Edmonton’s professional soccer team, FC Edmonton, is leaving the North American Soccer League (NASL) and shutting down its professional franchise operations effective immediately, the club’s owners announced Friday.
“Although we believed in and have supported the NASL business model, our franchise has proven to be unsustainable in the Edmonton market,” owners Tom and Dave Fath said in a statement posted on the team’s website.
“Our decision today is further reinforced by the continuous uncertainty being forced upon the NASL by the United States Soccer Federation,” Tom Fath said in the statement. “We sincerely hope the road to long-term stability can be found for the NASL as the NASL pursues the lawsuit against the USSF in the U.S. courts.”
According to the statement, the Fath brothers joined the NASL at the league’s founding meeting in November 2009. The team, which played its first official league match in April 2011, has played more than 200 league games. Twice in its seven seasons, it made it through to the post-season.
The league’s assistant commissioner, Rishi Sehgal, said the league is still planning for a 2018 season and remains confident ahead of an appeal hearing set for Dec. 15.
Sehgal was quick to thank the FC Edmonton ownership team for its longtime support of the league.
“We are very appreciative of FC Edmonton’s contribution to the NASL as a founding member,” Sehgal said in a statement. “As the club’s owner, Tom Fath was a tremendous ambassador for the league and his genuine passion for the community did so much for the fans and the people of Edmonton.”
The San Francisco Deltas also announced they were departing the league, Sehgal added.
The Faths expressed thanks to FC Edmonton fans, players, coaches and sponsors.
The statement also made a point of reaching out to the local youth soccer community involved in its development program, stating “we remain committed to our FC Edmonton Academy.”
The team’s future had been cast into uncertainty recently as a result of a court battle involving the NASL and the U.S. Soccer Federation. The league had been seeking an injunction to regain its Division 2 designation.
Without Division 2 status, the league may not operate in the 2018 season, which would have left FC Edmonton without a league to play in.
On FC Edmonton’s Facebook page, fans expressed hope that the team would be back to play with the Canadian Premier League, a new coast-to-coast professional soccer league that could begin play as early as 2018.
“Sad news,” wrote Ian Pearson on the Facebook page. “Let’s hope we join the CPL. With Edmonton joining, it can only improve it.”