SWEMSA Frequently Asked Questions

What is EMSA?
Community and Competitive soccer in the City of Edmonton and Spruce Grove is administered by the Edmonton Minor Soccer Association (EMSA). EMSA consists of six administrative zones: North, West, Southwest, Millwoods, Southeast, and Spruce Grove. Additionally, neighboring districts that participate in EMSA leagues are: St.Albert, Sherwood Park, and Battle River.

What is SWEMSA?
SWEMSA is the Southwest Zone of the Edmonton Minor Soccer Association, and has a Board of Directors comprised of Executive members and soccer coordinators from all southwest Edmonton community leagues operating a soccer program.  SWEMSA organizes and administers community soccer programs in Southwest Edmonton.

What area of Edmonton comprises SWEMSA?
SWEMSA consists of all communities that are west of Calgary Trail and south of the Saskatchewan River, except for the area north of Whyte Ave from 109th St to Calgary Trail.

What are Trialists?
Per EMSA rules, a team is allowed upto 3 Trialists per game (exception: 4 for Outdoor City Finals). A Trialist is a player who is not normally on a team, but joins that team for a particular game. Both Community and Competitive teams may have Trialists. The player must be from a lower tier or a younger age group. A player can be a Trialist for upto 5 games (excluding tournaments). These rules apply to regular season games as well as all post-season play: crossovers, City Championships, and Inter-Cities. Permission must be obtained from the coach to play, even for post-season games. Note that Trialists are NOT permitted in Provincial competitions.

What are the premier league teams for each EMSA zone?

Southwest Sting	Southeast Storm	Millwoods Selects
West Raiders & Warriors	North Xtreme	Spruce Grove Saints
Battle River Lightning	Sherwood Park Phoenix	Camrose Crusaders
St.Albert Impact	Red Deer United

What are City Championships and Inter-Cities?
City Championships is the tournament to determine the best outdoor soccer community teams in the city for Tiers 5 thru 9. U12 thru U16 are the age groups that compete in City Championships (ie: U10 does not go). Each EMSA zone sends 1 team for each tier in each age group. The top 2 City Champions for Tiers 5, 6, and 7 then compete for bragging rights at the Inter-Cities tournament, where the top Edmonton community teams play the top Calgary community teams in every Tier. There are no city finals in indoor -- the standings are based on placement in the final round (not across the whole season). If required, crossover games are played for final standings determination (see below).

What are Crossover games?
For the indoor season only, sometimes there are too many community teams in a given Tier to put into one group. In this case, EMSA divides the community Tier into 2 equal halves, called "X" and "Y". For example, Tier 5 would be split into TIer 5X and Tier 5Y. Note that Tier 5X is not higher than Tier 5Y -- they are both the same tier, just divided in half for scheduling reasons. At the end of the season, the top two teams in Tier X play the top two teams in Tier Y to determine 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place. These are called "crossover games".

Is a Travel Allowance provided for teams going to InterCities?
For teams travelling to Calgary for the InterCities tournament, EMSA provides a $300 travel allowance (cheques are picked up at the EMSA office) and SWEMSA provides a $150 travel allowance (contact the SWEMSA Treasurer).

What are Tiers 1, 2 and 3 (aka "premier")?
Tiers 1, 2, & 3 are the competitive leagues. Tiers 4 to 7 are the community leagues. SWEMSA's competitive teams in each age group play under the name "Southwest Sting". Since competitive teams focus on very skilled players, SWEMSA advertises and conducts pre-season tryouts in order to select the best players for Sting teams.  Players who are not selected are released to their community league soccer programs, where they will have the opportunity to play soccer.  Coordination between the Sting team organizers and the southwest Edmonton community soccer coordinators ensures that all registered players are placed on a team.

What are Provincials?
Provincials is the tournament to determine the best premier team in the province for a given age group and tier combination. U12 thru U18 are the age groups that goto Provincials (ie: U10 does not goto Provincials). Tiers 1 thru 4 goto Provincials, so all three competitive league tiers (Tiers 1,2, & 3), plus the top community league tier (Tier 4). If a community team wishes to advance to Provincials, it must play in the Tier 4 community league for the duration of the season. At the end of the season, the top Tier 4 teams from each Zone then compete at City Championships to determine who advances to Provincials. The top 2 Edmonton teams advance to Provincials for each age group and tier combination.

What are Nationals?
Nationals is the tournament to determine the best premier team in the country for a given age group. The winner of the Tier 1 provincial championship goes to Nationals. U14 thru U18 are the age groups that goto Nationals (ie: U12 does not goto Nationals).

