Turning a New Page

This decision was months in the making as the Board exhausted every option within the Strategic Alliance and working with ISL. To hear ISL was completely taken by surprise was, in turn, surprising to us as there had been talks and phone calls with concerns we were planning to leave. We could not confirm it until the vote by the Board happened.

The previous One World Soccer Board of Directors made the attempt to separate two years ago as well.

This could not be further from the truth. Out of respect for those who have asked, I will not go into details. We have encouraged their involvement and have had many conversations and opportunities offered.

We have the utmost respect for those who came before us and they will always be welcomed into the One World family.

To put it plainly, the vote presented to the members attempting to oust the current Board was not handled properly, from a legal standpoint. There are laws against arbitrary votes against organizations by its members. There are specific processes outlined in the by-laws that must be taken for just a single Board member to be removed which were not followed.

So you may be wondering why we didn’t stop it ahead of time. We didn’t get in the way of the vote as we wanted everyone to have their voice heard. This was one of the biggest complaints we received when we made the announcement was member involvement. If we blocked any attempt for a vote to take place, regardless of its legality, the Board would have been accused of censorship or conspiracy.

It’s been stated the same system was used to conduct the vote as was used to elect its current Board members into office. This is true, however, the vote was done in the context of a Board meeting. The voting started and ended while the meeting was being held, not over an arbitrary, randomly moving, period of time. This is how a vote is conducted when done properly, otherwise it can only be considered an online poll, at best.

In reality, the by-laws weren’t comprehended thoroughly nor was the understanding that OWS being active in the leagues who also protect their members, in addition to state laws, protects non-profits and the volunteers who work for them.

The short answer is they shouldn’t have been. The coaches are under contract with ISL and, based on the Strategic Alliance, ISL is not allowed to involve itself with One World Soccer. The coaches were asked to send out information to their TeamSnap which, had we pursued, would have broken the Strategic Alliance immediately as it would have been a breach of contract.

Ethically, we believe it was not wise to put the coaches in a more difficult and uncomfortable situation they were already placed in; especially when the contract was at stake. It further created a divide within the coach’s community as well.

In addition, a majority of the information was spread through the Team Manager’s internal communication and spread to the teams, a communication thread OWS was not allowed into. Misinformation and request to spread messages by parents (which is still happening today) has created a biased communication and confusion for other Team Managers and their families.

ISL is the admin of the Team Manager chat thread.

Each league has a spot for each club to take based on performance from the previous year. As the leagues only work with a non-profit, the spots are available to the club who has earned it. SCL, Frontier, ECNL USC TX RL, are all still available to One World as long as we have the teams to fill them.

With the separation this does make filling teams more difficult, however, as we are not bound to any specific methodology, sponsor, or contract, we are making connections within the Austin community to ensure our players have the greatest opportunity to grow and progress.

Believe us when we say other clubs in the Austin area are rooting for us to succeed. They see One World as an important and prominent member to the soccer community as it once was and have reached out to us with continued encouragement.

We will be announcing some amazing opportunities in the coming days and weeks all to benefit your players growth.

Not by any means. OWS and ISL have formed a transition agreement to complete the rest of the season as if nothing has changed. This includes Barca Coach’s availability, the continued use of Barca uniforms, the upcoming tournaments, weekly trainings, and finishing the Spring Cups are all the highest priority right now.

Even as we speak to coaches sending over offer letters and contracts, we have encouraged each one to ensure they keep focus on this season and to finish it as strong as it started.