Due to the continuing pandemic and the continued challenges as a result of it, building upon our decision earlier this month to opt-out of USL2 league play for our men’s team, AFC Ann Arbor announced today that the women’s team will not take part in the 2021 UWS season. We have made this decision out of an abundance of caution for our players, staff, fans, and all those involved within the AFC Ann Arbor Family.

“The decision to withdraw from both the men’s and women’s season was easy compared to the challenges many of our community members continue to face. We are going to focus our time, energy and resources to lending assistance where needed, specifically in inequitable areas of our community,” added Chair, Bilal Saeed.

As noted in our prior press release, current Washtenaw County guidelines include statements such as, “Athletes must wear a face mask at all times, except in activities where face masks are not able to be worn safely,” along with, “Testing is required for contact sports and activities where a mask cannot be worn safely.” With the current guidelines and restrictions in place on team sports and the quantity of resources that participating while strictly following these necessary guidelines would take from our community, we cannot bring players from all over the nation for a league season.

Despite the inactivity on the pitch, AFC Ann Arbor remains committed to assisting our community during the summer. Last summer we, through Community Kicks, helped distribute over 30,000 “Learn Soccer” lunch bags to help meet the need for additional food demand during the pandemic. This, and many more, existing programs will continue to be expanded upon and new programs will be introduced.