Schwan’s USA Cup to be sanctioned by US Club Soccer as MYSA drops out

A little more than a week ago, the National Sports Center released a statement announcing that the Schwan’s USA Cup, which has traditionally been sanctioned by Minnesota Youth Soccer, (MYSA) would instead be sanctioned by US Club Soccer. The actual press release read:

As many of you in Minnesota know, Schwan’s USA CUP is an event and not a soccer club/program so we need a sanctioning organization or club. Schwan’s USA CUP has had MYSA as a sanctioning partner since its inception in 1985.

Long story short, this year MYSA could not sanction Schwan’s USA CUP because of a date issue, so we are sanctioned by US Club Soccer, MN Thunder Academy and Arsenal. This is not an issue for any team that wants to participate in the tournament because Schwan’s USA CUP still has US Soccer and FIFA as governing bodies so AYSO, US Club Soccer and USYSA teams are all accepted.

This may cause some confusion to Minnesota teams about what they can or should do, but the best option is to contact MYSA or Schwan’s USA CUP with your questions and we will all do our best to help you sort through questions.

I contacted MYSA and NSC to get their explanation of this situation. MYSA’s John Curtis, Coaching Director and Executive Director Candace Daley were both emailed with no response. I also called Daley again to follow up and finally gave a second and final phone call, letting her know I was going to write the story. I told her I had NSC’s side of things and wanted to give MYSA an equal voice. I was never called back or emailed.

NSC was very approachable and I first talked to Barclay Kruse, Media Director for NSC. Kruse went out of his way to make sure I understood that MYSA was sanctioning all of NSC’s other tournaments in 2009 and this was the only tournament MYSA was not sanctioning.

He also said the conflict arose from the date of the Schwan’s USA Cup and the dates of MYSA District play-offs to qualify for end of the season state tournament.

Kruse put me in touch with Steve Olson, Chief Operating Officer for NSC. Olson called me back promptly and shared his view of the situation. He explained the conflict with Schwan’s USA Cup and MYSA district playoffs is an old one, but for some reason, on the 25th anniversary of the Schwan’s tournament, MYSA discontinued talks with NSC to resolve the issue. Paul Erickson, Executive Director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission, (MASC) tried to contact MYSA’s attorney for 2 weeks without a response. Olson said NSC went to US Club Soccer to get their event sanctioned. He also said, “We are trying to establish a relationship with MYSA for 2009 that will allow teams wishing to participate in both the MYSA State play-offs and the USA Cup, to do so.”

US CLub Soccer was founded in 2000. It was formed after American Youth Soccer (AYSO) challenged US Soccer back in the 90′s. The argument was that US Youth Soccer didn’t have to be the only organization in the US to fall under United States Soccer Federation, who in turn falls under FIFA laws and rules. US Soccer needed to allow its members direct and equal access to the governing body. (US Club Soccer is an interesting story in itself and one that IMS will attempt to address this winter.)

When I coached in the North District, I too experienced the scheduling conflicts that always happen between Schwan’s USA Cup and district playoffs. If our team was going to participate in the state playoffs and Schwan’s USA Cup, there was a possibility of having to play up to three games in a day–two for the Schwan’s tourney and one district game.

In all fairness to MYSA, the schedule is tight. The season can’t begin too early for weather reasons, particularly in the northern parts of the state. The season needs to be wrapped up by particular dates allowing time for rescheduled games and finally, the State Tournament needs to conclude in time to have a several week gap between that date and the start of the Minnesota high school season. The harsh and unpredictable seasons with the cold rainy springs and cold falls do not play kindly to the schedules of Minnesota soccer.

Olson claims that as a former Executive Director of MYSA, he knows how the rules are designed to work. He said that MYSA is set up for the President to give direction to the organization in regards to districts. Instead, he says, MYSA has pushed the resolution off to the district directors in the past. In turn each district director needed to then resolve their conflicts with NSC. Olson also says that at the last MYSA AGM, there was a rule change to alter the format of the tournament. There would now be a three tier system, districts, regionals and then state, much like the state high school tournament format, which in turn would reduce the teams that made it to districts, therefore reducing the amount of conflicts.

“NSC supported this change. MYSA published a notice of rule changes and in that it was stated that the rationale for this change was “concessions” to be demanded by NSC in the State Tournament. Such statement was never made by NSC,” claims Olson. “Again, we supported the change.”

Olson also went on to say that there were some rumors spread at last years Schwan’s Cup “that just weren’t true,” but unfortunately seemed to also do damage to the relationship between NSC and MYSA. “Specifically, we were quoted as saying that teams playing on the final day of the USA Cup would play only one game that day. That was not true and never said by NSC personal,” said Olson.

For those who are not familiar with youth soccer in Minnesota, many of the better teams often do not sign up for state play-offs. State Cup, held in the beginning of the season, -early May- can be a much higher level of play. Teams that win State Cup, can move onto regional and national play sponsored by US Youth Soccer. The end of the year state play-offs are closed ended and do not award teams with anything but a trophy. However, state play-offs are a way for teams to move up (relegation/promotion) to the next highest league. For example, if a team were to win the C-1 state tournament, they would automatically be moved up to the premier league the following year. The lowest placed team in the Premier league would drop to C-1 and the runner up in the state play-offs for C-1, would participate in a play-off game with the second to the lowest team in the premier league. The winner of that game would be included in the premier league the following year, with the loser either remaining or dropping down to the C-1 league.

IMS is also aware of the rift between the Minnesota Thunder and MYSA because of the newly formed Minnesota Thunder Academy. In the coming months, IMS will also attempt to try to get MYSA’s explanation on this evolving story along with some of the clubs who feel they have been affected by this move. With that said, this site set out to be a place where everyone involved with soccer in the state of Minnesota comes together. I’m certainly not interested in creating riffs and divisions. In fact quite the opposite – Minnesota is too small of a soccer state to have so many of the largest organizations be in conflict with each other. If we are to truly progress soccer in the state, we need to get the facts on the table and find resolution that we can all agree on.

IMS will also be conducting an interview with Steve Olson later in January as we talk all things youth soccer in the state of Minnesota as well as the United States.