League1 Alberta (L1AB) is a semi-professional men's and women's

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 ...

league in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (; branded as Canada Soccer) is the governing body for soccer in Canada. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, the federation is a full member of FIFA and governs Canadian soccer at the international, professional, a ...

and the Alberta Soccer Association as a third division pro–am league in the Canadian soccer league system. In the Canadian soccer league system, the men's division is behind the

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 ...

(CPL). It is part of

League1 Canada League1 Canada (L1C; ) is a national pro–am Association football, soccer organization in Canada. It consists of four regional leagues; League1 Alberta, League1 British Columbia, League1 Ontario, and Ligue1 Québec with each league operating m ...

, the national third tier with regional division, with L1AB equivalent to Ligue1 Québec (L1Q), League1 Ontario (L1O), and League1 British Columbia (L1BC). The men's league champion qualifies for the Canadian Championship, the domestic cup championship, while the women's league champion qualifies for the League1 Canada Women's Inter-Provincial Championship.

History

In 2021, a group of clubs from British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba organized the 2021 Summer Series, a series of friendly soccer matches played between Western Canadian soccer clubs to showcase a potential national second division. In 2022, another exhibition showcase was organized by four clubs – three from Alberta ( Calgary Foothills FC, Edmonton Scottish, BTB Soccer Academy) and one from Manitoba ( FC Manitoba) – as an entity known as ''Central League1''. In March 2023, League1 Alberta was announced with an exhibition series being organized, with six clubs participating (five in each gendered division) – the Calgary Foothills, Edmonton Scottish, St. Albert Impact, and BTB Soccer Academy would field teams of both genders, while Cavalry FC would field a team in the men's series and the Calgary Blizzard in the women's division. The first matches were played on May 12, 2023, with an official league season planned to be launch for the following season. In December 2023, it was announced that the league would officially be sanctioned for official competition under the

umbrella for the 2024 season, with seven clubs participating in each division.

Clubs

Currently eight men's teams and eight women's teams have been announced to participate in the 2025 season, of which five are based in Greater Calgary and three are based in Greater Edmonton.

Men's Division

Women's Division

References

{{CONCACAF third leagues League1 Alberta League1 Canada Soccer leagues in Canada Women's soccer leagues in Canada Canada, Alberta 2023 establishments in Alberta

History

Clubs

Men's Division

Women's Division

See also

References