Abbey Villa / LIA Massachusetts merger over!

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MH is a con man. Plays a different game but ultimately is no different from every other club owner. If it makes financial sense he’ll make decisions that point in the opposite direction to what is right.

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They do not have to apply again. Liverpool (Crusaders) and Abbey Villa were always 2 separate clubs. This isn't that big a deal. A partnership is like dating. A merger is like marriage. It didn't work out so they broke up.

In the avsc announcement they used the word join a few times, ‘excited to announce we are joining...’ merge is a synonym for join. Partnership is not. They could have said collaborate, work with, etc. So they seem to be a fairly poorly run club and also do not know how to write a release well enough to get their idea across and instead come on a forum to defend it

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In the avsc announcement they used the word join a few times, ‘excited to announce we are joining...’ merge is a synonym for join. Partnership is not. They could have said collaborate, work with, etc. So they seem to be a fairly poorly run club and also do not know how to write a release well enough to get their idea across and instead come on a forum to defend it

We were dating!

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Shortest merger in history (6 months)

Email sent to Abbey Villa parents:

Dear Abbey Villa Soccer Club Players and Parents,

The senior staff of AVSC is making a significant announcement that benefits our club. We have made the difficult, but necessary decision to sever our relationship with Liverpool International Academy Massachusetts (LIA).

After nearly a year of working on this partnership the benefits committed to AVSC by LIA Massachusetts have not been met to our satisfaction. We are faced with the conclusion that this partnership is not the equitable partnership we envisioned. By continuing this relationship, we are doing a great disservice to our club players and our coaching staff. We simply cannot allow this one-sided relationship to continue to the detriment of our club.

We entered into a relationship with Liverpool International Academy Massachusetts for very clear and specific reasons. Some of these are outlined below.

We went into the relationship with the expectation that there would be immediate and collaborative work toward establishing a complete pathway for our players to include state and national teams.

AVSC and LIA Massachusetts would commit to working in partnership to provide our clubs access to high level leagues (like ECNL and others), and that a common expedited pathway would be developed. The staff of AVSC has worked diligently towards meeting that expectation. In truth, we find that our club is being held back from those opportunities due to a lack of collaborative efforts by LIA Massachusetts.

We entered into this partnership in good faith that LIA Massachusetts would provide a complete and modern curriculum for our coaches to support our efforts to develop players, values and culture. In the end, the limited curriculum and access offered provided numerous roadblocks and issues that we did not get the support to resolve. The process of creating and accessing curriculum proved to be overly complicated and did not result in the further education of the coaches. Furthermore, AVSC did not receive the direct support from LIA Massachusetts that we expected per our agreement. We did get some valuable, but limited time with two Liverpool FC coaches from England that did provide players valuable experience with Coaches John and Phil. Overall, our access to the resources and expertise in England appeared to be controlled and limited. This resulted in our staff essentially having no direct access. A prime example is LIA Massachusetts invited AVSC staff to only 3 regular conference calls in 8 months with LFC and LIA Americas.

LIA Massachusetts were expected to assist and support our efforts to provide easy access to playing kits. We were left with little input in what we could provide as options to control player costs. Our expectations of LIA Massachusetts, much like the practices of Nike, was that uniforms were on a two-year cycle. Recently, we were informed that contrary to our agreement, players would have to purchase new LFC replica uniforms every year. Added to this was the consistent struggle faced by AVSC and parents to receive uniform orders on time and there was no mechanism to run new lots of replicas when sizes ran out. This created considerable problems for players joining mid-season or replacing worn or lost uniforms. We feel strongly that this ongoing cost burden to our families is beyond what we believe reasonable.

A major part of the agreement between AVSC and LIA Massachusetts was that each party agreed to very specific areas where we could operate independently and common areas that we would develop and work together for our common benefit. We feel strongly that AVSC held up our end of that agreement. Recently, LIA Massachusetts broke this agreement by attempting to infringe on AVSC areas and training facilities without our prior knowledge. AVSC was left out of relationships LIA Massachusetts was developing in common areas and not allowed to expand the club's reach into new areas.

The above points are just a few of the considerations that we faced in reaching this difficult decision. The AVSC senior staff will make themselves available over the next few weeks to address the anticipated questions. We will hold meetings and discussions in all training regions, leading up to our annual club meeting at the end of February. It is common and expected that a decision of this nature will create speculation, rumors, and misinformation. Please use the senior staff as your conduit for questions and for real, open, and honest answers.

One guarantee we will make immediately is that this movement back to AVSC will not result in families needing to purchase new match and training uniforms. This movement back to AVSC is not really a significant change. Our coaching staff, teams, philosophy, etc. is and has always been centered around our AVSC core values. We would also like to stress that entering and leaving agreements such as these are a regular occurrence in club soccer.

This has been a difficult process to come to this decision to sever relationships with LIA Massachusetts. Considerable debate and evaluation has gone into making sure this is the right move for our players, families, and club. Providing the highest quality of player development in a positive, responsible, and developmentally appropriate manner is absolutely paramount to us. To that end, severing ties with LIA Massachusetts immediately is the only way to ensure the continued, consistent high level of coaching, development, culture and opportunities we aim to provide.

Thank you for your attention and understanding. We look forward to a highly successful spring season.

Des Rice - Owner/Director of Coaching
Vinnie Musto - Player Development Director
David Cudmore - Director of Operations
Theo Booras - Technical Director
Janeen Callaghan - Club Manager and Registrar
Pat Quinn - Boston Operations Director
Brad Nathan - Mini's and Camp Director

Only 1 true Liverpool club in Mass, but they were forced to change names.
LFC IA sounds like a business conglomerate more than a soccer club

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MH is a con man. Plays a different game but ultimately is no different from every other club owner. If it makes financial sense he’ll make decisions that point in the opposite direction to what is right.

DR and MH were a match made in heaven: both con men! Unfortunately for them, two con men together makes for a really bad....'date.' Is that what they're on here calling it? Dating?

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DR and MH were a match made in heaven: both con men! Unfortunately for them, two con men together makes for a really bad....'date.' Is that what they're on here calling it? Dating?

From looking at the release, I would guess that DR is Des Rice, who is MH?
Why do we use initials for adults?

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MH runs Liverpool. He and DR were perfect for each other. Both are clueless and both care about $$ more than players’.

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MH runs Liverpool. He and DR were perfect for each other. Both are clueless and both care about $$ more than players’.

My guess is that you actually know neither one.

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Explain the difference between a merger and partnership in this case? This will be interesting...

Who cares could there be anything less significant on this site

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My guess is that you actually know neither one.

I know both! Pretty well stand by my statement.

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Neither Liverpool or Abbey Villa will be playing in the NSL. Both were NEP clubs before this and will be after.

Abbey Villa just got in a few years ago before that they were Maple

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It wasn't a merger.

This is a joke why would you waste time with this nonsense.......Insignificant

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This is a joke why would you waste time with this nonsense.......Insignificant

If it’s so insignificant why comment?

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DR is a tool

MH knew DR was toxic. Good decision.

Plus their teams are awful. ECNL, really? We all know that despite how good anyone's teams are, they won't let you in. Replica jerseys change every year obviously, Do GPS wear old Jersey's, NO!

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MH knew DR was toxic. Good decision.

Plus their teams are awful. ECNL, really? We all know that despite how good anyone's teams are, they won't let you in. Replica jerseys change every year obviously, Do GPS wear old Jersey's, NO!

Right, and if NEFC has "partnered" with Spurs, they'll likely be moving to a 1 year uniform cycle as well.