US Youth Soccer’s Qureshi Sohail On Are We Going In The Right Direction?
Sohail Qureshi, Member at Large for US Youth Soccer, shares his personal perception of youth development and the future direction of the largest youth soccer organization in the USA.
An op-ed editorial by Qureshi Sohail.
Related Article: Qureshi Sohail On Teaming Up For the Youth Game
Youth Soccer News: In my view, US Youth Soccer is experiencing unprecedented change due to multiple internal and external factors.
US Youth Soccer is the largest youth sports organization in America and provides more than 3 million players with opportunities to play soccer.
Those factors include:
- Dramatic market condition changes.
- Increased outside competition for both competitive and recreational players.
- Increased consumer demands.
- Lack of experienced volunteers.
- Parents that would rather pay someone else to do it than volunteer to do it themselves.
- General feeling of discontent by the administrative segment of our membership.
We operate in an environment where our competitors are far smaller but are more efficient at marketing; providing administration with less regulatory controls; have fewer tiers of administrative structure that provide very few services and can quickly tailor programming as additional members join their organization or as the market demands.
If US Youth Soccer was to attempt to operate in a similar method as our main competitors, a budget several times larger than the current budget would be required.
Since ultimately the player provides the bulk of the funds consumed in the budget, affordability becomes a major issue that would probably hinder further growth and may well reduce the numbers of players able to participate.
The greatest growth of soccer in the United States happened — in large part — due to US Youth Soccer’s operating model which centered extensively on the usage of volunteers.
This model was family centric and made participation affordable for all socio-economic groups.
While times do change and the way an entity operates must be flexible to adjust for these changes, the core factor of affordability must remain at the forefront of all broad scale youth activities.
This model is the greatest strength of US Youth Soccer but also its achilles heel.
Volunteers have their own unique prospective that is comprised from their unique experiences and is limited to their geographic location.
These volunteers are the stake holders of US Youth Soccer.
Our competitors deal with for-profit clubs and concentrate on a small segment of elite players/population where affordability is not in the picture. US Youth Soccer serves all segments of the population. Due to competitive pressure our model is under duress and stress.
We, at US Youth Soccer, have always been at the cutting edge for the growth of the game as well as providing elite players for the national team. So, what we face in the current environment is how to keep the game within the reach of all the segments of the population, including those who are elite players as well as those who are recreational, in-house recreational or those who are in between.
We are at a crossroads, the rich heritage that we have demands that we find the solutions to this issue.
Volunteers are USYS’s greatest asset. They are all well intentional, which is evident when we get together as a body and we often hear opinions that start out with “In my Team”, “In my league”, “in my club”, “in my state” and “in my region”.
This proves their prospective is shaped by their own experience.
We face a total of 55 x3 higher level influences in a national meeting (these include the president, executive director, and director of coaching) but take this further down to the level of leagues and you will find that there are thousands of influences that shape or affect our ability to operate and serve the game.
To keep the game affordable and serve all segments, a viable option is to keep the volunteer structure intact, utilize them but create a firewall in terms of programs and services by introducing professionalized administration of those programs by utilizing the volunteer base we have.
The firewall does not necessarily mean to disregard the stake holders input but rather be a funnel to analyze and choose the best of those suggestions that apply towards the stated aim of the program and service US Youth Soccer provides.
If we were to do the analytics on US Youth Soccer for the past 10 years, you will see that in terms of the growth of the state’s participants was directly related to the state’s ability to invest in innovative programs and services and those states have seen some growth.
States that have significant growth have taken additional steps to eliminate outdated rules, eliminate borders within states and across states.
By creating innovative programs and services they have also chosen to modify their fee model to a tier pricing model along with building the cost within their programs and services.
The states that have stuck to what worked 20 years ago have clearly seen decline in their numbers and attrition of players to the competition.
In the current framework, borders not only apply to state boundaries but exist within states, within school districts and within cities with competing clubs and leagues clearly protecting and holding their territories.
This approach results in the consumer’s decision to either leave the game all together or moving to competitive entities for services and programs.
Today’s consumers of our programs and services are savvy and well aware of the nuances of the game as well as the value proposition that each program and event provides them. They are in large part knowledgeable fans of the sport and know the development path for their children very well. They seek out opportunities that will provide maximum benefits to their children as players.
There is a cold war between camps.
Board and office has spent a great deal of energy in recent past to deal with a cold war between two camps.
US YOUTH SOCCER REGIONS DISCUSSION
There are camps that want the regions gone completely and camps who want to keep the regions as they have existed.
This structure of regions has been blamed for — depending on which side one talks to — player attrition; states losing memberships; no clear path way for players to pursue; bad fields; bad referees and what not.
This structure has also provided a pathway for competition, while at the same time influencing national governance and most importantly national administration of the organization and in some cases resulting in slow response to the ever changing market conditions but it has kept the game affordable at all levels to a segment of the population.
The structure has further clouded parameters under which the sport of soccer is governed with well-intentioned policies and process locally centered.
Granted there have been some voices louder than the others for change, the divide that has been created and exists needs to be addressed and brought into the limelight so that the burning issue of regional governance can be put to bed once and for all.
The proposal that the board has made along with the road map, after due consideration and deliberations, is well thought out.
It keeps the heritage of volunteer involvement in the game and administration of the game. However, this proposal puts a firewall between the political and the administrative side of USYS. This firewall will act as a filter of ideas and process that must be adapted to keep USYS as the leading organizations of youth soccer and serve its mission.
It does not by any means eliminate regions or eliminates the accountability that administrative side will have to the national body.
In effect, it solidifies the accountability of the administration to the national council. This also allows for a national thinking while acting locally. The road map draws out clear, defined and direct connection between USYS and its members by bringing in CRM’s (Customer relation managers) whose sole function will be to serve member states and continually identify operating risks as well as mitigation strategies to minimize their impact.
The ultimate decision of what is the future makeup of USYS lies with its membership/stakeholders.
This structure will then define parameters under which USYS programs and services will operate. It will further clarify and define highway lanes with off-ramps for all levels of competition and a clear pathway for players, clubs, leagues whether they be competitive or recreational in nature, regardless of the geography they operate in.
No matter what the USYS membership decides, one thing is very clear that the infighting and …
the civil war that is ongoing between various camps within the membership must come to an end and all must agree to the will of the majority.
This agreement will then provide USYS a clear direction and will enable the organization to steer all its resources towards serving its members and the players. We must remember, we all as volunteers choose to take part because we care about the kids that play this game and the game itself. USYS is 55 state associations that have come together for a common purpose, and they are the ones who can influence change by working together rather than working against each other or the organization.
Whatever the outcome in terms of governance, structure and programing comes out to be, one thing is for certain — the board and the staff stands ready and willing to implement in high gear the wishes of the stakeholders of USYS and get on with the business of youth soccer.
