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