Press Release: U.S. Soccer's Birth Year Registration Mandate
Pleasanton, Ca. (May 13, 2016)— As previously announced, Cal North and US Youth Soccer will be implementing the U.S. Soccer Federation’s birth year registration mandates in 2016.
This means that beginning Aug. 1, 2016 all regional and national US Youth Soccer competitions, including all levels of the US Youth Soccer National Championship Series, US Youth Soccer National League, US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program, US Youth Soccer Regional Leagues and US Youth Soccer Presidents Cup 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 Youth Soccer and other sanctioning bodies are now clarifying the age group structures for the 2016-2017 season.
Beginning Aug. 1, 2016, US Youth Soccer and Cal North will be using the following birth year “labels” for competition, based upon the season in which competition ends. For example:
- Players born from August 1, 1997 – December 31, 1998 will be labeled as Under-19/20s.
- 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.
- Players born from January 1, 2001 – December 31, 2001 will be labeled as Under-16s.
- Players born from January 1, 2002 – December 31, 2002 will be labeled as Under-15s.
- Players born from January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2003 will be labeled as Under-14s.
- Players born from January 1, 2004 – December 31, 2004 will be labeled as Under-13s.
With the exception of the Under-19/20s, 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 the U.S. Soccer matrix here, please note the definition for US Youth Soccer Under-19/20s competitions above.