League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (Canada Soccer) is the governing body of soccer in Canada. It is a national organization that oversees the Canadian men's and women's national teams for international play, as well as the respective junior sides ...

and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league in the

Canadian soccer league system The Canadian soccer league system, also called the Canadian soccer pyramid, is a term used in soccer to describe the structure of the league system in Canada. The governing body of soccer in the country is the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), w ...

. As of the 2022 season, L1O includes 22 teams. Beginning in 2024, the league will become a three-tier league featuring promotion and relegation. In the Canadian soccer league system, the men's division is behind the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary national soccer league compe ...

(CPL). It is part of

League1 Canada League1 Canada (L1C; french: Ligue1 Canada) is a national soccer competition in Canada which acts as the third tier in the Canadian soccer league system below the Canadian Premier League, consisting of the highest level sanctioned provincial l ...

, the national third tier with regional division, with L1O equaivalent to the

Première ligue de soccer du Québec The Première ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) is a semi-professional soccer league created in 2012. The Quebec Soccer Federation operates both men's and women's divisions at the pro-am tier of the Canadian soccer league system. The league is p ...

(PLSQ) and

League1 British Columbia League1 British Columbia (L1BC) is a semi-professional men's and women's association football, soccer league in British Columbia, Canada, which began play in May 2022. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the British ...

(L1BC). The league champion qualifies for the Canadian Championship, the domestic cup championship, for the following season. Dino Rossi serves as the commissioner of the league.

History

League1 Ontario was founded on November 15, 2013, in an announcement by the Ontario Soccer Association (OSA) that it would pilot the semi-professional league in 2014 and 2015 as a key pillar of long-term player development in Canada. The league would be administered by DG Sports, who also operate the province's amateur

Ontario Soccer League The Ontario Soccer League (OSL) is a competitive amateur soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The OSL is affiliated with and governed by the Ontario Soccer Association The Ontario Soccer Association, founded in 1901, is one of the oldest and larg ...

, with Dino Rossi serving as commissioner. OSA President Ron Smale stated that the league's core group of players are to consist of U-23s, with League1 complementing the newly formed Ontario Player Development League (OPDL) elite youth league as a pathway for professional player development. On April 8, 2014, the OSA revealed its plans for the inaugural season of League1 which would begin during the final weekend in May 2014. The season featured 10 teams, chosen through a standards-based application process, which were:

ANB Futbol ANB Futbol was a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in King, Ontario. The club was founded in 2007, as a soccer academy, and added its semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 2014. The club was one of the ten original founding m ...

, Durham Power FC,

Internacional de Toronto Internacional de Toronto C.F. was a short-lived Canadian soccer club founded and dissolved in 2014 and based in Toronto, Ontario. The club played in League1 Ontario, part of the third division of the Canadian soccer league system. The club playe ...

, Kingston Cataraqui Clippers,

Master's FA Master's Futbol Academy, commonly known as Master's FA, is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. The club was founded in 2009 as a soccer academy and added its team in the semi-professional League1 Ontar ...

Sigma FC Sigma Sports is a Canadian youth soccer development academy and player management company based in Mississauga, Ontario. They also operate a senior academy soccer team that currently competes in League1 Ontario, as Sigma FC. Over 140 Sigma player ...

Toronto FC Academy Toronto FC Academy, also known as TFC Academy, is the Youth system, youth academy and development system of Canadian Major League Soccer club Toronto FC. The academy has divisions from U14 to U19 and includes over 110 young players. The senior aca ...

Vaughan Azzurri Vaughan Azzurri is a Canadian semi-professional soccer team based in Vaughan, Ontario, that currently competes in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. The semi-professional team was founded in 2014 by the Vaughan Soccer Club, which ...

Windsor Stars Windsor TFC is a Canadian soccer team based in Windsor, Ontario, that was founded in 2004. They have competed in the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL) and Canadian Soccer League (CSL). Throughout their tenure in the CPSL/CSL, Windsor ...

and

Woodbridge Strikers Woodbridge Strikers Soccer Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Woodbridge, Ontario. The club was founded in 1976 as a youth soccer club and added its semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 2014. The team plays home g ...

