On Tuesday, May 17, 2022, the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) and Valley United FC both released a statement around 10aMT. In it, the two sides claimed they were working through “internal roster issues at the club” and that more details would be shared when “appropropriate”.

NISA and Valley United FC News Alert.@NISALeague #newsalert pic.twitter.com/XmYVqOXZum
— Valley United FC (@valleyunitedaz) May 17, 2022

That carefully worded public statement masks a very troubling situation brewing within Valley United. The club, who entered league play this season, has been an excellent addition on the field and currently sits second in the Western Conference standings. Good match play however, may have been the product of some bad faith business practices. After researching and contacting various sources, Protagonist Soccer can confirm those issues include multiple severe roster violations, including falsified immigration documentation and improper classification of player statuses. Both head coach Adrian “AJ” Gaitan and Yuvall Raichman have stepped down from their positions with the team.

Protagonist can also confirm that former U.S. Men’s National team player Eric Wynalda has gotten involved with Valley United FC ahead of this situation. The Fullerton, California native has been brought in as a consultant to help the team navigate its current situation. This is the second NISA team Wynalda has gotten involved with following his stint as New Amsterdam FC’s inaugural head coach that only lasted four weeks in the summer of 2020. Most recently, Wynalda had been involved with National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) side Las Vegas Legends FC during its 2022 U.S. Open Cup run.

In regards to Valley United’s current situation, there are three main roster issues.

The team officially had too many players that could be considered amateur on their roster for multiple games
The team was paying multiple amateur players under the table in cash
Multiple players presented the league and USSF falsified green cards, thus counting them as domestic players and allowing them to work in the United States illegally

To clarify, here’s a quick run-down of how roster rules work in NISA. League rules allow up-to four amateur players to be included on a team’s 20 man game-day roster. Amateur is a loose term but generally it is a player who is not considered fully-professional, ergo they aren’t being paid a full-salary and have other caveats in their contract. Some examples of this include a team using an academy player in a game while not fully signing that player to a team.

Another example, which is important to this case, is that international players can be considered amateur and not have it affect their visas (whether that be a student visa, OPT, or anything else). Currently, it is difficult for NISA players to qualify for P-1 visas, meaning an international player cannot solely be in the United States just to play in the league. Essentially, unless you have United States citizenship or a valid green card it is very difficult to play in the National Independent Soccer Association.

In total, Valley United had multiple players officially registered as amateurs on their official league sheet. However, only four of those players were ever listed together on a match day roster making it seemingly within NISA roster rules.

However, Protagonist has learned that four additional players were actually amateurs in the country with tourist visas. These players were registered with the league and the United States Soccer Federation as domestic players with fraudulent green cards. At this time, it isn’t clear who created and submitted these documents, meaning no one at the club is currently accused of anything illegal.

This is also in addition to the accusation that most or all of Valley United’s amateur players were being paid under the table in cash. That would disqualify them as being amateur and would mean Valley was breaking both league and federation rules.

At this time, we do not have confirmation on an exact number of how many amateur players VUFC had (officially or otherwise). However, it has been revealed that all players under these types of contracts have been released from the club. That total equates to about one third of the roster leaving the team.

This group does include former USL Championship & League One midfielder Sebastián Contreras.

The more serious charge, here besides using too many amateurs and paying them discreetly, is the falsified green cards. According to multiple sources, no one is sure who submitted the documentation for the players. In the words of one of the sources, “the players themselves were just told their cards were cleared and that they were good to play for the team.”

Protagonist has confirmed three players that were playing under amateur contracts and fake green cards; defender Robin Lafarge (France), goalkeeper Javier Olmedo (Spain), and defender Daniel Herrera (Spain). At this time, the fourth player has not been confirmed and will not be named. Reportedly three of the four players are currently stuck in their home countries while the fourth is still in the United States (as of the time of this writing).

The three known players have all played in a majority of Valley’s games. Lafarge and Herrera have both played in all six games this season with the latter assisting on an April 1st goal against ALBION San Diego.

How this all came to light is another interesting aspect in this story. Multiple sources have detailed the situation in near identical ways, giving credibility to the following timeline of events.

Within the last month, Valley United owner Troy Pearce became aware of multiple cash advances on team credit cards. Officially, there was no paperwork or official explanation for these transactions which ranged in value from 100s to 1000s of dollars depending on the advance. Suspicious of this, Pearce confronted team staff, including head coach Adrian “AJ” Gaitan, who explained that they were paying players in cash.

The sources claim Pearce was not aware of this and felt confused as to why his team’s amateur players were being paid in cash. Digging further into team accounts, officials began to notice inconsistencies with multiple player’s contracts and identification records.

Around the same time, a United player returned to his home country to renew his VISA. Said player was listed officially as a “domestic player” with a green card on file. Said player was scheduled to have a meeting with league officials around the same time but that was unable to happen due to him being out of the country. When informed of the reason, NISA officials reportedly questioned why the player would need to renew a visa if they were already on a green card.

That fact gives credence to the players being unaware of the fake cards. If they were, there’s little reason why they would go back to their country and risk not being able to return.

This is the point where Pearce and others, allegedly, reported the roster issues to NISA. Looking at it now, the choice of words in the league’s official statement makes sense when factoring this in. The phrase “VUFC ownership has been proactive in engaging with the league” is, in fact, true, according to our sources. Pearce reported the issue fairly quickly after he became aware. Had he not, Pearce would seemingly also be more implicated in this situation.

NISA rules state that if team staff become aware of any sort of rule violation, they must self-report the issue within 10 days to the league office. That deadline was seemingly made.

Head coach Adrian Gaitan and sporting director Yuvall Raichman have both stepped down from their positions with the club. This is no indication of guilt and is instead due to league/team policy in allowing this to happen under their watch. Reportedly both parties have sought legal counsel. That fact, however, has not been confirmed independently at this time.

Gaitan’s son, Nicholas Gaitan, is also a midfielder for Valley United. He’s started in all six of the team’s games this season. His current status with the team, nor his contract type, is not known.

Former Venezulaian youth international Danny De Olivera has been brought on as the team’s new head coach in the interim. Previously, he coached the organization’s Under-23 team that competed in NISA Nation last year.

- Michael Battista

Michael Battista is an accomplished writer whose work has appeared in TheCup.US, Once A Metro, and Red Bulls Nation NYC. He appears in Protagonist Soccer as a guest contributor.