My DS is trying out for ECNL and MLSNext teams. He has played UPSL for the last year and is still playing in the spring session for that league. He is finding that the ECNL and MLSNext teams that he is trying out for have much slower speed of play and much less interesting play styles than the UPSL team he plays for, so one idea has been to see if he could do both (as much as possible anyway). I know a kid that did both UPSL and MLSNext so I assume that it would be possible with that league (unless rules have changed in the last two years). Does anyone know if there would be a conflict with ECNL?
My only experience with dual leagues is at a much lower level - my younger son played on a "travel" team at the same time he was playing on his regular club team, but that was U10 or U11, so there were very few conflicts (he did miss one travel practice each week because of club practice, but his coach knew this and was fine with it). With leagues like ECNL and MLS Next, I would wonder if the travel requirements and training committment wouldn't lend itself to a lot of conflicts. And I don't know if a coach of either of the two teams would be happy to know that a player of theirs was "splitting time".
As of 2017(?) ECNL prohibited players on ECNL teams from playing on any other teams in any other USSF sanctioned league. We hit this because we has several kids on our u14 team who were "prECNL" at u11-u13 with the local outlet who dual rostered with our community club (USYS), some were upset that they couldn't continue to play with us. Not sure how they handle non youth league dual rostering.
True, you do have to find an ECNL coach that is okay with it which might be hard. But the UPSL team seems to have quite a bit of fluidity with kids who take breaks to go to Europe, SA, or professional clubs for trials or play college ball and join the team for their summer break or play professional indoor soccer while also playing on the team. I found an article about the ECNL versus UPSL league and the article discussed how UPSL might be a higher level but ECNL has college scouts and it said if you are interested in playing in college then play ECNL and UPSL can be an extra source of games. So that article indicates that playing in both should be fine--but I would love to hear from someone that has done both.
I think the original ECNL rule was about DA, since that was directly sanctioned by USSF, and about providing an exception for high school soccer, which is not sanctioned at all by USSF. UPSL used to be sanctioned by US Adult Soccer Association, but as of May 2022, it's sanctioned by USSF directly, so if ECNL ever took the position that playing in UPSL was OK, that might be the reason (even though I think they would classify a USASA league as USSF sanctioned anyway given that USASA is under USSF). MLS Next definitely prohibits any outside play, including high school, so there is no chance that there is a loophole for UPSL. Of course, in both cases it probably only comes up if you are rostered and play games. If you're just practicing with the UPSL team, which gets you a lot of the benefits anyway playing during scrimmages etc, then it's probably fine if it's OK with both sets of coaches. Even for games, it's also less likely to be an issue for anyone if the games are during off-season for the clubs like in summer.
This confused me as I saw (but today cannot find) that St. Louis City will be entering a team in UPSL, so I foolishly assumed that players would be playing in both MLS Next and UPSL. But then I saw this for Charlotte: CHARLOTTE, NC (Tuesday, January 3, 2023) – Charlotte FC announced today the addition of a new team within the Academy which is set to begin play this spring in the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL). The team will play in the Premier Division within the Mid-Atlantic Conference which features local sides Queen City FC and Mint Hill FC along with other semi-professional sides. The new side will fit between the MLS NEXT Pro and the U-17s on the Club’s development pathway: Charlotte FC First Team MLS NEXT Pro UPSL U-17 U-15 U-14 Discovery Program Grassroots Dominic Oduro, who played 13 seasons in Major League Soccer amassing over 350 appearances, has been elevated to Head Coach of the new team. Oduro previously served as the Club’s U-14 coach.
Yes. I should have clarified. MLS Next academies wouldn't let you play on their teams and a random UPSL team at the same time. There are, however, MLS Next teams who place a team in UPSL. It's really common in U19 because it's not really worth the expense of flying those kids all over when MLS only requires their academies to field teams in U15 and U17. UPSL is also ideal because they can have some kids who are over-age for U19 (since UPSL's adult leagues don't have age requirements), but not quite ready for MLS Next Pro. LA Galaxy and LAFC have been putting their over U17 kids in the local UPSL league for several years. One of the advantages over MLS Next Pro is that UPSL has a lot of full grown adults who played D1 or professionally, while MLS Next Pro teams can actually be quite a bit younger. So, UPSL exposes the players to more physicality, which is what MLS clubs like the Galaxy and LAFC liked about USL. Unfortunately, MLS made the decision to move to MLS Next Pro even though Galaxy/LAFC stayed in USL an extra year, and UPSL provided a cheap way to replicate the advantages of playing older players they got from USL.
