Yes, the the $11 membership fee is required FinFever; once you do that, you'll be able to play in EAFL 360 and PS3 leauges for the year
To play in the EAFL Leauges, completely read and fill out the application at http://www.EAFLMadden.com/join.htm, and pay the membership fee at http://www.eaflmadden.com/madden10.htm. When openings become available, and it's your turn on the waiting list; you'll be sent an EAFL invite from LeagueDaddy.com . Keep an eye on the "EAFL Paid members-waiting list, post here." sticky thread in the EAFL Community section of the EAFL Forums here (click on, or copy & paste text into your browser's address bar) : http://forums.eaflmadden.com/ for updates from EAFLCommish, and also keep an eye on your e-mail (junk, bulk, spam, and inbox folders) for an EAFL invite from LeagueDaddy.com once he's announced they've been sent out.
In the meantime, please feel free to come by the EAFL forums and get to know the rest of the EAFL Community, and even get a chance to set up some quality/no-nonsense scrimmages/lab/unranked Madden games with other prospective and current EAFL members. -We look forward to having you play in the EAFL Leagues soon. --Thanks.