June 4, 2020
Dear Club and League Representatives:
Due to the volume of recent inquiries, and general misinformation throughout the soccer community, MSYSA is sending this communication to remind everyone what is and is not permissible at this time.
MSYSA announced a ‘return-to-training’ (R2T) beginning on Friday, June 5, consistent with Governor Whitmer’s June 1
st
Executive Order.
Affiliated leagues/clubs should not proceed with R2T until they are adequately prepared to enforce their respective protocol consistent with
MSYSA R2T Guidelines
. Please see
June 2nd, 2020 communication
.
Training is to occur with a club’s current players only
. New players that have not yet signed with a club for 2020-2021 (because new players cannot commit until June 13, see below) should not participate in trainings with that club until June 13 or later. Once a player has committed to a new club for the 2020-2021 seasonal year (in accordance with MSYSA’s 2020-2021 Travel Team Formation Policy), then the player can begin to train with that new club.
R2T must include social distancing, no sharing of equipment, and no contact (direct or indirect) between players. R2T does
not
include scrimmages, games, or team travel to other states. R2T may include individualized drills/skill work, in small groups, where athletes maintain at least 6 feet from one another at all times, per
Executive Order 2020-110
.
Now that we are in early June, players are considering their options for the new 2020-2021 seasonal year.
Even though R2T is now permitted, MSYSA will still not sanction, affiliate, or insure in-person try-outs this year
.
MSYSA’s 2020-2021 Travel Team Formation Policy
is still in effect, as is MSYSA’s
Poaching Rule, 3.7
. Please review.
Players may commit, sign, and register with their existing club beginning June 1, 2020. In other words, starting June 1, 2020, players are permitted to re-commit to a club (for the 2020-2021 seasonal year) if they are committing to the same club that they were committed to during the 2019-2020 seasonal year. Likewise, if a player’s existing club agrees to sign/register a player with their club during this time period, the club is committing to that player for the full 2020-2021 seasonal year.
Players may commit, sign, or register with a new club starting June 13, 2020. This will only be available to those players who have not already committed, signed, or registered with their existing club (starting June 1, 2020) for the 2020-2021 seasonal year.
Starting June 13, 2020, club and team officials may initiate contact with players and with other club/team officials to inquire if a player has already committed to a club or team for the 2020-2021 seasonal year.
To put it simply, clubs cannot commit to players for the 2020-2021 seasonal year until June 13, 2020 if those players were registered to other clubs (not theirs) in 2019-2020. These are ‘new players’ because they were not registered with the club in 2019-2020 and would be new to the club in 2020-2021. To reiterate, clubs cannot commit to these ‘new players’ until June 13. This means that clubs cannot send to the player/parent (or receive from the player/parent) any sort of contract, registration form, or registration fee for commitment for the 2020-2021 seasonal year. This also means that clubs cannot make any sort of verbal or written commitment to players/parents until June 13, 2020.
Before June 13, 2020, here are examples of communications or activities clubs are permitted to do:
- Accept and respond to inquiries from players/families inside and outside the club at any time.
- Have ‘conversations’ with players/families outside the club at any time provided that the conversation was initiated by the player/family. ‘Conversations’ exclude virtual tryouts but may include telephone calls, email communication, webinars, Zoom calls, FaceTime calls, etc. Important things to remember are:
·
The player/family
must
initiate the communication.
·
The club
must not
commit to potential new players prior to June 13, 2020.
- Allow prospective families to sign up for email or mail communications regarding the club.
- Allow prospective families to sign up for ‘virtual tryouts’ provided that the player/family initiates the sign-up process and there is no fee involved.
- Virtual tryouts do not occur until June 1 for existing players or until June 13 for new players.
·
Clubs cannot commit to potential new players/families until June 13.
- Promote online or via social media the ability for potential new players/families to have ‘conversations’ with the club as outlined above, or to submit video as part of a virtual tryout as noted above.
- Promote online or via social media information relating to the club which may include club fees, calendar commitments, training location(s), anticipated leagues, travel expectations, tournaments, coach assignments, and coach qualifications
- Promote online or via social media the anticipated number of open roster spots within a given age group or team
- Initiate contact with players/families from outside the club beginning June 13. Note: Clubs are strongly encouraged to first ask if a player has committed to another club for the 2020-2021 seasonal year. If the answer is ‘yes’, the club should cease conversations with that player/family immediately.
In closing, we acknowledge this year’s travel team process is not ideal. We implore you to keep your focus on the players as they celebrate a return to fresh air and in being able to interact their teammates and friends. As challenging as these times have been for adults, they’ve been equally challenging for our youth athletes across the state. MSYSA knows there is a lot of excitement with a return to training activities. Please do your part in knowing your respective responsibilities. As always, please continue to review our website, email communications, and social media platforms for updates.
Sincerely,
Thomas Faro
Executive Director
cc.: MSYSA Board of Directors
