Episode 8 - Grassroots or Gatekeeping? A Closer Look at Grassroots Standards Shift and the U13 Age Group”

Sanford Carabin

Welcome back to The Director’s Corner – Ontario Soccer weekly, the podcast where we dig into all things soccer related in Ontario to help educate and enlighten those in charge of our youth clubs and academies. I’m your host, Sanford Carabin, and today we’ve put together a special edition of the podcast focusing on unpacking the recent updates to the grassroots standards in Ontario and Canada, and specifically the changes affecting the U4 to U13 age groups moving forward and what these changes really mean for clubs, coaches, players, and families.

Sanford Carabin

To keep the discussion focused, Ill be addressing two key areas: firstly, an overview of the New Canada Grassroots Standards, what has changed from the Ontario Grassroots Matrix and when and how these standards will be rolled out and; how the U13 age group will be specifically affected.

Sanford Carabin

Let’s get into it.

Sanford Carabin

So, let’s start with the basics. Canada Soccer has mandated that its National Grassroots Standards Matrix be implemented across the country, with all provincial associations, starting this fall 2025. As with the current Ontario Grassroots standards, it covers everything from roster sizes and field dimensions to training-to-game ratios and match day structures for all the grassroots ages with ONE very major difference, the NEW Standards include the U13 age group. Yes thats correct, Grassroots is now considered to extend to U13 as opposed to what we have all been use to with grassroots pathway ending at U12.

Sanford Carabin

This is a major change to how Clubs and Academies will now operate at the grassroots and will have an impact on the competitive and High performance pathways moving forward. More on that later.

Sanford Carabin

So, at the moment we’ve got two sets of grassroots standards floating around, which will eventually become 1 set in the next few months. So what are the changes going to be? and what to clubs need to know.

Sanford Carabin

Well, first of all the NEW Canada Soccer Standards will not be implemented 100% by Ontario Soccer. While everything you read will say that it is, the fact is on some elements, Ontario Soccer has made allowances to ensure their existing league structures are not materially affected. This is because, to date, Ontario Soccer has operated under slightly different standards than the rest of Canada and its important to understand what these differences are.

Sanford Carabin

The biggest and probably most obvious is that Canada Soccer NOW considers the U13 age group as part of the grassroots pathway. U13 will no longer play the 11v11 game, it will play 9v9. Furthermore, because U13 is now considered grassroots, no scores of standings will be kept, league play will be restricted to Districts only and an open playing pool roster concept will apply to this age group from now on.

Sanford Carabin

Whats interesting is the NEW Canada Soccer Standards allows for a maximum roster size for the U13 age group to be 18 players, not the 16 player game day roster size we have been use to at the 9v9 game level. So while clubs can register and have 18 players on game day at U13, only 9 players will be on the field, leaving 9 players on the bench. This will provide a challenge for coaches to ensure fair playing time.

Sanford Carabin

Speaking of roster sizes. the NEW Canada Soccer Grassroots standards has expanded the maximum gameday roster sizes of all the age groups from U8 to U12 as well. For instance, U8 and U9 teams will play the 5 v 5 game format and can now have up to 12 players on the bench, an addition of 2 players from what Ontario Soccer's Standards use to allow. The same can be said for the U10 and U11 age groups, which will play the 7v7 game format, teams at these age groups can now have 14 players on their gameday bench as opposed to the old standard of 12 players. So more players at grassroots ages are permitted on the gameday benches, yet the game formats remain the same.

Sanford Carabin

How about playing time? the NEW Canada Soccer standards have specifically addressed organizations adapt a “fair playing time,” which for them means aiming for 50% across the board. While i'm sure we would all agree this is the ideal scenario, especially at grassroots, the fact the game day roster sizes have increased, makes achieving this goal rather impossible from a numbers perspective.

Sanford Carabin

So think of this scenario, a team has adhered to the 12 players standard for U8s on the bench for a 40 min game. How can 12 players get 50% playing time in a 5v5 game.? The truth is no coach can meet this every week and hence, this is where we see the first element of flexibility with the NEW Canada Standards ...it says 12 player maximum but in brackets says ideally a team should have only 10 players...

Sanford Carabin

so......im not sure why it cant just stay at 10....no confusion, no issues....

Sanford Carabin

ok

Sanford Carabin

Moving on, some of the other notable changes to the NEW Canada Soccer Standards that organizations need to be aware of

Sanford Carabin

The retreat line at the U12 age group, which is the first year of 9v9 is no longer going to be implemented. This is because players at 9v9 can drop into the box the begin play just like the 11v11 game.

