League1 Ontario

• League1 Ontario
• Men's Division

Organising body	Ontario Soccer Association
Founded	November 15, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-11-15)
First season	2014
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Confederation	CONCACAF (North American Football Union)
Number of clubs	12 (Premier) 12 (Championship) 23 (L2O)
Level on pyramid	3
Domestic cup(s)	Canadian Championship
League cup(s)	L1 Cup
International cup(s)	CONCACAF Champions Cup (via Canadian Championship)
Current champions	Scrosoppi FC (2024)
Current L1 Cup	Vaughan Azzurri (2024)
Most championships	Vaughan Azzurri (3 titles)
Most L1 Cups	Vaughan Azzurri (4 titles)
Website	www.league1ontario.com
Current: 2024 League1 Ontario season

League1 Ontario (L1ON) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada.^[1] The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association.^[2]

League1 Ontario consists of three tiers – League1 Premier, League1 Championship, and League2 Ontario – with promotion and relegation between them.^[3] The top-two tiers consist of 12 teams each, while the lowest tier is uncapped in size.

In the Canadian soccer league system, the men's division is behind the fully-professional Canadian Premier League. It is part of League1 Canada, the national third tier with regional division, along with three other provincial leagues. The league champion qualifies for the Canadian Championship, Canada's domestic cup tournament. Dino Rossi serves as the commissioner of the league.^[4][5]

League1 Ontario was founded on November 15, 2013, in an announcement by the Ontario Soccer Association (OSA) that it would pilot the semi-professional league in 2014 and 2015 as a key pillar of long-term player development in Canada. The league would be administered by DG Sports, who also operate the province's amateur Ontario Soccer League, with Dino Rossi serving as commissioner. OSA President Ron Smale stated that the league's core group of players are to consist of U-23s, with League1 complementing the newly formed Ontario Player Development League (OPDL) elite youth league as a pathway for professional player development.^[6]

On April 8, 2014, the OSA revealed its plans for the inaugural season of League1 which would begin during the final weekend in May 2014. The season featured 10 teams, chosen through a standards-based application process, which were: ANB Futbol, Durham Power FC, Internacional de Toronto, Kingston Cataraqui Clippers, Master's FA, Sigma FC, Toronto FC Academy, Vaughan Azzurri, Windsor Stars and Woodbridge Strikers.^[7] The league champion would face the champion of the Première ligue de soccer du Québec in the Inter-Provincial Cup to determine the national Division III champion.^[8]

Dylan Sacramento of Toronto FC Academy scored the first ever goal in the league with a 10th-minute strike against Vaughan Azzurri.^[9] In the same game, Mateo Restrepo received the league's first red card.^[9] On July 22, 2014, the league and the Ontario Soccer Association announced the termination of Internacional de Toronto's license agreement due to "failure to comply with agreed-upon league standards",^[10][11] with league matches rescheduled for the season to accommodate the change. Toronto FC Academy were crowned the inaugural league champions on October 4, 2014, after defeating the Cataraqui Clippers 3–1 to secure the top place in the regular season standings.^[12][13] Vaughan Azzurri and Sigma FC contested the inaugural League1 Cup on October 19, 2014, at BMO Field, with the Azzurri winning the single-game cup final 2–1 to be crowned champions.^[14][15]

As the number of teams in the league continued to grow through expansion, the league introduced a two-conference format with the winner of each conference facing off in a championship match.^[16] After the 2016 season, the Inter-Provincial Cup was cancelled, with the winners of League1 Ontario and the PLSQ instead advancing to the national Canadian Championship the following season, beginning in 2018.^[17]

In 2018, the league returned to a single division, introducing playoffs for the top finishers of the league to decide the league champion.^[18] The League Cup tournament was eliminated the following season.^[19]

On November 14, 2018, the Canadian Premier League announced its purchase of League1 Ontario. According to L1O commissioner Dino Rossi, L1O would serve as "CPL's official development league."^[20]

Due to restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the league cancelled the 2020 season^[21][22] and delayed the start of the 2021 season.^[23] In 2022, L1O joined League1 Canada as a founding member. League1 Canada is an alliance of soccer leagues that operate at the pro-am level.^[24]

In 2024, League1 Ontario restructured from a single league into a three-tier competition.^[25] Existing teams were assigned to one of the top-two tiers based on the number of points they earned in the previous two seasons. The top-tier "League1 Ontario Premier Division" included the top 12 teams while the second tier "League1 Ontario Championship Division" featured the remaining 10 teams (with expansion to 12 teams in the 2025 season).^[26] Along with this, a third tier known as League2 Ontario debuted in 2024 with 24 teams that included existing club B teams and new teams joining the league. League2 was created as an entry point for expansion clubs to the L1O system.

