Players left in limbo after teams from Vancouver's oldest youth soccer club barred from playing

Parents and players at Vancouver's oldest youth soccer club are upset their season has been thrown into turmoil after five teams were refused affiliation with the Vancouver Youth Soccer Association (VYSA). 

The decision affects 78 players between the ages of nine and 14 who play on the Marpole Fusion Selects. 

Parents say they were blindsided by the development, which only came to their attention when the B.C. Coastal Soccer League schedule was released in late August without the Marpole Fusion teams on it. (The season was set to begin last weekend, although many games were cancelled because of wildfire smoke.)

"My son just wants to play soccer," said Chris Reid. "He is devastated."

Another parent described their child as distraught and said families are caught in the middle of a fight they don't understand. The parent asked not to be named for fear other soccer organizations will ban the child.

"Nobody has answered the basic question of why," said the parent. "How do we explain this to our kids?"

The VYSA governs seven community soccer clubs with 6,500 players in the Vancouver district. Without VYSA affiliation, Marpole Fusion teams are blocked from entering the B.C. Coastal Soccer League. Simply, they have nowhere to play games.

Marpole was founded in 1928 and is the smallest VYSA club, with approximately 180 members.

The trouble started earlier this year when Marpole partnered with Fusion FC, a high-performance club based in Richmond. On its website, Marpole advertised player tryouts for the Marpole Fusion Selects in March, promising teams "led by Fusion FC professional coaches … follow[ing] Fusion FC's high-performance program …" that would play in the B.C. Coastal Soccer League.

Reid said his son went through tryouts with no indication from either the club, team or VYSA that there was a problem.

Parents say they were aware of other VYSA member clubs partnering with high-performance clubs outside Vancouver, similar to the Marpole Fusion partnership. However, they may not have been aware of the troubled relationship between Fusion FC and the VYSA.

A four-page statement posted on the VYSA website Monday contains a synopsis of the acrimony and reasons for dropping the Fusion Marpole teams. In it, VYSA says Marpole attempted to disguise its relationship with Fusion while running a disinformation campaign "intended to inflame public opinion and pressure B.C. governing bodies to circumvent their own policies and procedures." 

B.C. Supreme Court petition dismissed

The statement goes into the complicated backstory of previous Fusion FC attempts to gain membership in VYSA, including last year when Fusion brought a petition against VYSA in B.C. Supreme Court, accusing it of being "oppressive" and "unfairly prejudicial." The petition was dismissed in July 2021.

CBC requested interviews with officials from VYSA, the Marpole Soccer Club and Fusion FC. None responded by our deadline. 

In a statement sent to CBC, VYSA board chairman David Valinho said Marpole has ignored requests for information about the Fusion FC partnership several times since February 2022. 

"Recently, the VYSA directed that Marpole provide other material such as proof of having held a valid AGM. Marpole has refused to provide the requested information," wrote Valinho.

The VYSA is offering to affiliate the disputed teams so they can play in the B.C. Coastal Soccer League this season, but only if players drop all Fusion FC and Marpole branding and agree to compete under the VYSA banner in VYSA- approved uniforms with a VYSA-appointed coach on game days. 

A parent said the proposal will only turn the players into the laughing stock of the league.