| On Tuesday, March 17, 2020, several member organizations of the US Soccer Federation (USSF) Youth Council mutually agreed to postpone all soccer activities of the respective organizations. This includes practices, training, matches, and tournaments. The Chief Medical Officer for US Soccer participated in the discussions. The Youth Council members included in the discussion were US Club Soccer, USYS, SAY Soccer, USSSA, and AYSO. This policy will remain in place until further notice. The five groups will continue to coordinate the response and recovery of operations as the COVID 19 issue progresses and determine an appropriate point in time to return to soccer activities.
For AYSO, the following guidance is provided: - Regions must postponespring programs or continuation of 2019 primary programs rather than cancelling them if warranted by conditions such as field availability, availability of volunteers, etc. We are all dealing with an unprecedented event, but, we believe that it is important to bring a sense of normalcy back to the lives of our kids and their families by helping them getting back to playing soccer when it is deemed safe to do so.
- Some families will need to receive a refund soon due to economic situations. Parents who contact the AYSO Office are being referred to their respective Regions. Regions that make refunds are asked to refund the AYSO National Player Fee (NPF), and seek reimbursement of the NPF from the AYSO Office. This will minimize the inconvenience to parents.
- AYSO Finance team members are evaluating expeditious ways to reimburse the NPF to Regions and make it easier for Regions to process NPF refunds.
- Refunds will only apply to play or programs that haven’t already started. Players that have already participated in a primary program in MY19 are not eligible for a refund.
- The AYSO National Board of Directors (NBOD) and Section Directors endorsed this approach in a teleconference on March 16, 2020.
It is difficult to predict when life in many areas will begin to return to “normal”. The US Soccer discussion suggested that a postponement of all activities would exist at least through the Easter holiday. All parties agreed that action was necessary to assist in containing the COVID 19 outbreak and protect the health not only of our players, but our volunteers and supporters as well.
We continue to update information from the CDC as well as links to State and Local Health Departments that can found here: https://www.aysovolunteers.org/coronavirus-update-and-prevention-tips/
The NBOD is committed to providing timely updates as more information and clarity becomes available. If you have additional questions, please contact the AYSO Office by clicking here.
Sincerely,
The AYSO National Board of Directors and AYSO Office |