Transcript Football Stadiumtemplate

In 1876 Canada became the first nation outside of the British Isles
to form a national Football organization, with the creation of the
Dominion Football Association (DFA), using the rules of the game
standardized by the English Football Association (FA) in 1862.
Other independent football associations were subsequently
established in Berlin (Kitchener), Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, and
Saskatchewan, each operating local teams and leagues.
In 1912 the Dominion of Canada Football Association (DFA) was
established in Toronto, and was granted membership the following
year in FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association),
the international governing body of Association Football.
From 1928 until 1946 Canada withdrew from FIFA in solidarity with
the FA protest over broken time payments to amateur players.
After rejoining FIFA, the DFA became known as the Canadian
Soccer Association (CSA), reflecting the growing Canadian use of
the American name for Association Football. The CSA remains the
governing body of soccer in Canada today.
CSA Logo
The first US-based ‘Association Football’ league was the American Football Association
(AFA), established in 1884. It was comprised mostly of teams from New York and New
Jersey. Other football leagues were also established in the northeast, but none survived.
In 1911 the rival American Amateur Football
Association (AAFA) was created, and both
organizations applied for membership in FIFA.
After the re-organization of the AAFA in 1913 as
the United States Football Association (USFA),
FIFA granted the new organization membership
representing the United States. This led to the
decline and eventual extinction of the AFA in 1924.
The Fall River Rovers, an early AFA side.
Between about 1910 and 1925, the emergence of
Rugby-style block-and-run ‘American Football’ in
the United States, and the equivalent 12-man game
played in Canada, led to the widespread adoption
of the word ‘soccer’ in both the USA and Canada to
describe Association Football. It was widely
believed that the word ‘soccer’ was British slang for
Association Football.
Early ‘American Football’
In 1974 the USFA was re-named the United States
Soccer Federation (USSF), which remains the
name of the governing body of soccer in the United
States today.
USSF Logo
Early Association Football AKA ‘Soccer’
In 1921 the American Soccer League (ASL) was established by the
USFA. Operated by well-funded owners, the league attracted many
foreign players, particularly English and Scottish players. The league
was based principally in the northeast region of the US, and most of
the teams were rooted in local ethnic and immigrant communities.
The quality of play was very high and quite comparable to the skill of
most European sides at that time.
Unfortunately the USFA requirement that ASL teams participate in the National Challenge
Cup (later the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup), led to a revolt against the USFA by the ASL
owners, who claimed the requirement was a financial burden (despite the considerable
sums they spent on foreign players). When ASL executives tried to prevent three ASL
teams from entering the 1928 Cup, the USFA and FIFA both declared the ASL to be an
‘outlaw’ league and de-sanctioned the ASL.
Without USFA and FIFA sanction, the ASL folded in 1933. That same summer, a second
league bearing the ASL name was established as a semi-professional league, but the
onset of the Great Depression and fan disgust with the ‘Soccer Wars’ between FIFA, the
USFA and the old ASL, ensured that the second incarnation of the ASL remained a semiprofessional league. The second ASL finally folded in 1983 after 50 years of play.
In 1926 the National Soccer League (NSL) was
established in Canada. It was the first attempt
to establish a truly professional soccer league
in the Dominion. The league lasted until 1997,
when it was re-branded as the Canadian
Professional Soccer League (CPSL). As in the
United States, many of the teams were rooted
in local ethnic communities, with a leavening of
English and Scottish players.
In 2006 the league was re-branded once again as the
Canadian Soccer League (CSL) in order to position itself for
national expansion. The CSL is still the principal soccer
league in Canada.
The ‘Soccer Wars’ of the 1920’s was
probably the single most important factor in
the alienation of Americans from the sport of
Association Football. The appearance of a
U.S. athletic association conspiring with a
European organization to undermine an
American athletic league, alienated many
U.S. sports fans by creating an image of
soccer as a sport controlled by foreigners.
These fans turned their backs on soccer,
relegating the remnant ASL to the position of
an ethnic-based minor league for decades to
come.
Coupled with the deprivations of the Great Depression, the rise of ‘American Football,’ and
then the epochal events of the Second World War, professional soccer essentially disappeared
from the American sports consciousness. For more than thirty years, major league
professional soccer slumbered in the United States.
In 1967 two fledgling American leagues, the United Soccer Association and
the National Professional Soccer League, merged to form the North
American Soccer League, which became the first truly world-class soccer
league in either the United States or Canada.
Fueled by the quixotic ambition of Warner Communications owner
Steve Ross, who owned the New York Cosmos, the free-spending
NASL owners attracted some of the best players in the history of
the sport, including Pele, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer,
Gordon Banks, George Best, Gerd Muller, and many others.
Pele
Banks Best Hamilton
Beckenbauer
Cruyff
For a time, the NASL was a sports sensation in both the United States and
Canada. The New York Cosmos and a few other sides, regularly attracted
crowds of 70,000 spectators and more, rivaling the best South American and
European clubs for fan support.
