouts over others. Make it at least a level and fair playing field to start with at tryouts, US Youth Soccer!

Money and power rule everything...the "club" system is the issue. Organization are competing for money, players, and to produce top end players that they can use as part of their recruiting.

How to fix

1. Base the clubs on districts...meaning if you wan to play in a specific area, then you should live in that area.

2. Stop offering multiple teams per age level...two should be the limit per club, anything more and you over saturate the league.

3. Standardize the leagues into two levels. Tier 1 (your elite teams) and Tier 2 (everyone else).

4. Limit the number of tournaments.

5. Have a set season example: start in august and wrap up in January...allow kids to have a legit off-season to play another sport or actually have period to train without constantly preparing for games.

[Unregistered]

Youth sports are NOT an appropriate market for capitalist / free market theory. To suggest so is plainly ignorant.

For one thing, youth sports can not operate as an efficient market, and is a text book example of market failure. Resources in the market can not be evenly distributed, and other factors effect decision making besides market value.

Secondly, youth sports become exploitative when free market principles are applied. We have child labor laws. Yet, coaches yell at kids and crush their spirit, because those kids did not win, and therefore did not advance that coaches career. Many top soccer coaches are now essentially running child-labor factories for the benefit of the coach. Those coaches feed parents all sorts of BS, and the parents allow their children to be exploited.

Free market strategies would also encourage coaches to use concepts like 'planned obsolescence". Force the injured player to play now, to win now, and advance the coaches career, while knowing that playing now will irreparable damage the player physically. Coaches become encouraged to use players for maximum value now, and discard they as soon as they are obsolete.

The pay-to-play system that exists in soccer is completely inappropriate and wrong. No reasonable child psychologist or educational specialist would look at this system and have anything good to say about it.

Yet there is absolutely no real drive within the sport to change the system.

US Soccer is going backwards. It is becoming a rich kid sport, where coaches can sell BS to parents who will allow them to exploit their child.

You sound like you are in middle management somewhere and just got an online degree in Business. Most coaches are too stupid to understand any of this. Bottom line is they do what they need to do to try and win games and that is kickball. No time for skill development. Hell they most likely aren't even licensed to coach. The club lie is that your kids are actually learning the game. They aren't learning anything more than a dog who fetches a ball and brings it back to you over and over again. Exercise yes, development?

[Unregistered]

Soccer now in days

Agree 100 percent, the coaches now see the short term rather than long term development and all you see is chasing a ball, no ball skills and passing like other countries focus on rather than just results. We need more development on young athletes instead of worrying just on results to the gratification of the club and coaches. Kids are falling behind and I agree being more than 2 teams per club is way to much rather make them an offer on an academy level and once progressed move up or then once you have 8 good players advancing through the academy then form another team.

[Unregistered]

You sound like you are in middle management somewhere and just got an online degree in Business. Most coaches are too stupid to understand any of this. Bottom line is they do what they need to do to try and win games and that is kickball. No time for skill development. Hell they most likely aren't even licensed to coach. The club lie is that your kids are actually learning the game. They aren't learning anything more than a dog who fetches a ball and brings it back to you over and over again. Exercise yes, development?

Many clubs are into real development, hence the having to hire coaches who know what the hell they are doing. Where does your kid play?