. The league champion would face the champion of the

in the

Inter-Provincial Cup The Inter-Provincial Cup is a limited-overs cricket tournament in Ireland between the four leading cricketing provinces of Ireland. The tournament was held for the first time in 2013 across venues in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ir ...

to determine the national Division III champion.

Dylan Sacramento Dylan Cabral Sacramento (born March 4, 1995) is a Canadian soccer player who plays as a midfielder. Club career Toronto FC Sacramento originally played with TFC Academy II in 2012 in the Second Division of the Canadian Soccer League. He later ...

of Toronto FC Academy scored the first ever goal in the league with a 10th-minute strike against Vaughan Azzurri. In the same game,

Mateo Restrepo Mateo Restrepo Mejia (born April 29, 1997) is a former soccer player. Born in Colombia, he represented Canada internationally at the U17 and U18 levels. Early life Restrepo was in La Ceja, Colombia, and lived there until the age of five, w ...

received the league's first red card. On July 22, 2014, the league and the Ontario Soccer Association announced the termination of

's license agreement due to "failure to comply with agreed-upon league standards," with league matches rescheduled for the season to accommodate the change. Toronto FC Academy were crowned the inaugural league champions on October 4, 2014, after defeating the Cataraqui Clippers 3–1 to secure the top place in the regular season standings. Vaughan Azzurri and Sigma FC contested the inaugural League1 Cup on October 19, 2014, at

BMO Field BMO Field is an outdoor stadium located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which is home to Toronto FC of Major League Soccer and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Constructed on the site of the former ...

, with the Azzurri winning the single-game cup final 2–1 to be crowned champions. As the number of teams in the league continued to grow through expansion, the league introduced a two-conference format with the winner of each conference facing off in a championship match. After the 2016 season, the Inter-Provincial Cup was cancelled, with the winners of League1 Ontario and the PLSQ instead advancing to the national Canadian Championship the following season, beginning in 2018. In 2018, the league returned to a single division, introducing playoffs for the top finishers of the league to decide the league champion. The League Cup tournament was eliminated the following season. On November 14, 2018, the

announced its purchase of League1 Ontario. According to L1O commissioner Dino Rossi, L1O would serve as "CPL's official development league." Due to restrictions associated with the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the league cancelled the 2020 season and delayed the start of the 2021 season. On January 25, 2022, League1 Ontario announced a major restructuring of the men's and women's competitions to commence in 2024. The league will be split into three tiers (Premier, Championship, and League2) with

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

between the tiers. Future expansion clubs will enter at the League2 level and will have to win to earn promotion to the Championship and then Premier divisions. Also in 2024 will be the return of the L1 Cup, a

league cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

knockout tournament which will feature teams from all three tiers in the L1O system.

Competition format

The League1 Ontario regular season runs from May through October using a single table format, with each team playing one match against all other teams. The top eight teams compete in the league playoffs at the end of the season. Since 2017, the league champion has qualified for the Canadian Championship. Beginning in 2019, the Supporters Trophy was created by the Rogue Street Elite supporter group of

North Mississauga SC North Mississauga Soccer Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Mississauga, Ontario. The club was founded in 1982 as a youth soccer club and added its men's semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 2016. The team plays ho ...

to be given to the regular season champions.

L1 Cup

The L1 Cup is a

tournament that features all L1O clubs. It runs concurrently with the regular season, with cup games usually taking place mid-week. It is not a form of playoffs and all matches are separate from the regular season and are not reflected in the season standings. The 2014 and 2015 cups included a group stage and a knockout stage but from 2016 to 2018 the format was a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. Following a hiatus from 2019 to 2023, the L1 Cup will return in 2024 to coincide with the league's restructuring.