But after the retirement of Pele, however,
fan attendance dropped. By the early
1980’s the NASL had spent itself into
bankruptcy, and the league folded in
1984. A few of the better teams in the
league, switched to playing indoor
soccer just to stay alive.
America suddenly seemed to revert
to it’s historic indifference to pro soccer.
The demise of the NASL led to the formation of new, less ambitious leagues:
In 1985 the Western Soccer League (WSL) was
formed from surviving west coast NASL sides.
In 1986 the Southwest Indoor Soccer League
(SISL) was formed. Initially an amateur league,
over time the league evolved into the United
Soccer Leagues (USL), operating both amateur
and professional leagues in the USA & Canada.
Professional Indoor Soccer
In 1988 the third incarnation of the American
Soccer League (ASL) was formed as the eastcoast counterpart of the Western Soccer League.
In 1990 the WSL and the ASL merged to form the American Professional Soccer League
(APSL), which after 1993 also included Canadian teams as well.
The 1994 World Cup, hosted by the United States for the
first time ever, probably saved professional soccer in North
America by once again generating fan interest in the sport.
The United States advanced to the quarterfinals of the
quadrennial tournament, where they lost a competitive
match against eventual tournament winners Brazil.
The success of the 1994 World Cup was the springboard for the rebirth of premier
league soccer in the USA and Canada.
In 1996 a new league sanctioned by FIFA and USSF began
play in the United States: the MLS or ‘Major League Soccer.’
Mindful of the financial mistakes of the old NASL and
determined not to repeat them, the MLS established a system
of league oversight of its teams, to prevent owner
mismanagement. Mindful too of the fierce competition from
other American sports leagues, the MLS deliberately chose to
play a spring-summer schedule, instead of the typical fallwinter schedule played in other football countries.
The cautious approach of the MLS has proven itself. Despite several
difficult years, the league has now survived as long (1996 – 2011) as
the star-crossed NASL (1968 – 1984), and has longed since expanded
into Canada. Over the history of the league, the most successful side
has been DC United with four championships, followed by the LA
Galaxy, San Jose Earthquakes, and Houston Dynamo with two
championships apiece.
The advent of the MLS was a blow to the
APSL, which had hoped to become the
premier soccer league in the United
States. Forced to accept Division II
status, the APSL merged with the SISL to
form the United Soccer Leagues (USL),
whose top tier division became the
principal Division II league in the United
States. Likewise, the growth of the MLS
into Canada led to the classification of the
CSL as a Division II league, despite the
fact that the USL was also operating
teams in Canada. This created the
unusual situation of having two nations
sharing a single ‘premier league’ (MLS)
as the capstone of their national
professional soccer Associations, while
retaining separate Division II leagues
(USL & CSL).
In 2009 Nu Rock Soccer Holdings LLC, which owned a USL team
in Atlanta, formally purchased the USL and announced plans to
grow the league. This came as an unpleasant surprise to many
USL team owners, several of whom elected to leave the USL and
revive the NASL as a Division II league in direct competition with
the USL. Forced to adjudicate between the
two parties, the USSF elected to disqualify
both leagues for the 2010 season, and
Instead directly operate an interim
‘Division 2 Pro League’ for one season.
Beginning with the 2011 season, the reborn NASL commenced
operations in both the United States and Canada with eight
teams— the minimum number of teams for a professional league
under FIFA rules— as the Division II ‘a’ League in North America,
while the USL was relegated to the role of being a Division II ‘b’
League in the US and Canada. Several old NASL team names,
such as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, were revived in order to
appeal to fan nostalgia for the old NASL.
With several of its best teams gone, the USL was forced to
consolidate its top two divisions in order to maintain a
professional league. Although this diluted the level of
competition, some of the USL’s remaining sides— such as
the Charleston Battery and Rochester Rhinos— were as
good as any of the new NASL teams. Coupled with the
decision of the USL to expand into the Caribbean by adding
teams in Puerto Rico and Antigua, the result was the ‘USLPRO League,’ which began operations in 2011 with 15
teams in the United States and the Caribbean.
The culmination of soccer history in the United States and
Canada, has been the de facto establishment of the ‘North
American Soccer Pyramid.’ This is an unofficial term used by
soccer fans in both countries to describe the hierarchical
relationship between the four principal professional soccer
leagues in North America. With the MLS and NASL
representing the first and second tiers of professional
competition, the third tier is divided between the USL in the
United States, and the CSL in Canada. In addition, the USL
also operates the leading amateur soccer leagues in the
United States.
Unlike in other soccer nations, however, there is no system
of promotion and relegation between the various leagues,
with advancement into the MLS dependent on corporate
and financial considerations and not winning promotion
on the pitch. The absence of a system for promoting
or relegating teams between the various leagues,
remains the principal weakness of the North American
Soccer Pyramid and is a source of ongoing friction
with FIFA.