League Qualifying for National Championship Series Play

Qualifying League for National Championship Series Play.

In order for a Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association affiliated league to be recognized for and act as a qualifying league for state cup play (ie, National Championship Series Play), the league must have at least 8 teams in a respective age group.   All teams competing in the league must be affiliated through a state association affiliated with US Youth Soccer.

The age groups can be single age groups or two years combined into one age group (it may not have three ages groups combined into a single age).  However, if the age group is a combined age group, the group must contain at least four teams in the specific age group a team is qualifying for (ie, if the age group is a U-16 and contains both U-15 & U-16 teams, in order to qualify for either age, there must be four  U-15 and/or four  U-16 teams in the group). 

No more than 2 teams in a single age group and 3 teams in a combined age group can be from the same club.  The same club is considered to be one owned, managed, controlled or operated by a single entity.  If a league has more than one playing section (ie, Division 1, 2 or 3  or  Divison 1 – Section A, B, C, ect.), these rules shall apply to each playing section.

The league must play full regulation matches and use USSF certified referees.

The league can be a fall only league, a spring only league, a fall and spring league, or even a spring/summer league.  However in order to qualify, the league must schedule and play at least  70 %  of all games on or before the Thursday prior to the Round Robin tournament.

Each soccer year he league must petition the Director, National Championship Series for certification as a cup qualifying league.  This certification must be done by March 1 of the soccer year for a spring or spring /summer league  and by July 15 for a fall league (for 2006, the date shall be August 1 -  thereafter it shall be July 15).  Such request must include a listing of all teams entered in the league by age group and a tentative schedule which shows compliance with the playing requirements of the paragraph above.   Failure to meet these requirements could jeopardize the league's status as a “Cup” qualifying league.

If a team or club is seeking to use a non Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association league as a “Cup” qualifying league, the league must be affiliated with an US Youth Soccer affiliate and must meet the requirements of paragraphs 1-4 above.

Any league run or operated by Region 1, or any of the other 3 regions of US Youth Soccer may be used as a “Cup” qualifying league.  Only the provisions of paragraph 4 above must be complied with by a Regional league.