Multi-state U.S. youth club GPS, which partnered with Bayern Munich, shuts down
- by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla, Jun 21, 2020
Keith Caldwell, who became GPS's CEO in January of this year, sent an email to GPS families on June 19 informing them of the immediate shutdown, which comes in the wake of a federal investigation into former president and CEO Joseph Bradley, GPS’s parent company, Legacy Global Sports, being forced into Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court, and a former GPS employee pleading guilty to obstructing justice.
"Our financial sponsor & LGS determined that the stress of the involuntary bankruptcy petition filed by certain creditors, in addition to the impact of the federal investigation, COVID and the uncertainty of the future in that regard -- have had a severely negative impact on the organization and its viability moving forward. As a result of these and other factors, they made the decision to shut the club down," wrote Caldwell.
Bayern Munich announced its partnership with GPS shortly after opening an office in New York and a U.S. online store in 2014. The German club's official website states: "FC Bayern and Global Premier Soccer (GPS) have an extensive youth partnership that brings over 92,000 kids in the U.S. the knowledge and expertise of FCB's notable Youth Academy."
GPS, which specialized in importing coaches from the UK and Ireland, was founded in 2001 by brothers Joseph and Peter Bradley, who emigrated from Northern Ireland, as Massachusetts Premier Soccer. It changed its name to GPS while expanding into other states, Canada and Puerto Rico.
In February, the New England Soccer Journal's Jonathan Sigal and Frank Dell’Apa reported on a federal investigation of Joseph Bradley, regarding improper work visas used by the GPS coaches. Sigal cited accounts from former GPS coaches accusing the club of irregularities with immigration paperwork, providing poor working conditions, excessive hours with disproportionate pay and living in overcrowded conditions. The federal investigation included a search and seizure warrant of GPS’s offices in Waltham, Massachusetts, in October 2019.
In May, Gavin MacPhee, a Scotland native who had worked for GPS since 2007, pleaded guilty to one count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in the federal investigation into visas for foreign workers at GPS.
A civil lawsuit filed in February accused Legacy Global Sports, which acquired 80 percent of GPS ownership in 2016 for $15.2 million, of not paying over $3.7 million as part of an adjusted purchase agreement.
In March, GPS filed a lawsuit against Surf Soccer Club, the Southern California club that had moved into New England, that included complaints against former GPS employees of breaking non-competition and non-solicitation agreements after moving to New England Surf. The New England Soccer Journal reported that suit was settled out of court in April.
GPS, which described itself as "one of the largest and most successful soccer programs in North America," at its peak ran clubs and had affiliate clubs in 26 states, hosted tournaments around the country, and ran "International Academies" in Europe for American players promising trials with professional clubs.
Bayern Munich renewed its partnership in 2017, announcing that FC Bayern coaches would double their presence in the U.S. "to bring coaching philosophy and curriculum to now over 85,000 children and 6,000 coaches into 101 soccer clubs."
Legacy Global Sports is a youth sports event and management company also involved in hockey and lacrosse.
Bayern Munich didn't bale them out???
This so-called bringing over foreign connections is just another means, like the DA programs, of how the naive parents in the US pay money through the nose in hoping for that successful 'soccer dream' for their kids. It began years ago during the 70's with the growth of youth soccer, parents would be so impressed hearing someone working or coaching with their kids with an English accent. Unfortunately, they still do today. What so ironic is that I wouldn't have one of these English coaches within 150 miles of my kid. The English were never known for youth development, but of course this fact isn't told to these naive parents.
Next, we have individuals realizing and taking advantage of the naivete' of the parents ,claiming we can teach your kid to play the South American way, or the German or the Dutch way , the MLS way or whatever. I mean I can't believe how parents are being rooked by this garbage. Today, the methods have become even more sophisticated because big name teams from Europe can smell a 'BUCK' to be made here.
We have now made coaching licenses so expensive to obtain in order to impress upon the "naive' parents ,the IMPORTANCE of having someone with a licenses. It's has become a cottage industry and parents are funding all this useless garbage their kids are receiving.
You have to realize that is long as we don't have a PICKUP SOCCER CULTURE we'll continue having these 'buzzards' circle the naive parents for money.
Frank, what you say is so true. My kids grew up in the '90s in Massachusetts. At least we were treated to John Smith soccer camps which were affordable and pretty well run with Engish imports. Club soccer back then was also inexpensive compared to present day, and I was part of two different clubs with offers to coach elsewhere. As a local town club president, I carried forward the controlled summer pickup soccer originated by my predecessor. It was controlled only in the sense that a time and place were advertised. Anyone and everyone could participate from little tiny kids to adults wanting to learn the game to become more effective coaches. No coaching!!! Everyone had great fun and learned or practiced their moves at the same time. Numerous boys and girls from that era played 4 years of Div 3 soccer in top-level conferences without the benefit of club soccer and showcase tournaments.
