After a four-year fight for official recognition, an Urbandale soccer club that set out to defy the trend toward professionalism in youth sports will be admitted to the Iowa Soccer Association. A United States Soccer Federation arbitrator ruled late last month that the association, which governs amateur soccer in Iowa, wrongfully denied J-Hawk Soccer Club admission.

As a result, the club, which grew from about 100 members in 2011 to 500 this year, was denied admission to several tournaments in Greater Des Moines as well as local and national youth soccer organizations.

J-Hawk Soccer Club was organized by Matt Carver and a small group of parents who were troubled by what they viewed as the growing influence of youth soccer clubs that paid hefty salaries to coaches, charged parents fees that many families could not afford, and operated in some cases with the precision of a professional sports organization.

The Iowa Soccer Association said after the arbitrator’s decision that it initially denied admission to J-Hawk Soccer because it did not want to “negatively impact our existing clubs and the volunteers who lead them.” In many cases, those volunteers were parents and other adults who were members of executive boards of clubs with operating budgets well in excess of $600,000, with a large part of that money directed toward employment costs for coaches and directors.

According to ISA, it can continue to deny admission to potential members so long as it follows certain guidelines. J-Hawk Soccer also had been denied admission to the Greater Des Moines Junior Soccer League. Though not directly bound by the arbitrator’s ruling, the Iowa Soccer Association can pressure the league to admit J-Hawk Soccer, according to the ruling.

The Greater Des Moines Junior Soccer League, which was formed by members of the Iowa Soccer Association, had held that it would not admit J-Hawk Soccer until it gained admission to a specific national soccer association. However, admission to that organization was contingent on admission to the Iowa Soccer Association.