The Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) is a national youth soccer developmental league in the United States. It was founded in 2009 as a girls' league and added a boys' league in 2017.
Competition format
The ECNL is divided by age groups from U-13 through U-19, and into nine (girls') or ten (boys') regional conferences of nine to 16 clubs. Clubs play regular season matches within their conferences, and top teams and wildcards can qualify for a post-season national round-robin champions' league competition. Winners of the group stage compete in a finals tournament for the title of national champion.
ECNL clubs also compete in tournaments that invite clubs from other leagues, such as the Surf Cup operated by Surf Cup Sports, itself a licensee of several ECNL clubs.
Operation
The ECNL is a nonprofit organization composed of member clubs, with an elected board of directors that approves budgets, competition rules, and the admission of new members.
Broadcasting
ECNL matches have been nationally broadcast by ESPNU and ESPN3. ECNL matches are also streamed on Hudl.
Player costs
Costs to ECNL players can vary widely between clubs. Coaches not near ECNL clubs criticize the costs of playing for the league as a barrier for development in the sport and a factor in reducing the racial and economic diversity among elite United States soccer players. Since its founding and continuing as of June 2015, the estimated average cost to play for an ECNL team was $3,000 to $10,000 per year.
Conflicts with high school soccer
The ECNL doesn't prohibit its club players from also playing for high school soccer teams, and its season doesn't overlap with high school seasons. However, players and clubs alike reported challenges with players attempting to play for both, including scheduling conflicts, costs, injury risks, and strains on players' performances. The highly competitive nature of club soccer in the United States, and at times specifically the ECNL, is a subject of debate among high school athletes. The ECNL also facilitates collegiate coaches and scouts having access to recruit players, including those who haven't started high school, by accommodating them at ECNL tournaments.
Clubs
ECNL Girls
ECNL Boys
Sponsorship
The ECNL girls' league has been sponsored by Nike since 2010. The partnership includes Nike retail presences at girls' ECNL events and national training camps held at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
In March 2019, the ECNL announced that PUMA would sponsor the ECNL boys' league.
Oversight
The U.S. Soccer Federation designates US Club Soccer, a non-profit national association member of the federation, as overseer of the ECNL's girls' and boys' leagues as well as other youth leagues in the United States.
History
Foundation
The ECNL was founded as a girls' soccer league in March 2009 during a meeting of 40 founding clubs. Its founding was inspired in part by frustrations experienced by clubs and coaches with older volunteer-driven organizations, such US Youth Soccer and the American Youth Soccer Organization, in favor of a more professionalized approach.
Christian Lavers is a league founder, and served as both president and CEO of the ECNL, executive vice president of US Club Soccer, vice president of US Club Soccer management services client C2SA, and owner and club director for Wisconsin ECNL club FC Wisconsin. Lavers also served as director of sport and chief soccer officer of top-flight women's professional club Kansas City Current in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).
Expansion
The ECNL expanded to 52 clubs in 2010 and 66 in 2011. The organization created a boys' league in 2017, adding 57 founding clubs.
By 2019, the ECNL girls' league had 94 clubs and boys' league had 90 clubs. After the shutdown of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy in 2020, the girls' league expanded to 113 clubs and boys' league to 131 clubs.
Public filings indicated that the league's revenue grew from $500,000 in 2010 to $3.4 million in 2019.
Competition with Development Academy
In 2017, the United States Soccer Federation announced the launch of a 74-club girls' academy within the U.S. Soccer Development Academy (DA) organization, in addition to its boys' academy. This program competed directly with the ECNL, which launched its own boys' academy in the same year and brought the ECNL and DA into direct nationwide competition for youth soccer clubs.
The Development Academy prevented players from playing high school soccer, while the ECNL allowed it.