Fast forward to the present day and there is no summer pickup soccer in my town or in nearby towns, even before Covid-19. Parents succumb to the siren song of really expensive club soccer, enamored of the false idea that their little charge will go on to make millions playing in MLS. In an affluent town, parents pour large amounts of money into club soccer, and then their kids do not even play in college, even though they are excellent athletes technically capable. Some do not play due to the effects of concussions sustained playing school soccer.
I have offered numerous times to speak to whomever will listen about Pay for Play, but so far no takers. People are too busy to sit or zoom for a half-hour or maybe they know better. Maybe it will happen as part of a zoom forum for parents of local school kids, parents of the younger kids, first and second graders when this nonsense all starts. According to knowledgable analysis, we have a $19B Pay for Play 500 lb gorilla in our midst, and it only benefits its perpetrators. If I can get myself onto a more general agenda, I'll have a chance to say what needs to be said.
Damn, Ben ,Good stuff. <" We have a 19B Pay for Play 500lb gorilla in our midst">LOL. Both you and Justus realize what a 'Con Job' this whole thing is...Justus threw out the figure of $15000 per kid, Good Lord....this is unreal.
Realize this, NO COACH, not even a Cruyff or Pele, can teach what you need to learn playing PICKUP soccer, PERIOD!!! It is impossible for some coach to teach what you LEARN when you play PICKUP SOCCER, in a drill or exercises format; for it can't be written down and explained in pedantic fashion. There is so much 'subjective elements that you learn playing PICKUP, the glue that binds all the elements in becoming a player....IT CAN'T BE QUANTIFIED. Bringing in Coaches (licensed) to teach young players, is a waste of money, for you're actually trying to teach soccer, like teaching painting by the numbers. For example the 1v1 psychology, the technical and tactical needs as related to a particular moment, the conditions, field -wise, ball-wise, the position of your teammate, the opponents, the score, etc, so much that you need to obtain and learn that be learned from having a coach. And most important of all, no coach is needed until these various qualities/elements are learned.
Ben, have you tried summer pickup beginning around 630pm or so. I did this back in 1972 at an elementary school. High School age and middle school age would show up and play. We did this just every evening. I remember one kid who would become a 9th grader making Varsity because he spend every evening playing with the older guys during the summer. If you have a field, advertise, that an adult would sitting there for younger ages between 10-12, 13 and older, whatever. I would make it known via website, called 'where to play pick up soccer'...come all, whatever the age, even college age. What do kids do in the summer at this time between 6-8pm , certainly not watching news. Express on your website the BENEFITS of playing PICKUP
Sorry , meant to say in paragraph," so much that you need to obtain and learn that CAN'T be learned from having a coach
Sorry , meant to say in paragraph," so much that you need to obtain and learn that CAN'T be learned from having a coach
For the record, I did not pay $15,000 and I would never pay that. Hope Solo said that's the average. Lot's of travel all over and most rich parents can afford all that travel. Most go in style :) My wife and I went cheap to showcases and we skipped the travel far away. No eating out. Still $8,000 a year on the cheap. My dd was not going to committ early so we just focused on being a kid in high school instead. You know, meet new friends, play on the Volleyball team, soccer team and the track team. All for social reasons and to be her best. GDA was impossible to do all that. The thing that pissed me off as a dad was telling my dd, "too bad, either no HS Soccer and GDA or No GDA and you get crappy soccer tought by math teachers.....lol" I'm serious. I told Dr King Geroge to pound sound. He told me my dd chances of ynt is over and he knows all the college coaches. I said, "Oh really, you've been here in the states for two years now and you know everybody in college?" A true salesman he was. Anyway, I said she's in 8th grade and we dont need your help to talk shop with all the D1 coaches. Buzz off I said and he said, "blah blah blah, you will be labeled a club hopper." The truth is, they didn;t want to lose my dd goals that helped clubs win big games.......Happy Fathers Day dads ")
Justus, you did the right thing! I can't believe what an arrogant POS this guy is. Trying to scare you or intimidate you by saying that he knows all the college coaches. I just couldn't get over that when I read that.
I hope your dd works out on her own saying to herself that she want a goal of by the end of the summer to be able to shoot and dribble with either foot. That means putting some skin into the game. Find a friend who has similar goals and let them workout together. So many kids have wasted their time in the past 3months of not trying to improve themselves, like working passing with outside of the foot or hang a hoola hoop on the fence of a baseball backstop and aim passing or shooting at it. There is so much you can do to improve yourself without this IDIOT.. If she's serious about thinking about wanting to play college soccer than try to strive beyond her competition ,this would be a first step.
