Non-Profit Soccer Organizations

I recently did some research on some nonprofit organizations that are affiliated with soccer.  A nonprofit organization “Play Soccer” was founded in 2001 through a similar program in Ghana.  The program started out with 100 kids and since then it has grown to 40’000 kids in 6 countries and still a sport led program.  The program is funded by a bigger brother program the PSNI (Play Soccer Nonprofit Organization) the program is budgeted at a low cost budget with volunteers.  The PSNI provides supportive organizations, quality-training, and basic resources.  The program takes place after school and on weekends when the kids are obviously most available to play and all the kids who are there seem to be fully participant in the program.  Another nonprofit organization is “NEYSO”.  This was founded in 1978 in San Antonio, Texas and completely supports youth sports, soccer is a focus of theirs, and they also work with special needs teams as well.  There are two other organizations that work with this one, one being the South Texas Youth Soccer Association, Inc. (STYSA), and the other being the United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA).  An interesting rule these programs enforce is sportsmanship.  They have a zero tolerance rule with mouthing off to referees and not playing with class.  I find a lot of outside high school organized sports lose the idea of sportsmanship and care to much about winning rather than playing the game.   I think soccer is a great sport for kids, it has a great tactical approach to it and demands a strong fitness level and it is such a fun game to play.  Therefore any organization that can use soccer to help kids in rough situations or give kids a better opportunity at something has a successful program in my eyes.  Another reason Soccer is a great game for kids is that it is a reasonably affordable game realistically kids just need a ball and making goals are simple.  Soccer also has a lot kids on a field at once ideally the game should be played with 11 players on each side however the game can be modified to be played with 12 or 3 players on each side and the kids will still get the fitness out of the game, teamwork, and can still have fun.  (image location click here)