A big announcement today
On a historic day for the evolution of soccer in North America, the United Soccer League has unveiled a new structure and brand identity for each of its top three leagues ahead of the 2019 season.
USL New Vision
The new United Soccer League will be structured into there levels. USL Championship will be the flagship division and include all the best teams and players.
USL League One will become the third division sought by the United States Soccer Federation and League 2 will replace the Player Development League. All the three new League are set to start at the beginning of 2019.
What about MLS
As the first division, MLS and its commissioner Don Garber have no plans to divide the Major League structure by creating MLS 1 and MLS 2. On the contrary, the plan is to keep expanding to new markets in order to grow the League with more and more teams.
The promotion relegation system is not introduced in the top USSF structures. Only the United Premier Soccer Leagues implemented this system that works. Instead, we are creating closed Leagues, with lower competition appeals and not unified.
It will certainly takes more time for USSF to figure out that Soccer in the US cannot be treated as the other major sports.
USL CEO, Alec Papadakis addresses to the media:
“Today’s announcement comes at the dawn of an exciting new era for our sport. The USL has spent the past eight years transforming our league to meet the evolving needs of our team owners, players, coaches, fans and partners.
Our place is established in the U.S. soccer landscape while blazing the trail for professional soccer’s future by introducing a new third division, completing the nation’s professional soccer structure.
We are bringing three leagues under one central brand that will uniquely represent the USL’s vision for the future. We give rise to local passion in new cities currently without professional soccer.
The new brand and logos are inspiring and convey a new direction. They are innovative and modern and tell a story but more importantly, refuse to let others define us. The USL will now be modeled after a tried and respected international structure.
One central brand, three leagues: USL Championship – the pinnacle of competition; USL League One– the foundation of professional soccer; and, USL League Two – the Path to Pro.
We are repositioning the competition under MLS with a new strategy, new names and logos. As we look to the future, the USL is ready to put its fingerprints on U.S. Soccer’s drive toward becoming the best in the world, and its pursuit of winning a FIFA Men’s World Cup.”
