Players remained in limbo after teams from Vancouver’s oldest youth soccer club were banned from playing | CBC News

Parents and players at Vancouver’s oldest youth soccer club are upset that their season has been thrown into turmoil after five teams were denied membership in the Vancouver Youth Soccer Association (VYSA).

The decision affects 78 players between the ages of nine and 14 playing in the Marpole Fusion Selects.

The parents said they were caught off guard by the development, which only caught their eye when the BC Coastal Soccer League schedule was released in late August without the Marpole Fusion teams. (The season was due to start this past weekend, although many games have been canceled due to wildfire smoke.)

“My son just wants to play football,” said Chris Reid. “He’s devastated.”

Another parent described their child as distraught and said families are caught in the middle of a struggle they don’t understand. The parent asked not to be named for fear other football organizations might ban the child.

“No one has answered the basic question of why,” the parent said. “How do we explain this to our children?”

The VYSA governs seven community football clubs with 6,500 players in the District of Vancouver. Without VYSA affiliation, Marpole Fusion teams are barred from competing in the BC Coastal Soccer League. They just don’t have a place to play games.

Marpole was founded in 1928 and is the smallest VYSA club with around 180 members.

Trouble began earlier this year when Marpole formed a partnership with Fusion FC, a high-performance Richmond club. On his website Marpole promoted player tryouts for the Marpole Fusion Selects in March, promising teams follow “led by professional coaches from Fusion FC…[ing] Fusion FC’s high performance program…” which would play in the BC Coastal Soccer League.

Reid said his son went through testing with no indication from the club, team or VYSA that there had been a problem.

The parents say they were aware of other VYSA member clubs that work with high-performance clubs outside of Vancouver, similar to the Marpole Fusion partnership. However, they may not have been aware of the troubled relationship between Fusion FC and the VYSA.

A four-page statement The report, published Monday on the VYSA website, provides a summary of the acrimony and reasons behind the departure of the Fusion Marpole teams. In it, VYSA says Marpole attempted to cover up his relationship with Fusion while conducting a disinformation campaign “aimed at inciting public opinion and pressuring BC’s governing bodies to circumvent their own policies and procedures.”

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The statement elaborates on the complicated backstory of Fusion FC’s previous attempts to become a member of VYSA, including last year when Fusion filed a petition against VYSA in BC Supreme Court, accusing it of being “oppressive” and “unfairly prejudicial”. to be. That Petition was rejected in July 2021.

CBC requested interviews with officials from VYSA, Marpole Soccer Club and Fusion FC. No one replied by our deadline.

In a statement sent to CBC, VYSA chief executive David Valinho said Marpole had ignored requests for information about the Fusion FC partnership on several occasions since February 2022.

“Recently, VYSA instructed Marpole to provide further material, such as proof that a valid general meeting has been held. Marpole has refused to provide the requested information,” Valinho wrote.

The VYSA is offering to merge the disputed teams so they can play in the BC Coastal Soccer League this season, but only if the players drop all Fusion FC and Marpole branding and agree, under the VYSA banner in VYSA -approved uniforms with a VYSA- appointed coach on matchdays.

A parent said the proposal will only make players the laughing stock of the league.