The United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) is an American
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
league that was founded in
Santa Ana in
Southern California, with teams in regionalized conferences throughout the
United States, and recently
Canada and
Mexico. The league was founded in 2011 by
Santa Ana Winds FC
Santa Ana Winds FC, also known as Winds FC, is a soccer team founded in Santa Ana, California, and a founding United Premier Soccer League club currently playing at the Lake Forest Sports Park, with occasional matches played at Championship Stad ...
President
Leonel López
Leonel López González (born 24 May 1994) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bolivian Primera División club The Strongest.
Club career León
López began his official football career when he was bought by Club ...
as a regional league for teams in
Greater Los Angeles, but expanded to include 400 teams from 41 states as of the 2022 season.
Two seasons are played each year, with regional play culminating in a playoff system that crowns a single national champion each season. The league features internal promotion and relegation with up to three levels in some regions; only clubs in the top tier Premier Division are eligible to compete for the national championship.
The league is a National Affiliate member of
United States Soccer Federation, and a National League within the larger
United States soccer league system.
History
The UPSL was formed in 2011 with 10 teams, and has grown to include over 400 member clubs across the nation. Now featuring numerous MLS U19 teams including LAFC, Philadelphia Union and LA Galaxy, the Premier Division is widely regarded as occupying the unofficial 4th tier of US Soccer. Each UPSL team is independently owned and operated. The league consists of two seasons each calendar year, with the Spring season beginning in March and ending with national playoffs in July, and a Fall season with play beginning in September with national playoffs in December.
UPSL announced it would begin promotion/relegation system beginning in 2017. Teams will compete in two divisions: Pro Premier and Division One.
In November 2016 the UPSL announced the addition of a Colorado conference set to begin in 2017.
In August 2017, the league announced that all eleven clubs of the
Premier League of America would be joining the UPSL as a new Midwest Conference. The conference will initiate friendlies during the 2017 Fall Season and begin league play in 2018.
U.S. Open Cup
Former member club
PSA Elite is known for reaching the fourth round of the
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
and the
2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by knocking out higher-level professional teams. Three UPSL teams,
La Máquina FC
La Máquina is an American amateur football club, based out of the Santa Ana, California area, in central Orange County, competing in the United Premier Soccer League. The club takes its name and identity from Cruz Azul of Liga MX, and was form ...
,
L.A. Wolves FC
L.A. Wolves FC is an American amateur soccer club based in Torrance, California. They are named after the Los Angeles Wolves who played in the United Soccer Association in 1967 and in the North American Soccer League in 1968.
The club features i ...
, and
San Nicolas FC qualified for the
2016 U.S. Open Cup
The 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 103rd edition of the oldest ongoing competition in American soccer.
On September 8, 2015 the United States Soccer Federation decided to prevent professional teams that were "majority owned by a higher-lev ...
. La Máquina FC advanced to the fourth round (knocking out
Portland Timbers U23
Capital FC is an American soccer team based in Salem, Oregon, United States. Although founded in 2008 as part of the development system for the Portland Timbers USSF D2 organization, beginning in 2011 they were part of the development system for ...
,
Sacramento Gold, and LA Wolves FC) before falling to
LA Galaxy
LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pl ...
. The UPSL's participants in the 2016 US Open Cup altogether defeated teams from the
PDL PDL is an initialism for:
Politics
*Democratic Liberal Party (Romania), Democratic Liberal Party (''Partidul Democrat Liberal''), a former political party in Romania
*Labour Democratic Party (''Partito Democratico del Lavoro''), a former politi ...
(Timbers U-23),
NPSL (Sacramento Gold), and
USL (
Orange County Blues FC).
League structure
The UPSL operates in a geographical conference structure with localized Divisions within each Conference. The number of Divisions within each Conference varies based on various geographical factors including distance and population. There is often more than one team within a specific geographical area. More dense Conferences are divided into a promotion/relegation structure with Division I and Division II.
Teams as of 2018
2021 Season
Premier Division
Champions
References
External links
*
{{Soccer in Canada
United States Adult Soccer Association leagues
Soccer leagues in the United States
2011 establishments in the United States
Sports leagues established in 2011