Yearly results

Clubs

Current clubs

Of the 22 current clubs, 3 are based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, 11 are based elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area, and the rest are based in other cities in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

. There are no clubs based in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

Former clubs

Timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:25 PlotArea = left:20 right:20 bottom:20 top:20 Period = from:2014 till:2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy AlignBars = justify Colors = id:barcolor id:line value:pink id:bg value:white id:Active value:blue id:Former value:gray(0.3) id:Covid value:rgb(0.897,0.698,0.698) PlotData= width:20 textcolor:white shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:Former from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2016 text:ANB Futbol bar:2 color:Active from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2016 text:Durham United FC bar:2 color:Active from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2018 text:Durham United FA bar:2 color:Active from:01/01/2019 till:12/31/2019 text: bar:2 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2021 text:Pickering FC bar:2 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:3 color:Former from:01/01/2014 till:07/01/2014 text:Inter Tor. bar:4 color:Former from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2015 text:Cataraqui Clippers bar:4 color:Former from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2017 text:Kingston Clippers bar:5 color:Active from:01/01/2014 till:12/31/2019 text:Master's Futbol bar:5 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:5 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:6 color:Active from:01/01/2014 till:12/31/2019 text:Sigma FC bar:6 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:6 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:7 color:Former from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2017 text:Toronto FC Academy bar:7 color:Former from:01/01/2017 till:07/01/2018 text:Toronto FC III bar:8 color:Active from:01/01/2014 till:12/31/2019 text:Vaughan Azzurri bar:8 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:8 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:9 color:Active from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2017 text:Windsor Stars bar:9 color:Active from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2019 text:Windsor TFC bar:9 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:9 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:10 color:Active from:01/01/2014 till:12/31/2019 text:Woodbridge Strikers bar:10 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:10 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:11 color:Active from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2019 text:Oakville Blue Devils FC bar:11 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:11 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Blue Devils FC bar:12 color:Active from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2019 text:ProStars FC bar:12 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:12 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:13 color:Former from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2019 text:Sanjaxx Lions bar:14 color:Former from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2017 text:Aurora United FC bar:14 color:Former from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2019 text:Aurora FC bar:14 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:15 color:Active from:01/01/2016 till:12/31/2019 text:FC London bar:15 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:15 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:16 color:Active from:01/01/2016 till:12/31/2019 text:North Mississauga SC bar:16 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:16 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:17 color:Active from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2018 text:North Toronto Nitros bar:17 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:17 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:18 color:Former from:01/01/2016 till:12/31/2019 text:Toronto Skillz FC bar:18 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2021 text: bar:19 color:Former from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2020 text:Ottawa South United bar:20 color:Active from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2019 text:Alliance United FC bar:20 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2021 text: bar:20 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:21 color:Active from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2019 text:Darby FC bar:21 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:21 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:22 color:Active from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2019 text:Unionville Milliken SC bar:22 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text: bar:22 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:23 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2021 text:Hamilton United bar:23 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:24 color:Former from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2021 text:1812 FC bar:25 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Guelph United bar:26 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Scrosoppi FC bar:27 color:Covid from:01/01/2021 till:end text:St. Catharines Roma Wolves bar:27 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:28 color:Covid from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Waterloo United bar:28 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:BVB IA Waterloo bar:29 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:Burlington SC bar:30 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:Electric City FC bar:31 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:Simcoe County Rovers ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2014 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:

Organization

Regulations

League1 Ontario was founded with a series of values, objectives and standards all aimed at furthering the league's stated objective of improving player development in Ontario and Canada. Some of these regulations include: * Standards-based club licensing, renewed annually (not a franchise/ownership model). Standards include technical, organizational, facility and financial criteria. * Maximum of 3 non-Canadian players per club. * 18-man game day rosters must include a minimum of 8 U-23 players. * Starting 11 must include a minimum of 4 U-23 players. * Maximum of 5 substitutions per match.

Reserve division

In 2019, L1O launched a men's U21 Reserve Division open to existing League1 Ontario or Ontario Player Development League license holders. The inaugural year will consist of a 12-game summer season and a separate 10-game fall season. Nine teams will participate in the 2019 summer season with a possibility of more teams joining for the fall.

Players who earned national team caps while in L1O

The following players have earned a senior national team cap while playing in League1 Ontario (the year of their first cap while playing in the league is listed). Players who earned caps before or after playing in League1 Ontario are not included, unless they also earned caps while in the league. This section also does not include youth caps (U23 or below).

References

External links

* {{Canada D3 soccer seasons Soccer leagues in Canada Can Soccer leagues in Ontario Sports leagues established in 2013 2013 establishments in Ontario Professional sports leagues in Canada League1 Canada