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5 Clubs Beakaway from USL-1 and Form New League

The current situation in professional soccer in the US and Canada at the level below MLS can charitably be described as chaotic.  Earlier this year, Nike sold USL-1, the recognized, and despite its name, Division II soccer league in the US and Canada.  Following completion of the sale, several of the clubs expressed the desire to leave the league and form a new league which would be owned and managed by the clubs themselves as required by FIFA rules, and as exists in almost every professional league in almost every professional sport in the world.

The five clubs, the Carolina RailHawks, Minnesota Thunder, Miami FC, and ironically the two finalists in the USL-1's championship game, the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact, formed an organization known as the Team Owners Association and began the discussion about forming a new league.  The owners of the former Atlanta Silverbacks and the owners of a new team in St. Louis joined the group, which on November 10, filed an application for sanctioning as a Division II league in the US and a Division I league in Canada.   A copy of the group's press release and a short description of each club's ownership and management can be found at Inside Minnesota Soccer here.  USL-1 reacted with its own press release which can be found here.

I believe that FIFA and/or USSF require that a league have 8 teams in order to be sanctioned.  By my count, it would appear that the new league as now constituted only has 7.  Not only would it need at least one more for play in 2009-2010, but Vancouver is scheduled to join MLS in 2012 and the new league would then need to replace it. 

Suffice it to say, there will be turmoil aplenty in the lower divisions of professional soccer here over the next several months, which is not something that will advance the sport in the months leading up to the World Cup.  This is a time when you have an opportunity to grab the attention of casual fans as they begin to pay attention to World Cup hoopla.  MLS needs to devote all of its promotional energy in that direction.  It would be helpful if the Division 2 league would be doing the same and not involved in some internecine battle over who was going to control whatever meager profit is going to be generated by whichever league survives.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on November 13, 2009 (boomark / email).