14 November 2024
Latest News
League1 Ontario grants York United FC Men’s Championship Division License
The Canadian Premier League club will field a squad in the second tier of Ontario’s Pro-Am soccer pyramid in 2025.
Toronto, ON – (November 14, 2024) – League1 Ontario today announced it has granted York United FC of the Canadian Premier League (CPL) a license to field a Pro-Am squad in League1 Ontario Men’s Championship Division in 2025.
The roster for the just-announced York United Academy will be largely comprised of amateur U-20 players, with a maximum of three domestic U-23 players also allowed to be signed any one time. Per league rules, the academy team will also be able to call down a maximum of three players from the club’s CPL roster each match.
York United is a founding member of the CPL, the top men’s domestic soccer league in Canada, which plays out of York Lions Stadium on the York University campus. York United Academy will also play its home games at York Lions Stadium in 2025, including some doubleheaders with its CPL side. Full details around scheduling will be released by the league and club at a later date.
“York United has long been a supporter of the Pro-Am level and frequently looked to League1 Ontario for local talents to join their professional roster,” said Chris Keem, Operations Manager, League1 Ontario.
“Their commitment to fielding an academy team in the Men’s Championship is a natural evolution for their club and reinforces their support for developing the province’s player pathway by providing more opportunity for talented homegrown players to progress to professional opportunities. We are excited for the Nine Stripes to add to what will be another competitive Men’s Championship season.”
Several former League1 Ontario players have already appeared for the Nine Stripes in the club’s short history, including Nyal Higgins, Trivine Esprit, and Markiyan Voytsekhovskyy who all starred at the Pro-Am level in recent seasons. York’s joint all-time top goal scorer, Mo Babouli, had two separate stints in League1 Ontario before his CPL debut and was named League1 Ontario’s Most Valuable Player and Golden Boot Winner in its 2014 debut season.
“I reached out to League1 Ontario before we even had the press conference to announce our takeover of York United last December to ask about the procedure to join its competition,” said Ricardo Pasquel, General Manager and President, York United FC.
“We had conducted a lot of research into the level and the types of players that have come out of League1 Ontario. We want to give young Canadian talent a pathway to shine and I cannot express enough how excited we are about this. We are committed to playing young players in our first team because we believe that the talent is here. We just need to identify them, help them develop, and give them an opportunity.”