US Club Soccer to let national suspension expire May 18, deferring to local guidelines

US Club Soccer will allow its current national suspension of all activities to expire on May 18, allowing local leagues to return to play on their own timelines.

As outlined in a letter sent out to membership today by US Club Soccer CEO Kevin Payne, the national governing body is set to begin delegating return-to-play decisions to local members around the country. However, all leagues will be expected to follow their own local health and safety requirements. Violators of local government requirements will not be insured under US Club Soccer’s policy.

As was previously announced, all of US Club Soccer’s regional and national summer tournaments – including the National Cup, ENPL Finals and Girls NPL Finals – have been canceled. These cancelations were made to allow more opportunity for local competition during the late spring and summer.

See below for the full update to membership from Payne:

Dear members,

These past two months have been like nothing any of us has ever experienced before. The novel coronavirus pandemic has caused disruption of every aspect of our daily lives, including the organized soccer activities we all enjoy so much. Throughout this unprecedented and confusing time, we have guided our decision-making by the fundamental principle that the wellbeing of all of our players, staff, parents and loved ones is always our first priority. We thank you for your patience, understanding and cooperation.

Removal of national suspension of activities on May 18:

We recognize that different parts of our country have been affected to a different degree by the impact of COVID-19. Therefore, we are lifting our national suspension of activities and delegating return-to-play decision making to our local members, effective May 18.  

To be clear, this decision by no means is a blanket permission to return to the fields. Each member is expected to strictly follow state and local guidelines for the resumption of play. PLEASE NOTE: OUR INSURANCE IS ONLY IN EFFECT IF YOUR ACTIVITIES ARE CONSISTENT WITH LOCAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES. 

Please also note that any organized activities by our member leagues, clubs or teams require that players and staff have current 2019-20 pass cards in order to qualify for insurance coverage.

Return-to-play resources:

Members must abide by the requirements/guidelines established by their state and local public health authorities. Beyond that, here are some other resources to consider when planning for a return to play:

• • CDC’s “Guidance for Where You Live, Work, Learn, Pray and Play”
  • U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s “Guidance for Return to Training and Sport Event Planning”
  • U.S. Soccer’s return-to-play resources forthcoming and will shared on usclubsoccer.org/coronavirus

Summer 2020 events:

Last week, we officially canceled our 2020 National Cup series, including all of our regional events and all our summer championship events. Prior to that announcement, we had canceled the ENPL National Playoffs and Finals, Girls NPL Finals and National Cup XIX Finals. You can read those Member Updates: here for the National Cup Regionals decision and here for the championships decision. We regret that we had to make those decisions, and we look forward to resuming those activities in 2021.

The cancelations were made in consideration of not only health and safety, but also in an effort to allow leagues around the country to potentially complete their spring seasons by extending into the summer. We hope that most of our members are able to safely resume play over the next several months.

US Club Soccer’s coronavirus web page:

If you haven’t yet visited usclubsoccer.org/coronavirus, we encourage you to do so. You’ll find consolidated information about the impact on our programming, as well as helpful information related to employment, the federal stimulus bill, CDC guidelines and safety requirements for virtual training sessions.

**

This time in which we find ourselves is an extraordinary one, and it has produced an extraordinary response from people all across the world. We have all come to recognize the everyday heroes who are part of our lives every day: our health care workers, police, fire, and ambulance personnel, and those who care for the elderly, of course, come immediately to mind. But think of the others we don’t usually consider heroic: grocery store workers, freight haulers, farmers, food processors, mail carriers, garbage collectors, and many others who show up and do their job every day, even when that puts them at risk.  Perhaps the silver lining in this long dark cloud will be a greater appreciation of those who everyday work on behalf of all of us.

US Club Soccer made a commitment to Player Health and Safety as part of our Players First promise long before COVID-19 changed our world. We’re proud that is our commitment now, and that will be our commitment always.

We’re all in this together!

Sincerely,
Kevin Payne
CEO/Executive Director