A U.S. Olympic Committee hearing panel has recommended to the USOC board of directors that U.S. Soccer, the national governing body for soccer, be placed on probation until next spring for failing to comply with membership requirements of the Amateur Sports Act, the federal law governing the administration of American sports. Furthermore, if U.S Soccer is not in compliance with the Amateur Sports Act and USOC rules by the USOC board meeting April 4-5, 1998, its membership within the USOC will be revoked. These recommendations follow hearings conducted in the case filed by American Youth Soccer Organization last year against U.S. Soccer. Among the other key recommendations: ò U.S. Youth Soccer (USYSA), the largest youth soccer organization in the country, be dissolved; ò Its headquarters in Richardson, Texas, be moved to U.S. Soccer headquarters in Chicago; ò State associations are brought back under the direct control of U.S. Soccer; ò USYSAÆs ô100 percentö rule — requiring all youth players on a club to be registered with a state association — be abolished. The USOC panel ruled against AYSO, though, on its claim that U.S. Soccer did not offer reasonable representation on its board. The fight between AYSO, on one side, and U.S. Soccer and USYSA, on the other, dates back many years. A separate complaint was filed by AYSO with the USOC in 1988 and settled in 1989. The legal issues involving the current complaint are not new. By delegating the control of youth soccer activities to USYSA, a separate entity with its own bylaws, structure and offices, U.S. Soccer has failed to meet the fundamental responsibilities of an NGB to govern and administer soccer in this country. As U.S. Soccer president Alan Rothenberg noted in a letter to his membership, the structural problems in connection with USYSA, by implication, apply also to U.S. Amateur Soccer. Rothenberg has called a special meeting July 17 at U.S. Soccer’s AGM in Orlando to address developing restructuring plans.