America’s international teams go through ups and downs but the issue of promotion and relegation in domestic leagues refuses to die

A year after Carlos Cordeiro was elected US Soccer president in a free-for-all that threw everything in the sport up for debate, the federation convened for a much quieter annual meeting over the weekend. Hall of Fame player Cindy Cone was officially declared vice president, a foregone conclusion after she was the only candidate to secure a nomination.

In Cordeiro’s first year, the national teams and youth soccer have drawn plenty of attention. But the issue of promotion and relegation in America is still a matter of debate throughout the country’s soccer communities. Here’s how things stand at the moment.

Who is in charge of the lower-level pro and elite amateur game in the USA?

As it turns out, a lot of people. The American Soccer League. And the National Independent Soccer Association. And the National Premier Soccer League. And the United Premier Soccer League. And the US Premiership. And the United Soccer League. Oh, and, some regional leagues too.

That’s a lot of organizations. Surely they’re all working together to build a pro/rel pyramid from regional leagues up to a national league that would rival or perhaps one day merge with Major League Soccer?

They are not.

But they at least agree on a path forward?

They do not.

Where do these leagues stand within US Soccer?

The federation sanctions professional leagues as Divisions 1, 2 and 3. MLS is Division 1. The USL can boast three levels: the Division 2 Championship, the Division 3 League One, and the amateur League Two, though it doesn’t (yet) have pro/rel. More than one league can occupy each tier. NISA, for example, is applying to join Division 3, the same tier as USL’s League One. It hopes to cater to clubs that bristle at the USL’s central control and its partnership with MLS. What division a team in doesn’t necessarily tell the story of how big they are though. Detroit City FC, who average more than 5,000 fans per game, are in the same tier as a UPSL regional group that takes place entirely within a single city park.

So no one outside the three pro divisions can be professional?

Actually, professional teams can play below Division 3, though they’re rare.

Then what would stop an entire league from declaring itself professional?

Here’s where it gets (even more) complicated, and here’s where the Cosmos enter the picture. A few bigger (richer) NPSL clubs have joined up with the Cosmos and Miami FC, both of whom played in the Division 2 NASL, to form something called the Founders Cup, which will run from August to November in its first season, and will have professional players.

And US Soccer is OK with this?

A US Soccer spokesman confirmed that the federation has no issue with professional players on these teams. Bu at some point, the federation would surely want to prevent a league from doing a full-fledged end run around the Pro League Standards.

What are those?

Depending on who you ask, they may be a bulwark against the constant cycle of clubs emerging and folding, or they’re an unfair roadblock against community clubs. The standards include a required performance bond to keep teams from jumping ship midseason. More to the head-scratching end of things is the insistence that each league team must have a media guide. The more stringent Division 2 standards are central to the NASL’s lawsuit against US Soccer in September 2017, filed in the wake of the NASL losing its Division 2 status. The league is currently in limbo.

So the Pro League Standards explain why these leagues (other than the USL and NISA) don’t apply for Division 3 sanctioning?

That’s one reason. But most of these clubs, apart from the ones in the Founders Cup, aren’t planning to turn professional, at least not in the near future. The UPSL has a few ambitious clubs, but its status as a low-budget, low-travel alternative is the key to its rapid expansion. USL League Two and the NPSL rely heavily on college players, who can’t play on professional teams. (They can play against professionals, which makes the US Open Cup possible.)

So the Open Cup is the national championship?

That, and the US Amateur Cup, the rough analogue to England’s FA Trophy. And most of these leagues have their own national playoffs, which is why the UPSL’s “fall” season ended in February.

So we have all these separate national championships instead of pro/rel?

Yes. Pro/rel happens regionally in the UPSL and local and regional amateur leagues. On the national level, USL president Jake Edwards has a habit of teasing the possibility of doing it once the league has a critical mass in League One. At the moment, that’s 10 teams.

Don’t Fifa rules require pro/rel?

Ask the lawyers. That’s one of the arguments in the NASL’s suit against US Soccer, for which the discovery deadline has been extended to November, and it’s the subject of a complaint the NASL’s Miami FC and the NPSL’s Kingston Stockade filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in August 2017. The complexities of that case have been considered on a lawyer’s blog and in an academic paper, but apparently not in CAS as of yet.

What does Cordeiro think of pro/rel?

He was asked about it during his campaign. His response to ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle: “I regret that I’m not able to comment on this issue at this time because, as vice president, I am a sitting officer of the federation and this is a matter pending in arbitration.”

Given the frequency of litigation in this realm, US Soccer is bound to be risk-averse for the foreseeable future. It’s up to everyone else to sort it out.