Also find a place where they play pickup ball with the guys. I'm sure there some hispanics or college guys doing that. Explain to them what your aim is.
Yes, I was so naive I believed every word that came from the English ((Any accent really)) Doc mouth. It was love at first site. The GDA was all about the new "Philosophy" and that philosophy started with an accent. In socal, every "Special Sally" was told they will become the next is "Amazing Alex." Parents would spend up to $15,000 a year to travel the GDA. My dd bailed the GDA after first year in 2018 as 8th grader because they said no one is allowed to play HS Soccer and the DA. The Englsih coach would tell us why HS Soccer was horrible and dangerous and pick up soccer was stupid. Instead, he sold 4 days a week, 10 months out of the year ((no other sports either so you can spend all your $$$$ in the new philosophy)). I believe good will come from all this and I hope my dd can play this year in ECNL.
Good. Good riddance. This is every bad reason to be a club and the prototypical pay-to-play poison. Add corruption and chasing $$ and you have your common disaster of a club. Less a club really, and more of a scheme. New philosophy crap - bring in an accent and charge through the nose.
Run away from anything that looks like this.
To all above commentary.... AMEN!!!!
Youth sports is a business valued at more than $16B. With that sort of money at play, and primarily affluent suburban families flocking to sports like soccer, there will always be an incentive for this sort of thing to happen. So GPS is taken down, are we striking at the root or hacking at the branches? There are at least a hundred other clubs that are doing what they did--promising something to parents and kids if you play for them, equating winning with development or pretending that any of this means anything. It's a game and it's supposed to fun. Yes, you can teach it without a license (but playing experience and/or formal instruction does help) and yes, pick up is a great teacher. Our problems with soccer in America transcend pay to play, GPS, the DA or any other named league of which we have all heard. The problem is "us"--parents, coaches, etc. We have forgotten that what soccer teaches our kids is not just about how to strike the ball or how to do any particular move. It's about learning how to work hard, be a good teammate, win with class, lose with grace, how to be humble and to respect your opponent. It's about learning the skills that will make you a better human being no matter what kind of soccer player you end up being. I was ok at soccer, a mediocre to below mediocre D1 soccer player. If my kids end up doing what I did, I'd be happy because I'm also an orthopedic surgeon. I'd like to think that the lessons I learned playing soccer helped to make that possible. For me, that's the value of the sport. If we, as parents and coaches, place more value on winning, scholarships, making it to the pros or being on the national team then I really think we're missing the point.
Shaka, that is all nice and dandy and I agree with you but there is also an element in play here for individuduals who want to be the best and strive for it. Some kids just want to play and enjoy being with friends,that's great. I played street /pickup soccer and I played with good players, serious players, not so good, not so serious...It is all in the mix. But there are kids who want to be better than the others, like myself, who like this type of competition and who work hard to be better. Other kids didn't but regardless we all like the outlet of playing ,as well as the social life they intertwined everything, and realize some became real good but didn't make it at the end of the road, but enjoyed the road while on it....So there is value how you approach the sport or any endeavor.
You are seeing it from a perspective as an adult but the kids who really want to work hard on getting better see it from the moment there in and don't see like you and perhaps when they get older and more mature will see it more your way...
Frank,
With respect, we, as parents, write the checks and create the very expectations that make the pay to play structure that we then complain about the norm in America. I have three kids. The oldest plays girls ECNL and the others are in that same pipeline. To be clear when they train, they train hard. They aspire to play at a high level and, if they do, good on them. What I want them to have now is perspective. Winning at the youth level almost always can be achieved by playing "bad soccer". I want them to learn how to play the game the right way and also to learn how to be good human beings. Perspective helps kids to focus on performance rather than results. Good individual performances is what will get them to the where they want to be in life/soccer. It will also hopefully help them to put wins and losses, both in soccer and in life, in their proper context. The key thing that I want you to get from what I stated previously is that parents are the ones who want to believe their kids are the "best" (the kids feed off of the parents) and if a coach, especially one with an accent, can tell the parents that their kid is great then they will keep paying. However, the "best" kids at an early age often don't become the next superstars. There are too many examples of prodigies that never panned out to list. If, however, kids are taught values that are timeless and are given realistic goals then things would be much better in youth soccer. That's my only point.
As you state ,'the parents write the checks and create the expectations'....My parents didn't have expectations, they allowed me to do what I like best and therefore I had no parents pushing me because of their expectations...That's the problem we have with today's parents, expectations, instead of letting the kids enjoy.