What are the Alberta Provincial Teams?
There are five Alberta Provincial Teams each for boys and girls: U13 north, U13 south, U14, U15, and U16. Tryouts are held in May and the teams practice regularly during the outdoor season in preparation for the National All-Stars tournament in July where they play against other Provincial teams. The U18 Canada Summer Games are for U18 boys & girls provincial teams.

What are Playdowns?
Since there are two competitive leagues in Edmonton (EMSA and EIYSA) that field Tier 1 and Tier 2 level teams, and because there are no cross-league games, playdowns used to be required at the end of the season to determine who will represent Edmonton in Provincials. However, as of August 10, 2007, ASA has directed that Tier 1 & 2 playdowns are no longer required, and that the top two teams in each age group and tier from both EMSA and EIYSA go directly to Provincials. Since only EMSA fields Tier 3 and Tier 4 teams, the top two teams in these tiers go directly to Provincials.

Who manages U10 soccer?
Per ASA rulings, the jurisdiction of all mini soccer programs in Edmonton is allocated to EMSA. As such, Club Soccer may not field any U10 teams, nor can players of that age play in "U12 Developmental" Club Soccer teams. Only EMSA is mandated to provide U10 league play. SWEMSA provides the following choices for league play: on the Sting teams playing U10 City Wide, in the SWEMSA U10 leagues playing within the SWEMSA zone, and in the Terwillegar Riverbend Soccer Association house league within the seven TRSA community leagues. In addition to EMSA, Sherwood Park and St.Albert have internal U10 leagues.

SWEMSA's Principles of Play
SWEMSA believes that all players who register on time should be given the opportunity to play on a team.  In outdoor soccer, southwest community soccer programs run their own teams, which are placed in tiers with other teams of similar abilities.  All southwest indoor teams are zone teams as players are centrally registered, not community registered.  SWEMSA believes that soccer should be fun and community soccer in southwest Edmonton is directed towards that goal.

SWEMSA also provides a select soccer program for highly-skilled players interested in playing competitive soccer.  These Southwest Sting teams play in citywide leagues in EMSA's Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 programs.  In addition to possessing high-level soccer skills, Sting players must also demonstrate the commitment necessary to participate in a select soccer program. This includes attendance and punctuality at practice and games, as well as the initiative to pursue individual skill development outside of practices.

What are the indoor soccer facilities?
The City of Edmonton owns three indoor soccer facilities that are used for games during the indoor season. They are located in the West (170 St and 107 Ave), the South (72 St and Roper Road), and the East (Victoria Trail north of the Yellowhead). Between these facilities, a total of 12 indoor fields are provided for the benefit of the Edmonton indoor soccer community, both youth and adult. These facilities are operated by EMSA and EDSA, who share an equal number of Director seats on the Board. During the summer, the carpeting is rolled up, and the facilities are used for ball hockey, inline hockey, and lacrosse. For more info, see the Edmonton Soccer Association Facilities website. In addition to these three, there are three other indoor soccer facilities used during the indoor season: Servus Leisure Centre in St.Albert, Millenium Place in Sherwood Park, and Tri-Leisure in Spruce Grove.

Is player insurance provided?
The Alberta Soccer Association provides insurance to all players, coaches, staff, volunteers, board members, and officials participating in sanctioned practices, games, and tournaments. The payment for this insurance is part of the team fees. For more info about the insurance policy, read the details on the Alberta Soccer website NOTE: un-registered players are NOT allowed to practice with teams or play in games because they are not covered by the Alberta Soccer Association insurance.

Where did the term "soccer" come from?
It is generally accepted that the word "soccer" developed from the original reference to the sport as "association football" in the Laws of the Game developed in 1863. The term "association football" was adopted in order to distinguish itself from other sports such as "union football" (i.e. rugby). By abbreviation, eventually "association" became "soccer", as the word is known today.

How many people play football worldwide?
A worldwide survey launched by FIFA in 2006 indicates that over 265 million people regularly play football around the world, along with almost 5 million referees, assistant referees and officials directly involved in the game. read more
and this one, too
For Canadian sports participation statistics in 2005, check Sports Canada
"Soccer has become the sport of choice for Canadian children aged 5 to 14 (44% participation), followed by ice hockey, swimming, and baseball."

How come all these people aren't coming to watch my game?
The most popular spectator sport in the world, Soccer is called the "Beautiful Game". It was in fact the famous Brazilian soccer player Pelé who coined the phrase "the beautiful game," according to the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations.