Calling All Youth Soccer Clubs in the USA
An Open Letter from USWNT Legend Tiffeny Milbrett
(edited for brevity and relevant differences from her home state of Colorado when originally published in 2017)
Thanks for your understanding of my need to reach out and request rule and policy enforcement (FYSA) that will go against recruiting and tampering with players from other clubs in a season.
I have been in the youth soccer club system now for 12 years as a full-time coach. I am absolutely dismayed and angered about the utter lack of enforcement of policies and rules that regulate what is absolutely rampant and wrong in youth soccer regarding clubs tampering with and recruiting players from other clubs during a competitive season. I have witnessed and been on the losing end of other clubs recruiting and taking my players.
There is no denying the fact that youth soccer is an extremely competitive market. And in other competitive markets around the world there are major rules and policies in place against recruiting and tampering and penalties levied to those that break the rules. Please read to further your knowledge of how seriously the topic of tampering and recruiting is taken in the world of youth soccer. This is where the USA needs to get to as well, in my opinion. Manchester City Recruiting Story Link HERE
We have to do something to protect coaches and clubs. It cannot be okay for our players to be taken – and very easily, I might add.
We have to give our clubs some protection and take a stand.
U.S. Soccer and States and Leagues must enforce adopted rules and policies, and clubs should have internal rules and standards too. Clubs who make it their policy to recruit and tamper should not have continued access to our players whenever they want them and with no reward given to the club, they are taken from – especially after years of development.
I hope we can all be on board with finding a solution. I literally cannot be most effective as a youth coach when a huge part of my limited time with the players is spent building off the weeks, months, season before in order to grow players and teams. And when it’s reset and restarted from zero every start to the fall season, it’s nearly impossible.
Tampering and recruiting (all fall under POACHING) can be in multiple forms: (Many, MANY other examples exist)
- Parents and coaches from those other clubs constantly call the parents from our players to do the recruiting for that club. Even though a parent may not be wanting these calls, they are continually hounded.
- ECNL, DA, State-regulated clubs breaking the rules by allowing the players from other clubs to train with them outside of the window allowed for this without a release. (having multiple affiliations does not free an FYSA affiliated Club from having to abide by ALL FYSA rules, or lose their FYSA affiliation, period.)
- Parents are guilty of accepting these calls and invitations for training, but the responsibility should be on the club to follow rules and if they don’t, there should be ACTUAL sanctions placed. It is unfathomable that clubs are not protected with State rules and policies governing these rampant recruiting and tampering behaviors.
- To have players play in competitive games with two separate clubs in any given session is an absolute travesty. And clubs seeking this out and parents allowing this to happen must stop.
Youth Soccer is a big business and necessitates the need to start with an even playing field. The rules need to be set to protect all clubs that are truly putting the player first by caring about the player’s development; only to have players whisked away with a recruiting offer to another club is disastrous and against the good of the game and against what parents should be in charge of deciding – wins over development.
In the end, players can leave clubs, we all understand that. BUT right now FYSA is in NO WAY attempting to help protect clubs and the investment they are making; just to be outdone in the same season by poaching and recruiting club. Many of the clubs that are recruiting and poaching have not done anything to prove their continued development and investment in players – their player development philosophy appears to be waiting for the next player other clubs have developed and to then to swoop in and snatch them up.
As an ex-player myself, I find this an absolute travesty that these clubs are continually allowed to ROB THE PLAYER of the developmental piece to the game. As a coach, how can I do my job to the fullest for my players, my teams, and my club when we have little to NO protection to help us?
I’m asking that you actively enforce rules and policies immediately for the upcoming fall season.
Solutions are numerous, here are a handful of suggestions: (Many, MANY other solutions can exist)
- 3 or more affiliates file a complaint against the same club triggers a mandatory and transparent investigation by FYSA
- Any discount of fees that the original club provided to the player be paid to the original club from the new club taking the player if a player switches clubs
- No releases until Transfer Periods – unless clubs agree
- Outright enforced in plain sight on FYSA WEBSITE Rules and Regulations and Parent/Coach education Campaign against poaching
- Actual accountability, enforcement, and penalties to the rules
There is never a time more than NOW for structured and controlled policies to be put in place for youth soccer in the United States.
