League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional women'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 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 ...

. The L1O women's division 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 divisions, with L1O equivalent 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 ...

and League1 British Columbia. The women's division launched in 2015 with seven clubs and has grown to twenty clubs for the 2022 season. Beginning in 2024, the league will become a three-tier league featuring

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 ...

History

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 ...

was founded as a men's semi-professional league on November 15, 2013, in an announcement by the Ontario Soccer Association (OSA). In January 2015, L1O announced the launch of a women's division. Initially, six teams (

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 United FC,

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 ...

, ProStars FC,

Sanjaxx Lions Sanjaxx Lions was a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Toronto, Ontario. The club was founded in 2012 as a soccer academy and added its semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 2015. The club was one of the ten original foundin ...

and

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 ...

) were to compete, but a seventh team (

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 ...

) was soon added ahead of the inaugural season. The league kicked off their first matches on May 23 with all seven teams playing matches at

Tim Hortons Field Tim Hortons Field, nicknamed "The Donut Box", is a multi-purpose stadium in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Built as a replacement for Ivor Wynne Stadium, Tim Hortons Field is primarily used for Canadian football and association fo ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

( Ottawa Fury FC Academy also fielded a team for an exhibition match to make an even number so that every team could play). Durham United FC defeated

by a score of 2–0 in the league's first official match. Durham United were the inaugural league champions. while North Mississauga won the first League Cup title. For the 2016 season, the division grew to nine teams with the addition of four teams, while two clubs departed. The league grew to 11 teams in 2017, with three new additions and one departure. In 2018, the league grew to 13 teams and the league introduced a playoff format for the first time to declare the league champion. For the 2019 season, the league eliminated the League Cup competition. Beginning in the 2020 season, League1 Ontario and the

had planned to hold a Final Four end-of-season tournament for their women's divisions, from August 14 to 16, pitting the top two sides from each league in an inter-provincial playoff. Also, the league had planned to introduce a Reserve Division for the women for the first time. However, 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. Due to the delayed start caused by the pandemic, some clubs were unable to field team's in the main division. Consequently, the league also formed a short-season summer division, with teams opting to either play in the full-season Premier division, the short-season Champion, and/or the Reserve division. 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

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.

Management

In September 2019, former Canadian national team player

Carmelina Moscato Carmelina Moscato (born May 2, 1984) is a Canadian soccer Manager (association football), coach and former professional Soccer player, player. She currently coaches Liga MX Femenil club Tigres UANL (women), Tigres UANL. She played as a centrebac ...

was announced as Commissioner of the Women's division (prior to this both the male and female divisions were led by Dino Rossi), however she departed in December 2020 to become the Director of Women's Football for the

Bahamas Football Association The Bahamas Football Association (BFA), is the official governing body of the sport of Association football in The Bahamas. Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Nassau, the federation is a full member of FIFA since 1968 and governs Bahamian footb ...

. In March 2021, Chelsea Spencer and Julie Maheu were announced as Director and Operations Manager, respectively, for the league.

Competition format

The League1 Ontario regular season runs from May through September using a single table format, with each team playing one match against all other teams. The top four teams compete in the league playoffs at the end of the season. Beginning in 2019, the Ron Smale Cup was created by the supporters group of

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 during 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 2015 cup 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

Currently there are 20 clubs, based mainly in the Greater Toronto Area and 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:2015 till:2023 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:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2016 text:ANB Futbol bar:2 color:Active from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2016 text:Durham United FC bar:2 color:Active from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2020 text:Durham United FA bar:2 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2022 text:Pickering FC bar:2 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:12/31/2022 text: bar:3 color:Former from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2017 text:Kingston Clippers bar:4 color:Active from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2019 text:North Mississauga SC bar:4 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2022 text: bar:4 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:5 color:Active from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2016 text:ProStars FC bar:5 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:6 color:Former from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2018 text:Sanjaxx Lions bar:7 color:Active from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2019 text:Vaughan Azzurri bar:7 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text: bar:7 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:8 color:Active from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2019 text:Woodbridge Strikers bar:8 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text: bar:8 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:9 color:Former from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2017 text:Aurora United FC bar:9 color:Former from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2019 text:Aurora FC bar:9 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text: bar:10 color:Active from:01/01/2016 till:12/31/2019 text:Darby FC bar:10 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2022 text: bar:10 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:11 color:Active from:01/01/2016 till:12/31/2019 text:FC London bar:11 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text: bar:11 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:12 color:Former from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2019 text:Toronto Azzurri Blizzard bar:13 color:Active from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2019 text:Unionville Milliken SC bar:13 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2022 text: bar:13 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:14 color:Former from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2019 text:West Ottawa SC bar:15 color:Former from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2020 text:DeRo United FC bar:16 color:Active from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2019 text:Hamilton United bar:16 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text: bar:16 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:17 color:Active from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2019 text:Oakville Blue Devils FC bar:17 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text: bar:17 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Blue Devils FC bar:18 color:Active from:01/01/2019 till:12/31/2019 text:Alliance United FC bar:18 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2022 text: bar:18 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:19 color:Former from:01/01/2019 till:12/31/2019 text:FC Oshawa bar:19 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text: bar:20 color:Former from:01/01/2019 till:01/01/2020 text:Ottawa South United bar:21 color:Covid from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 text:North Toronto Nitros bar:21 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text: bar:22 color:Covid from:01/01/2021 till:01/01/2022 text:Guelph Union bar:22 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text: bar:23 color:Active from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Tecumseh SC bar:24 color:Covid from:01/01/2021 till:01/01/2022 text:Waterloo United bar:24 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:BVB IA Waterloo bar:25 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:Burlington SC bar:26 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:NDC Ontario bar:27 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:Electric City FC bar:28 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:Simcoe County Rovers bar:29 color:Active from:01/01/2022 till:end text:St. Catharines Roma Wovles ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2015 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:

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

* {{Soccer in Canada Soccer leagues in Ontario Women's association football leagues in North America Women's soccer competitions in Canada Sports leagues established in 2015 2015 establishments in Ontario League1 Canada