I've wondered why MLS did this -- is there some financial advantage in having everything in-house rather than fielding teams in one of the USL levels? I've heard a guy who does an FC Dallas-related podcast say FCD really dislikes this for the same reasons and sends its developmental players out on loan to USL sides so they can compete against men because MLS Next Pro is really just high-level youth soccer.
The big advantage from MLS' perspective to requiring their academies to have MLS Next Pro teams is that MLS runs both leagues and can make more seamless (within USSF's rules) the process of moving players between the leagues if there is an injury or something like that and subject to MLS rules regarding int'l slots and other roster rules, rather than USL rules. MLS Next Pro even allows MLS to try out different game rules, such as the current rule that all ties go to PKs and get you two points for a PK win, a one point or a PK tie. MLS can also coordinate schedules where it makes sense so that the senior teams and the reserve teams play each other on the same day (or the day before or after) in the same location, which allows coaches and support staff to be at both games and potentially for everyone (or at least all the coaches) to travel together on a chartered plane (which they now allow teams to use). More practically, it also is cheaper because MLS Next Pro is a third division league and salaries can be lower than USL, which is a second division league with a union where the salaries and benefits are subject to a collective bargaining agreement. From USL's perspective, the league didn't want MLS' reserve squads anymore. They didn't prioritize USL play, so attendance was often down for the reserve team, there wasn't an attempt to market a separate identity, the lineups varied greatly from game to game, etc. It basically made USL look like a second choice league when it had higher aspirations. Probably hurt in attracting national sponsors and media deals too. So, to some extent, USL forced MLS' hands, although they didn't actually want MLS Next Pro because it's a competitor for USL League One, which is also a third division league. USL would probably have been happy if all of the MLS reserve teams had moved to USL League One. That's the way it works in European leagues, where the reserve squads of the first division team often play in the third division. But that would still have left MLS' reserve teams under the governance of USL. As you said, some teams voted against the creation of MLS Next Pro and they got an extra year to transition from USL. Last year, Red Bulls, Atlanta United, LA Galaxy, and LAFC (playing as Las Vegas Lights) remained in USL Championship, while other teams had moved their reserve squads to USL League One for a season. UPSL hasn't been used for the reserve squads per se, but for what might be called a U23 (or U21) alternative to U19. It still can include U17-eligible players too, but it's mostly a more physical alternative to play players on the way up.
Our local MLSNext academy team (very highly regarded with many players on national youth team) just joined our UPSL league. It's cool to see them play the local semi-pro teams. I have also heard about quite a few ECNL players also playing on UPSL teams, but I'm not sure how many of those are just practicing with the UPSL teams.
A few of our parents have discussed putting a team from our club in the local UPSL adult league as well to help fill out our NL/PRO League schedule. Our club will never be permitted to join full ECNL and EAL/RL matches would be a waste of time, at least for our 2008s. We figured rostering a group of players from U16 up would get them extra games against grown adults and help them improve in general. Not sure how it will pan out for the spring, but it seems like a good option since we have limited other options and this would be low travel. edit: no UPSL academy league in our area, so not an option
Interesting. Elite Academy League is so new that I've heard very little. Is the quality standard perceived as low? Where does it rank in the alphabet soup of leagues in the US?
I think like many other leagues it depends on the regional landscape. The real issue with almost every league around here, especially in our age group (NL, ECNL, EAL) is that they're all incredibly top heavy because of the dilution of clubs. *Personally* I prefer the way USYS runs the NL because in theory, it's not dependent on having clubs with strong teams at every level or lobbying for entry into a closed league for your entire club, but that comes with other problems. The lack of an actual soccer pyramid is a major issue at the youth levels, it ends up costing parents money that shouldn't need to be spend on extra travel because of the number of closed leagues diluting the pool of teams at the top, resulting in the top heavy leagues we have.
MLS/Next does not permit involvement with outside clubs, unless there’s particular allowance by the particular club. That’s typically stated pretty explicitly in their contracts. Many times, other youth clubs frown highly against it as well. They aren’t permitted to restrict it though either, as all the carding is done separately and no one “owns” the player since they are amateurs. In the end, MLS wants to own the player and dictate what the player is allowed to do. Their partnership (possible investment) in UPSL is another path that they are choosing to “own” the player pathway. Now, they can control thousands of player registrations and potential moves. It was also a necessary move for them for their Generation adidas contract. Adidas needs the money and MLS pushing more into a “pathway” forces more players to buy adidas boots/gear. There’s still a lot of MLS academies that force players to purchase adidas at full-price. It will most likely be a short-term involvement for UPSL. MLS has shown they aren’t really interested in it much. It’s poorly put together and the events are worse than a youth club game. You’d sometimes get lucky to have officials at the events too.