Frank,
With respect, we, as parents, write the checks and create the very expectations that make the pay to play structure that we then complain about the norm in America. I have three kids. The oldest plays girls ECNL and the others are in that same pipeline. To be clear when they train, they train hard. They aspire to play at a high level and, if they do, good on them. What I want them to have now is perspective. Winning at the youth level almost always can be achieved by playing "bad soccer". I want them to learn how to play the game the right way and also to learn how to be good human beings. Perspective helps kids to focus on performance rather than results. Good individual performances is what will get them to the where they want to be in life/soccer. It will also hopefully help them to put wins and losses, both in soccer and in life, in their proper context. The key thing that I want you to get from what I stated previously is that parents are the ones who want to believe their kids are the "best" (the kids feed off of the parents) and if a coach, especially one with an accent, can tell the parents that their kid is great then they will keep paying. However, the "best" kids at an early age often don't become the next superstars. There are too many examples of prodigies that never panned out to list. If, however, kids are taught values that are timeless and are given realistic goals then things would be much better in youth soccer. That's my only point.
Frank, on a bike ride I do while my son is at soccer 'practice' I ride by a little park where they are playing pick-up basketball. One day, maybe we see this in USA with soccer, but actually this is not in the interest of the PTP clubs and their coaches. Ask the quesiton 'how do I get my kid better?' - to a director at a PTP club and ofter they say - 'leave it to us'. We will 'develop' the player. I heard it when I asked. When pushed, the likely 2nd response is how about some 'private leasons @$40/70 hr. So it is something of a vicious cycle. The PTP industry are all members of youth registry and league organization money collectors such as USYS and UCS which are all voting members of USSF. This is why Tom Byer's simple message that soccer should start at home gets rejected by USSF. Soccer players developed at home by parents? Who ever heard of such a thing!? Blasphemy! Essentially the deck is stacked against parents and kids. Unless we have leadership that acts in the general inerest of youth, rather than the business interests of clubs and other soccer entities, it will be a long road for soccer to earn its rightful place along basketball as the 'pick-up' game of choice where you take your ball and your boots and play.
Humble, a culture of pickup soccer ,nationally, takes time but there are pockets. I did created this one summer back in the early 70's . Wooden Ships talked about pickup soccer in the St.Louis area, and that was one of the reason St.Louis produced such good players like Ships, himself.
Furthermore, the kid, if he really wants to excell needs to work on his own as well. How much time on his own did he spend in the last 3-4 wasted months on improving his ability. Did he work on improving his dribbling, passing , shooting with either foot, working on passing accuracy. I have an open field where I live in Reston, and I've only seen 2 kids during this hiatus even attempting to kick a ball. We have a tennis wall and I've seen only a kid twice using the wall. Before my knee operation, I would, in the mornings up until I was 60, come out on the field with 20 balls working on kicking accuracy, able to kick a ball with intend in a straight line,or trying to make it drop at the end or working on moves.There is baseball back stop and I used that to hang a couple of hoola hoops and the practice shooting, passing on the dribble employing the outside and inside of the instep aiming for the hoops; or dribble 10meters and make a 40meters cross pass aimed between to flags. There is so much self improvement a player can work on. I don't want to hear you need to pay $40-$70. There is so much a kid can on his own, but he's got to WANT IT, like when I was a kid up to my 60's.
No issue here. My kiddo has dedicated countless hours over past months to training on his own. He will be the better for it. Issue is in the aggregate - the systematic lack of encouragement or facilitating from the 'clubs' individual practice and open play. There are clubs that do this - they are the excpetions. There is NOT a network of basketball clubs around the nation like there is for soccer. I grew up playing basketball and never played for a club, I could find a game or a hoop anytime I liked. Today it's the same as I witness pickup games of hoop all over town. Not far from me, there is a big buck soccer club - that has some very nice fields - mostly empty - which they rent from the public school - and a rec center. Try and have a kick around on thier field - you get kicked off so quick your head spins. This has happened to my son countless times, as recently as last week with his buddy who lives down the street. This is my observation: no basketball clubs - plenty of pick-up games - lots of soccer clubs - very few if any pick-up games. Do not make sense.
Humble, has your kid try playing on basketball courts using a Brazilian no bounce ball or heavier type of ball. That 's what with teams I gave clinics to. Half the practice/play on grass ,the other half play on concrete ,be it a parking lot or court
Here is the great irony of COVID: my kid has played more pick-up over the past 4 weeks than in years of club--and is happier for it. It's his idea, he schedules it with friends, they go get boba after. This might go on all summer. If it was my idea he would have refused, because I'm just a referee and I know nothing!
R2 that's is so great. I hope he continuous and it will draw more players (kids). After a while it will become a normal thing with them that they want to play and it 's fun....Great to hear this, for this reminds me of back in '72 when the kids after a while would automatically show up every evening and play....