And, coming from a club that truly cares to build the player through the investment of work that time and progression, I need to be protected over clubs that truly do not care to invest – and possibly do not have the ability to develop the young player. But, in fact, they take from these players only until they are not good enough because they have (not developed them) and therefore recruited another player to take their place, and then they are discarded. Why have we allowed this to happen? This is not good enough and we should be ashamed.
Poaching Players, Teams, and Coaches, Oh My!
* If you’re a good apple, you shouldn’t take offense to the behavior of certain bad apples being pointed out. If you do take offense, then you just might be a bad apple.
The fast-paced world of club soccer isn’t just about shuttling kids to practices, cheering them on at games, and traveling to high profile tournaments on weekends. Spurred on by the extra-charged, competitive atmosphere and the large amounts of money that are exchanging hands, there’s an unfortunate element of bad behavior that’s often bubbling just beneath the cheerful surface. Here we explore the most problematic issue that occurres in American youth soccer — brazen poaching of players, unaware, confused and easily misled parents, feeble club leaderships, and dirty politics.
Most people in the sports circle are keenly aware that there is strong competition and rivalry that exists between different clubs in youth soccer. Sometimes we even see that battle spill over into other forms of confrontation that occur off the pitch as well. And as with all things in life, there are both good apples and bad apples amongst the cadre of coaches.*
The idea of poaching is a both a complex and delicate issue. There are some coaches who stringently view any of their players who have been recruited to another team as having been “poached.” Other coaches look upon the very same scenario with an even-keeled view of their player as having been “scouted.”
Some draw the distinction between poaching and scouting depending on when a rival club approached a player or parent — whether it was during or after the season. A lesser number of coaches surprisingly hold a laissez-faire attitude that any approach is fair game with the steadfast belief that players should feel free to leave if the grass is truly greener — and also feel free to return upon discovering it wasn’t.
However, the situation gets far messier when there are multiple families involved in making a collective decision to leave en masse. Oftentimes, clusters of family groups have private discussions prior to making their decision public that will have a significant impact on the dumbfounded families of teammates who were not privy to these conversations. The issue of players being poached has caused enough dissension around youth leagues such that some organizations (including FYSA) have taken the initiative to clearly define and ban such behavior.
It’s not uncommon to have a portion of a team conspiring to leave and join a new team all together at season’s end. One can imagine the emotional toll this may have on those who were not included and the feelings of betrayal by those they once considered close friends. Unfortunately, many relationships have been severed after such occasions.
The most touchy situations usually occur when a club’s staff member is directly involved in the decision to leave. Emotions can get further heightened when a staff member, such as a team manager, is part of a group decision to leave with the clear dilemma being the potential conflict of interest. The families of those who were not aware of their decision to leave often lob accusations that if one has a role as part of the team’s staff (even as an unpaid volunteer), he or she should’ve made it known to everyone beforehand in the collective interest of the team.
THIS “LIFTING AND SHIFTING” OF TEAMS HAS EVEN RESULTED IN ACRIMONIOUS LAWSUITS BETWEEN CLUBS AND FORMER COACHES.
In addition, the most toxic situation probably happens when a team’s coach decides to switch clubs after being “poached” with a better offer or situation. Understandably, parents and players usually have a much closer bond with their coach than to any other particular club entity. So it goes without saying that when a coach makes a decision to leave, a significant portion of the players on whichever teams he or she was coaching will usually follow.
When a club experiences the departure of an entire team or several teams at once, consequently there is a sizable loss of revenue that is incurred. This “lifting and shifting” of teams has even resulted in acrimonious lawsuits between clubs and former coaches. As a result, many youth clubs have implemented a non-compete clause into their coach contracts that typically last one year or more.
* If you’re a good apple, you shouldn’t take offense to the behavior of certain bad apples being pointed out. If you do take offense, then you just might be a bad apple.
