The 2020 Women's League1 Ontario season was supposed to be the sixth season of play for

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's association football, soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league ...

(L1O), a Division 3 women's soccer league in the

Canadian soccer pyramid 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 ...

and the highest level of soccer based in the Canadian province of

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 ...

. On March 20, 2020, L1O postponed the start of the season due to 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 ...

. On June 6, 2020, the league announced the cancellation of the "summer season" while also mentioning the possibility of returning in September 2020 for a shortened "fall season", though this was later ruled out.

Format

For the regular season, each team would have played every other team once for a total of 12 matches. The playoff format would have included the top 8 teams, facing each other over 3 rounds, with the difference that the games will now be played over a single leg, instead of two. League1 Ontario and 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 ...

had planned to hold a Final Four end-of-season tournament for the women's divisions, from August 14 to 16, pitting the top two sides from each league in an inter-provincial playoff. The L1O season was scheduled to start on April 25, and end with the Playoffs Final on August 8, with the L1O-PLSQ series scheduled for August 14 to 16.

Clubs

The women's division consists of 13 teams, an decrease from 14 teams in 2019.

North Toronto Nitros North Toronto Nitros is a Canadian semi-professional association football, soccer club based in Toronto, Ontario, Toronto, Ontario. The club was founded in 1980 as a youth soccer club and added its men's semi-professional club in League1 Ontario ...

added a women's team for the first time, while Ottawa South United moved to the PLSQ and

DeRo United FC DeRo TFC (formerly DeRo United Futbol Academy) is Canadian soccer academy founded in 2012 by former Canadian professional soccer player Dwayne De Rosario based in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario. They previously fielded a Canadia ...

did not return. Durham United FA re-branded as

Pickering FC Pickering Football Club, commonly known as Pickering FC, is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Pickering, Ontario. The club was founded in 1984 as a youth soccer club and added its semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 20 ...

. The following clubs were set to participate in the league prior to the season's cancellation.

Reserve Division

After introducing the Reserve Division during the 2019 men's season, it was set to be added to the women's division for the 2020 season. All of the clubs in L1O would be required to field a club in the division, while some other Ontario soccer clubs who did not have a team in the league were invited to field teams in the U21 Reserve division.

References

External links

* {{2020 in Canadian soccer League1 League1 Ontario (women) seasons League1