Under the reorganization, teams have the ability to move up and down between tiers through a process of promotion and relegation.^[27] The 2024 season also saw the return of the L1 Cup, a league cup knockout tournament which features teams from all three tiers of the L1O system.^[28]

League1 Ontario clubs are grouped into three divisions: League1 Premier, League1 Championship, and League2 Ontario. The regular season runs from April to August in which teams only play against other teams in their division. The top-two tiers use a single table round-robin format while the lowest tier is further subdivided into regional groupings. The team that accumulates the most points during the season is crowned league champions.^[29] In 2016 and 2017, the league champion was determined by a single match playoff between the winners of the east and west divisions. From 2018 to 2023, a larger playoff format was used.

Promotion and relegation results in the Championship team that is crowned champions will automatically be promoted to the Premier, while the team at the bottom of the Premier standings will be automatically relegated to the Championship. A direct swap between the best and worst sides. The system will be the first of its kind in not just Canada but North America. ^[30] A playoff will also happen between the Premier and Championship, where the team second from bottom (11th) in the Premier will face the second-placed team in the Championship in an all-or-nothing game for a place in the top tier in 2025.

Since 2017, the winner of the Premier division has qualified for the Canadian Championship.^[31] At the end of each season, the winner of the Championship and League2 divisions are promoted to the next tier up while the bottom team in the Premier and Championship divisions are relegated down.^[32]

Beginning in 2019, the Supporters Trophy was created by the Rogue Street Elite supporter group of North Mississauga SC to be given to the regular season champions.^[33]

The L1 Cup is a league cup tournament that features all L1O clubs.^[34] It runs concurrently with the regular season, with cup games usually taking place mid-week. It is not a form of playoffs and all matches are separate from the regular season and are not reflected in the season standings. The 2014 and 2015 cups included a group stage and a knockout stage but from 2016 to 2018 the format was a single-elimination tournament. Following a hiatus from 2019 to 2023,^[19] the L1 Cup returned in 2024, coinciding with the league's restructuring.^[28][35]

As of 2024 there are 27 clubs of whom 4 are based in Toronto, 13 are based elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area, 9 are based in other cities in Southern Ontario and there is 1 club based in Northern Ontario.^{[note 1]}

GTA

Cambridge

Guelph

Hamilton

London

Railway

Simcoe

St. Catharines

Sudbury

Waterloo

Windsor

class=notpageimage|

Location of Men's Division teams for the 2024 League1 Ontario season.
League1 Premier
League1 Championship
League2
See Greater Toronto Area inset

Greater Toronto Area

10km
6miles

Alliance

Burlington

York Utd

ProStars

Rush

Oakville

Scrosoppi

Whitby

Pickering

Borough

Woodbridge

Vaughan

Unionville

Sigma

North Miss.

Master's

North Toronto

  

Location of Men's Division teams within the Greater Toronto Area.

The league has 12 teams participating in the 2025 season.

As of November 30, 2024

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Founded	Debut	Coach
Current teams
Alliance United FC	Markham and Scarborough, Ontario (Toronto)	Centennial College	2200	2017	2018	Ilya Orlov
Burlington SC	Burlington, Ontario	Haber Centre	1000	1962	2022	Darren Tilley
FC London	London, Ontario	Tricar Field	900	2008	2016	Yiannis Tsalatsidis
North Toronto Nitros	Toronto, Ontario	Downsview Park	1000	1980	2016 [note 2]	Marko Milanović
Oakville SC [note 3]	Oakville, Ontario	Sheridan Trafalgar Stadium	1000	1972	2015	Duncan Wilde
ProStars FC	Brampton, Ontario	Victoria Park Stadium	2000	2013	2015	John Portolese
Scrosoppi FC	Milton, Ontario	Bishop Reding CSS	1000	2020	2021	John Yacou
Sigma FC	Mississauga, Ontario	Paramount Fine Foods Centre	5400	2005	2014	John Zervos
Simcoe County Rovers FC	Barrie, Ontario	J.C. Massie Field	1200	2021	2022	Zack Wilson (Interim)
St. Catharines Roma Wolves	St. Catharines, Ontario	Club Roma Stadium	1500	1967	2021	Federico Turriziani
Vaughan Azzurri	Vaughan, Ontario	North Maple Regional Park	500	1982	2014	Carmine Isacco
Woodbridge Strikers	Woodbridge, Ontario	Vaughan Grove Park	1000	1976	2014	Peter Pinizzotto

The league has 12 teams participating in the 2025 season.

