A new seven-team North American professional soccer league will begin next April after several clubs withdrew from the United Soccer Leagues first division to begin a club owner-operated circuit.
The Vancouver Whitecaps, set to join the premier-level Major League Soccer in 2011, will be part of the as-yet-unnamed league in 2010 along with teams in Miami, Atlanta, Carolina, Montreal, Minnesota and St. Louis.
“We have united some of the best owners, teams and markets around a new vision for a professional soccer league in North America,” Montreal Impact president Joey Saputo told the Miami Herald.
Saputo, set to chair the new league’s board of governors, said in a statement released by his club that talks remained ongoing with United League officials but the new league had to move so it could seek approval from US and Canadian soccer officials to keep the breakaway option viable.
The circuit would be a division two level just as the United league, one step below MLS.
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