Sanford Carabin

Another change is that the quantity of memorable events. Current Ontario standards state a number of events per year while the new Canada Standards reference a number of events per season. Considering we have a winter and summer season, does this mean teams will be permitted to do more memorable events. The answer is.....no one knows. I asked Ontario soccer specifically about this last week and was told they are waiting on the Technical Advisory committee to clarify...i guess we will wait and see.

Sanford Carabin

Other changes include the practice to match ratios, the NEW standards allow for additional training time at the youngest ages. For instance, at U8 and U9, the NEW practice to match ratio can be as high as 3 to 1 whereas in past it was 2 to 1.

Sanford Carabin

Ball sizes at some grassroots age groups have been adjusted. There is no longer a provision to use a larger, light size ball. for instance, at U10 and U11, the ball size is 4, you can no longer use a light sized 5 ball. This is because the light sized options were inconsistently used and I'm told, there are not enough suppliers for these balls to ensure consistency across the country.

Sanford Carabin

So thats 90% of the changes you need to know about.

Sanford Carabin

However, I want to circle back to the U13 group and more specifically address how Ontario Soccer is interpreting this element of the NEW Canada Grassroots standards. The confusion lies in the fact that while our National Governing Body sees the U13 age group as a part of the grassroots pathway, Ontario Soccer has chosen to carve out multiple pathways at U13

Sanford Carabin

The first pathway at U13 will be played at the District level in Ontario,..each District will simply extend its current grassroots programming that ends at U12 to now end at U13. This will be considered Grassroots soccer and teams will play the 9v9 format within their own District boundaries.

Sanford Carabin

At the same time, a second pathway, which is the OPDL will also run at U13, as it is currently doing. only OPDL organizations will be permitted to enter teams in this league that will also play 9v9.

Sanford Carabin

Its worth noting that OPDL clubs will be permitted to enter teams in both pathways whereas non OPDL clubs will only be permitted to enter teams at the District level pathway.

Sanford Carabin

So how will all this work?

Sanford Carabin

Quite simply it will be confusing for the average parent, so i will try to explain.

Sanford Carabin

In Ontario, the High Performance pathway, which is called the OPDL, is essentially a pathway that elite level players graduate to at the completion of the Grassroots pathway. In Ontario, that begins at the U13 age group. Which according to the NEW Canada Grassroots Standards, should still be grassroots.

Sanford Carabin

It will seem then ....for the outsider looking in, that Ontario Soccer is not completely aligning with Canada Soccer, at the U13 Age group. Yes it will adapt the 9v9 game format at U13 but it is not prepared to change the age at which it starts its High Performance Pathway to the U14 age group, as other provinces in Canada have done to ensure full alignment with the NEW Canada Soccer Standards.

Sanford Carabin

Further more, the proposed OPDL league at U13 doesn't appear to align completely with the New Standards in several areas. For instance, up till the end of the U13 age group, organizations are not permitted to conduct any formal talent identification programs. Well, then how do Clubs and Academies select players for their U13 OPDL Teams? Think that one through....

Sanford Carabin

Also, its evident that the travel times standards cannot be met at the U13 age group because the OPDL league includes teams from Windsor to Ottawa to niagara, which obviously exceed the 60 minutes one way for the majority of the franchises in OPDL.

Sanford Carabin

So why the discrepancies? and how do organizations explain this to their respective memberships.

Sanford Carabin

The answer, it could be argued, seems to be a combination of structural and financial. OPDL clubs are mandated to enter teams at the U13 age group. Historically, this is the age group where the largest number of team entries come from in the OPDL.. With over 30 franchises across both genders paying close to $7,000 each, you can see what the financial impact would be. so, instead of aligning with national standards at U13 and classify its programming as Grassroots, the system is engineered to preserve the current pathway and revenue streams.

Sanford Carabin

Now in terms of timing, I'm led to believe that Ontario soccer will be producing marketing materials to educate the greater soccer community in the coming weeks. Hopefully these support documents will help explain these changes.

Sanford Carabin

So, what does all this mean for clubs, academies, coaches, and families on the ground?

Sanford Carabin

Well, for starters, it means .....expect a lot of adapting on the fly.

Sanford Carabin

My advice? Stay nimble, communicate early and often with your boards, staff and families, and don’t be afraid to ask for clarification from Ontario Soccer when things don’t add up. At your club, be transparent about the changes—even if you dont have all the answers—it will help build trust with your members.

Sanford Carabin

That’s it for this week’s Directors Corner. If you found this episode helpful, make sure to subscribe and share it with your club colleagues. We’ll keep tracking these changes and bring you updates as they come. Until next time, keep questioning, keep developing, and above all—keep putting players first.