Forfeits by high school boys’ soccer teams in the City Section and Southern Section playoffs continued on Friday as both sections work to address violations of CIF bylaw 600, which prohibits players from participating in outside leagues during their sports season.
Calabasas withdrew from the Southern Section Division 3 boys soccer championship on Friday due to an ineligible player. Meanwhile, Chavez became the sixth City Section school eliminated from the playoffs for using an ineligible player and was replaced by Chatsworth for the City Division I final. Additionally, there is an allegation against another Southern Section team that could lead to another forfeit in the final.
Some high schools believed they had found a workaround for the rule by not allowing players to participate in high school soccer until after their club seasons ended in early December. Cathedral High School, for example, had several players miss its first three games because of major club tournaments taking place in November and early December.
“You communicate to students and parents,” said Cathedral coach Arturo Lopez. “Unfortunately, there are more and more academies now.”
Ron Nocetti, the executive director of the CIF, acknowledged the ongoing challenges: “I think we have to have conversations with our sections.”
Several times, CIF membership has rejected proposals to eliminate bylaw 600. Schools are hesitant to scrap the rule, as it would likely lead to conflicts between high school and club coaches and impose additional demands on student-athletes, who would face the pressure of managing schoolwork alongside potentially double practice sessions.
The balancing act for students is already difficult, especially as club teams have grown considerably in many sports, becoming a lucrative industry. The CIF briefly suspended the rule during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 but quickly reinstated it afterward.
The core issue is that club soccer programs schedule competitions in the middle of the high school season. Knowing the rule prohibits playing both high school and club soccer simultaneously, some players have attempted to participate in both with the hope of avoiding detection. This year, however, those violations are being uncovered more frequently.
Emails alleging violations began arriving to City Section commissioner Vicky Lagos before the semifinals. When a player is found to have played club soccer during the high school season, the high school team must forfeit games and is eliminated if the violation occurs during the playoffs.
Typically, schools bear the responsibility of ensuring rules compliance, but with bylaw 600, even schools that do everything correctly can be penalized for a player’s independent violation of the rule.
Several leagues plan to propose eliminating bylaw 600 altogether. Nocetti indicated that CIF membership might be open to change.
“Maybe this is a tipping point for schools saying maybe it’s time to make a big change with the rule,” he said.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/story/2026-02-27/growing-soccer-forfeits-could-lead-to-change-cif-bylaw-600