25 Jan US Club Soccer update on U.S. Soccer’s birth-year registration mandate

As previously announced in September 2015, US Club Soccer will be implementing the U.S. Soccer Federation’s birth-year registration mandates on Aug. 1, 2016.

This means that all youth competitions beginning Aug. 1, 2016 will be based on age group cut-offs of January 1 for each age group. Due to additional interpretative changes by U.S. Soccer since this announcement in how competition age groups are labeled, US Club Soccer and other sanctioning bodies are now clarifying the age group structures for the 2016-2017 season.

• Beginning Aug. 1, 2016, all youth soccer sanctioning organizations will form competitions based on birth-year age groups.

• Beginning Aug. 1, 2016, US Club Soccer will be using the following birth-year “labels” for competition, based upon the season in which competition ends. For example:
  • Players born from January 1, 1998 – December 31, 1998 will be labeled as Under-19s.
  • Players born from January 1, 1999 – December 31, 1999 will be labeled as Under-18s.
  • Players born from January 1, 2000 – December 31, 2000 will be labeled as Under-17s.
  • For any birth year, the age group “label” will be determined by subtracting the year in which the players participating in the competition were born from the year in which competition ends.

The change to birth year age groups and to the “labels” for naming each age group have been made by U.S. Soccer. You may view a matrix here.

US Club Soccer, along with other members of the U.S. Soccer Federation, have been collaborating with each other to help ensure that these changes forced by the U.S. Soccer mandates are implemented as efficiently and smoothly as possible. This collaboration of youth members is ongoing, and each member is continuing to provide feedback and recommendations.

Clubs may continue to organize their teams for competition with players of any age younger than the age group cut-off.

Further guidance, including recommendations for clubs and teams on how to manage this change, will be provided by US Club Soccer in the coming weeks.

Article reprint from US Club Website