As of November 30, 2024

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Founded	Debut	Coach
Current teams
Alliance United FC B	Markham and Scarborough, Ontario (Toronto)	Centennial College	2200	Reserve team		?
BVB IA Waterloo [note 1]	Waterloo, Ontario	RIM Park	1700	1971	2021	Michael Marcoccia
Guelph United	Guelph, Ontario	Centennial Bowl	500	2020	2021	Justin Springer
Hamilton United	Hamilton, Ontario	Ron Joyce Stadium	6000	2013	2020 [note 2]	Kamran Derayeh
Master's FA	Scarborough, Ontario	L'Amoreaux Sports Complex	200	2009	2014	Giuseppe Mattace-Raso
North Mississauga SC	Mississauga, Ontario	Churchill Meadows (Mattamy Sports Park)	200	1982	2016	Peyvand Mossavat
Scrosoppi FC B	Milton, Ontario	Bishop Reding CSS	1000	Reserve team		?
Unionville Milliken SC	Unionville, Ontario	Ontario Soccer Centre	2000	1976	2018	Filipe Bento
Vaughan Azzurri B	Vaughan, Ontario	North Maple Regional Park	500	Reserve team		?
Whitby FC [note 3]	Whitby, Ontario	Whitby Soccer Centre	1000	1966	2018	Ramin Mohammadi
Windsor City FC [note 4]	Windsor, Ontario	St. Clair College	2000	2004	2014	Valter Cosenza
York United FC Academy	Toronto, Ontario	York Lions Stadium	4000	2024	2025	?

The league has 23 teams participating in the 2025 season.

As of November 30, 2024

League1 Ontario was founded with a series of values, objectives and standards all aimed at furthering the league's stated objective of improving player development in Ontario and Canada.^[39] Some of these regulations include:

• Standards-based club licensing, renewed annually (not a franchise/ownership model). Standards include technical, organizational, facility and financial criteria.^[39]
• Maximum of 3 non-Canadian players per club.^[40]
• Maximum of 7 substitutions per match.^[40]
• Maximum of 9 substitutes can be named to the bench.

League1 Ontario is an open-age league however there are several rules designed to give playing opportunities to young players. For the 2022 season, teams were required to have at least eight U-23 players on each match-day roster and to give U-20 players a total of at least 2,000 minutes across the regular season.^[40] In 2024, the "eight U-23 player rule" was removed and replaced by a minutes quota. U-23 players must now play at least 41% of available minutes across the season (9,000 in Premier division) and U-20 players must play 11% of available minutes (2,500 in Premier division).^[41]

Bold indicates clubs playing in 2024 League1 Ontario season. From 2016 to 2023, the winner of the playoffs determined the league champion.

In 2019, L1O launched a men's U21 Reserve Division open to existing League1 Ontario or Ontario Player Development League license holders. The inaugural year will consist of a 12-game summer season and a separate 10-game fall season. Nine teams will participate in the 2019 summer season with a possibility of more teams joining for the fall.^[42]

The following players have earned a senior national team cap while playing in League1 Ontario (the year of their first cap while playing in the league is listed). Players who earned caps before or after playing in League1 Ontario are not included, unless they also earned caps while in the league. This section also does not include youth caps (U23 or below).

Player	Country	Year	Ref
Shaquille Agard	Guyana	2014	[43]
Adrian Butters	Guyana	2015	[44]
Kilian Elkinson	Bermuda	2016	[45]
Anthony Whyte	Guyana	2016	[46]
Daniel Whyte	Guyana	2016	[46]
Daniel Jodah	Guyana	2017	[47]
Jelani Smith	Guyana	2017	[47]
Navid Rahman	Pakistan	2018
Alain Sargeant	Saint Kitts and Nevis	2018	[48]
Justin Springer	Saint Kitts and Nevis	2018	[48]
Kaeson Trench	Barbados	2018	[49]
Tristan Marshall	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2019	[50]
Tyrell Rayne	Antigua and Barbuda	2019	[51]
Rahbar Wahed Khan	Bangladesh	2021	[52]
Quillan Roberts	Guyana	2022	[53]
Zachary Ellis-Hayden	Barbados	2023	[54]
Emery Welshman	Guyana	2023
Tre Crosby	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2024

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