Guelph United F.C. is a Canadian semi-professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly east of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario Highway 6, ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. The club includes men's and women's teams that play in

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1ON) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association. League1 Ontario consists of three tiers – League1 Premier ...

. Both teams initially played at the

University of Guelph The University of Guelph (abbreviated U of G) is a comprehensive Public university, public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College (1874), the MacDonald I ...

Alumni Stadium Alumni Stadium is a college football stadium on the lower campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is about west of downtown Boston, just inside the Boston city limits near the border with Newton, Massachusetts, Newton. It i ...

, but moved to Centennial Bowl in 2023. The women's team was originally named Guelph Union before changing to match the men's team's name for the 2024 season, following their merger in January 2023.

History

Both the men's (Guelph United) and women's (then known as Guelph Union) teams were formed in 2020, joining League1 Ontario in 2021, initially under separate ownership groups, with both being affiliated with the Guelph Soccer Club. In January 2023, the club's merged under the same ownership group with Guelph United acquiring the Union, in a move to optimize operations and strengthen ties with the community. After continuing to play under the Union name for the 2023 season, the women's team rebranded to Guelph United ahead of 2024.

Men

Guelph United F.C. was founded in 2020 by Keith Mason, Benny Mezezi, and Ami Mezezi, in partnership with the

Gryphons The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk o ...

, the Guelph Soccer Club, and the City of Guelph with the goal of bringing semi-professional soccer to the community. Guelph Gryphons head and assistant coaches Keith Mason and Justin Springer were announced as the team's associate coaches. The team is expected to be primarily composed of

players, supplemented by local players. The club joined

for the 2021 season and will also field a team in the reserve division. Ahead of their debut, they made headlines signing former

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

player

Jace Kotsopoulos Jace Dayton Kotsopoulos (born December 1, 1997) is a Canadian soccer player. Early life Kotsopoulos first played youth soccer with Oakville SC and Dixie SC. He joined Burlington SC at U13 level, playing until 2015 at the U19 level. When he was ...

as the team's first ever player. They made their debut on July 30, 2021 defeating

FC London FC London is a Canadian semi-professional association football, soccer club based in London, Ontario, London, Ontario that plays in the men's and women's divisions of League1 Ontario Premier in the Canadian third tier. The team was founded in ...

by a score of 6-0. In their first season, they came in first place in the West Division, advancing to the playoffs, with their team featuring three of the top four regular season goal scoring leaders. In the playoffs, they won the League1 Ontario title, after defeating

Blue Devils FC Blue Devils Football Club (formerly known as Oakville Blue Devils FC) was a semi-professional soccer club based in Oakville, Ontario in League1 Ontario's men's and women's divisions. In October 2024, they merged under Oakville SC's branding, ...

3-1 in the finals, qualifying them for the

2022 Canadian Championship The 2022 Canadian Championship was the fifteenth edition of Canada's national soccer cup tournament, awarding the Voyageurs Cup. It took place from May 10 to July 26, 2022. The winners of the tournament, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, were awarded ...

. They were defeated in the first round of the Canadian Championship by professional club

HFX Wanderers FC Halifax Wanderers FC, also written as HFX Wanderers FC, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League (CPL) at the top of the Canadian soccer league syste ...

of the

2-0.

Women

Guelph Union was founded by the Guelph Soccer Club to join the League1 Ontario women's division for the 2021 season. They became the city's first ever women's semi-professional sports team. The women's team initially existed as a separate entity from the men's team, although they merged into one entity (while retaining the Union name for the women's team for 2023, before switching to United in 2024) in January 2023, as the women's team was potentially going to leave the city, as they would not be returning under the Guelph SC banner. Prior to this the Guelph Soccer Club had fielded four teams in the Ontario Women's Soccer League. They made their debut in the 2021 Summer Championship season on July 22, 2021, defeating

Darby FC Whitby Football Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Whitby, Ontario that plays in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. The club was founded in 2015 as Darby FC as a partnership between Whitby FC and Darlington ...

1-0. The club partnered with the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington as their charitable partner, donating fifty percent of the revenue from their ticket sales to the organization. In their debut season, they participated in the short-season Summer Championship division, finishing with a perfect 6-0 record to win the division. In 2022, they began playing in the main division (after opting to play in the short-season division in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), winning their debut match 1-0 over

. They finished their inaugural season in the main division in 13th place. For the 2024 season, the Union rebranded to United to match the men's side.

Players and staff

Coaching staff

Seasons

Men

Women

Notable former players

The following players have either played at the professional or international level, either before or after playing for the League1 Ontario team:

Men

Women

External links

Guelph United F.C. (men) websiteGuelph Union (women) website

References

{{Ontario Sports Association football clubs established in 2020 Soccer clubs in Ontario League1 Ontario teams Sport in Guelph 2020 establishments in Ontario