American soccer shocker: owners leave USL, will form new second division

November 10, 10:21 AMSeattle Soccer ExaminerDavid Falk

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There have been rumors and news bits for months about the possibility that clubs in the current United Soccer Leagues First Division might break away and form their own second division (behind MLS) in US soccer. Well, today the announcement came, and indeed it has happened, throwing American pro soccer at the second division level into chaos.

Vancouver Sun: North America will have a new soccer league from April after rebel clubs broke away from the established second tier league to form a new competition. The seven clubs, previously tied to the United Soccer Leagues (USL), the structure below Major League Soccer, said on Tuesday they had formed a new league and begun the formal process of gaining official recognition from governing bodies. The seven include USL champions Montreal Impact and the team they beat in the league’s final game — Vancouver Whitecaps.

Riverfront Times: "This will be a league that will offer the best of both worlds - outstanding experience and leadership at the ownership level combined with the promise and ability to chart our own course for success as a new league," said Cooper.  "It's this structure that motivated me to bring St. Louis into the new league, and why I believe the new league will have a lot of success at launch next year and well into the future."

CBC.ca: The owners of six soccer clubs, including the Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact, announced Tuesday that they plan to leave the USL-1 and form their own breakaway league. The new league will begin play in April 2010, the Whitecaps confirmed. The other USL teams involved include Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Miami FC and the Minnesota Thunder. Also involved in the league is St. Louis Soccer United, a soccer investment and development group dedicated to bringing a pro soccer team to the city of St. Louis. Joey Saputo, president of the reigning USL champion Montreal Impact, was elected chairman of the board of governors of the new league, which does not have a name. "This is not your typical new league," Saputo said in a news release. "Most of our teams have existed for years. We have united some of the best owners, teams and markets around a new vision for a professional soccer league in North America.

Then good old Joey Saputo, the ever non-commital owner of the Montreal Impact, releases a statement like this:  "I wish to reiterate that there are still ongoing talks between the Montreal Impact and the USL. We continue working on different options for the 2010 season, including the possibility that the Impact take part in the USL-1 or in a new league. We created the Team Owners Association in January 2008 in order to take our destiny in our own hands, as is the case in any other league worldwide. It is already November 10 and we needed to submit to the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) an application for the creation of a new league for this option to remain viable."

So I guess that is covering all the bases for the Impact. eh? The Team Owners Association (TOA) needed to declare their intent to form a new league so that they could get all of the USSF paperwork rolling for 2010.

The USL meetings are next week in Florida. I wonder how many of the TOA clubs will attend?

Note: All of this feather ruffling does not directly affect the USL PDL clubs in Puget Sound: Kitsap Pumas, Seattle Wolves FC, Tacoma Tide FC. However, Robin Waite, Kitsap owner, has indeed been contacted by the TOA to see if the Pumas are interested in jumping up in 2010. Waite said he told them no because it is a year or two too soon in the club's development plan.