Players playing down

I think the OP is asking about playing down in league not age group.

The system can be worked to make it legal in most cases. I would judge it on the reason it was done.

1) Does the team need a win and they are their best ECNL player?
2) Does the 17th ECNL player need the minutes?
3) Is the team really short players and the ECNL player plays limited minutes?

I am sure there are several more reasons, some good and some bad in my mind.

Ah right, was tired. Long weekend.

I believe SCCL expressly forbids ECNL players feom playing in SCCL or SCCL club players from playing in SCCL Premier. I'm not sure if NPL factors into that.

But should a player be demoted between seasons, they should be required to remove or at least cover the previous year patches. Not sure how often players are demoted Mid- season, not many clubs i could see doing that.

Well to answer your question yes it’s “legal” as ECNL and NPL and SCCL are all different and equal in league status. There’s no pyramid to say you can’t as all three are different leagues so it’s like comparing apples and oranges.

In SCCL you can’t play a Club2Club level player down in Premier. There’s nothing saying that a club can’t “dual” roster a player on an ECNL and SCCL team.

In ECNL, a player can’t play down on an ECRL team, but an ECRL Player can play up to ECNL.

This is what clubs want with no promotion/relegation all these leagues are considered equal and don’t have a hierarchy. Unlike the GaSoccer/USYS pyramid of Rec to Classic to GPL to NL Piedmont and up.

On the girls side, UFA and Atlanta Fire are repeat offenders

We have been at UFA for a long time and have only seen a player play down twice a few years ago when UFA Norcross did not have enough players for one game due to injuries/absences. In that case NPL players played in an SCCL girls game. Given that DA players were not allowed to do this and it is very rare to have people do it anyway I am not sure where you get that info about UFA. Plus given arguments about the level of NPL vs SCCL it is a questionable statement to say they were playing down.

NTH did do this in State Cup and in SCCL cup two years ago. It was a big argument on the forum at that time. AFU has been known to do it under the former director. Not sure since.

I know that SCCL-C level players can not play down into SCCL Premier levels. Also a player in SCCL-P1 can not go and also play on a team in SCCL- P2 through P4 not matter if the kid is playing up an age group or in their own age group. In SCCL a player can only play the same level Premier level or play up to a higher Premier level or Club level.

Now whether or not ECNL, NPL, or GA Soccer players play on them is another question since the rules don't mention anything about those. I would assume it is legal unless the ECNL/NPL/GA Soccer rules don't allow it which to my knowledge I don't think there is any rules in those leagues to prevent it. 

Exactly. All these leagues means that there’s no true pyramid.

Playing Ecnl vs SCCL or Ga Soccer is like playing HS under GHSA and playing ECNL. You can do both because it’s two different organizations.

Just like there’s no stopping a kid from say playing at Lanier on their MLS team and playing SCCL Premier at say Steamers. Hell the kid could hit the trifecta and then go play Classic 2 at Athens United. Or if a kid at UFA who plays ECNL could also go play NL Piedmont at Impact. And there’s nothing the clubs can do to stop it.