When your child's retention is reversed without explanation: what you're entitled to ask, who to contact, and what the rules say.

The email landed at 9pm. You were standing at the kitchen bench, waiting for the kettle. Two sentences, polite, no real reason given. The decision communicated four weeks ago, the one that said your child would be retained in the program for next season, has been reversed. Your child is not on the new list. There is no explanation beyond a line about "program planning." Your kid is in their bedroom, on FIFA or homework or both, not yet aware. By breakfast they will be. The first thing to do is not to panic and not to reply tonight. The second thing to do is to understand what the rules actually say a club must do and not do, what you are entitled to ask for in writing, and which person at the club you contact first. None of that information is on the email you just received. Here it is.