FWIW, we experienced a dramatic shift in the Pay-to-Play scenario when a new ECNL Director / Coach replaced our ECNL coach earlier this year. As I understand it, for as long as anyone can remember, our club had a strict policy (likely not written but certainly enforced) that coaches could not offer private paid training to their own players. That all changed with the departure of our coach and the incoming replacement director/coach. Within a month of joining, parents of all three teams being coached started receiving text messages about "additional technical training" offered by the coach at a flat rate of "$40 CASH" per session regardless of how many players attended. The text messages and paid sessions have continued twice a week since August. The text messages read, "I have had some inquires about additional sessions..." and "In a couple of sessions I can already see an immediate improvement in passing, touch and technical proficiency." The club's ECNL teams all practice 3 days a week. It would seem that the technical aspects of the game could be covered in those sessions. Instead, the normal practices are spent on fitness (running) and unsupervised scrimmages. Based on playing time and ability, it is abundantly clear that the players who are attending the private paid sessions are getting a disproportionate amount of playing time!
100 % agree- Coaches should not be allowed to have paid private training for their own team players...that's a conflict of interest.
