Oakland Roots, a new professional soccer team, announced today that they will be joining NISA, a third-division independent league about to start its first season, instead of the NPSL Founders Cup for their inaugural campaign.

The team will start to play this fall with four friendlies against “high level” opponents before joining the NISA league in their Spring Season in 2020.

“We’re excited about Oakland Roots’ intentions to join NISA and will work closely with them through the application process,” NISA Commissioner John Prutch said in a statement about the decision. “They’re a club rooted in passion, pride, and commitment to the game; foundations that align with NISA’s principles.”

The Roots announced late last year that they would be part of the NPSL Founders Cup which is supposed to begin in August of this year. However, there have been many reports that the league itself was in disarray and it isn’t even clear if the inaugural season will take place. Chris Kivlehan of Midfield Press said the move was prompted by the NPSL Founders Cup being unable to get the necessary sanctioning from any US Soccer affiliated association including the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) and the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA).

Not being a sanctioned league comes with a plethora of issues. For example, US Soccer Federation certified referees can only call matches in accredited soccer association leagues. With the Founders Cup not having sanctioning, they would only be able to use unlicenced soccer referees to call their matches. If a USSF certified referee was used for a league game they referee would lose their certification.

“Our club had previously committed to National Premier Soccer League’s Founders Cup,” the team wrote in a blog post on their website. “Roots leadership made a collective decision to focus on NISA as our preferred path forward. We have communicated our intent to the organizing body of the Founders Cup, as well as its constituent members.”

NISA was the only other available option for the Roots to play professionally. Two years ago Mark Hall bought territorial rights from the USL, which also runs a second and third division pro soccer league, for Oakland and the entire East Bay. They plan to launch a club after building a stadium, most likely in Concord, by 2023.

Oakland has had an impressive rollout of the Roots brand and team. The introduction of their first player, Devante Dubose, was lauded on social media. The club has also added ex-US Men’s National Team U-20 captain Benji Joya, former MLS player Paul Bravo as their coach and former San Jose Earthquake defender Víctor Bernárdez as a player and assistant coach.

They recently held open tryouts for players that were heavily attended and will be releasing their first jersey design to the public in an event at Oaklandish’s Broadway store (1444 Broadway in Downtown Oakland) from 6-9 pm this Friday, June 28th.

The team also said they will play their home games at Laney Field at Laney College, a short distance from the Lake Merritt BART station. The four friendly games will take place between August 31st and October 27th, most likely in place of the four NPSL Founders Cup games that were previously scheduled during that timeframe.

NISA will start to play this fall with teams across the United States. Three of the teams (Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego) are located in Southern California.

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Douglas Zimmerman covers the “beautiful game” in the Bay Area and around the world. He recently released a photo book documenting the fans of the World Cup that he started in 2002.

Follow on Twitter: @zimpix