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

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 ...

, a Division 3 women's soccer league in the Canadian soccer pyramid and the highest level of soccer based in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

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 ...

. 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 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 A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the film ...

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 Ottawa South United is a Canadian semi-professional association football, soccer team based in Manotick, Ontario, a community in the rural south part of Ottawa that plays in Ligue1 Québec. The club previously competed in League1 Ontario. The cl ...

moved to the PLSQ and DeRo United FC did not return. Durham United FA re-branded as

Pickering FC Pickering Football Club, commonly known as Pickering FC, is a Canadian semi-professional association football, soccer club based in Pickering, Ontario that plays in League1 Ontario. The club was founded in 1984 as a youth soccer club and adde ...

. 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 Ontario (women) seasons League1