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League1 Ontario
Organising body	Canadian Premier League
Founded	November 15, 2013
Country	Canada
Confederation	Canadian Soccer Association
Number of teams	16 (men's); 14 (women's)
Level on pyramid	3
Domestic cup(s)	; Canadian Championship (one team)
League cup(s)	L1 Cup
Current champions	Vaughan Azzurri (men's); Durham United (women's) ; (2018)
Current L1 Cup; champion	Vaughan Azzurri (men's); Woodbridge Strikers (women's) ; (2018)
Most championships	; Oakville Blue Devils; Vaughan Azzuri; (2 titles each; men's)
Most L1 Cup; champions	Vaughan Azzurri (3; men's)
Website	league1ontario.com
	; 2019 men's, 2019 women's;

League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's and women's soccer league in Ontario, Canada, and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a Division III league in the Canadian soccer league system. The 2019 season will include 16 teams in the men's division and 14 teams in the women's division.

In the Canadian soccer league system, its men's division is behind the Canadian Premier League (CPL), Major League Soccer (MLS) (Division I), USL Championship (Division II), while roughly equal to the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ). The L1O women's division is behind the U.S.-based National Women's Soccer League, which has no Canadian teams but is partially backed by the CSA, with many Canada national team members assigned to NWSL teams. As such, it is roughly equivalent to the Women's Premier Soccer League and United Women's Soccer, which form the unofficial second level of the U.S. women's game; each of those leagues also has one Canadian team.

History

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.^[1]

On April 8, 2014 the OSA revealed its plans for the inaugural season of League1 to feature 10 teams, chosen through a standards-based application process, with the first games to take place during the final weekend in May 2014. The founding 10 clubs would be: ANB Futbol, Durham Power FC, Internacional de Toronto, Kingston Cataraqui Clippers, Masters FA, Sigma FC, Toronto FC Academy, Academy Vaughan Azzurri, Windsor Stars and Woodbridge Strikers.^[2]

Dylan Sacramento of Toronto FC Academy scored the first ever goal in the league with a 10th-minute strike against Vaugham Azzuri.^[3] In the same game Mateo Restrepo received the league's first red card.^[3]

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,"^[4]^[5] 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.^[6]^[7] Vaughan Azzurri and Sigma FC contested the inaugural League1 Ontario Cup on October 19, 2014 at BMO Field, with the Azzurri winning the single-game cup final 2–1 to be crowned champions.^[8]^[9]

In January 2015, L1O announced the launch of a women's division that would include seven teams. In the same release the number of men's teams would go up to 12 for the new season.^[10] Expansion continued for the 2016 season by adding four teams to each division^[11] and the introduction of a conference format in the men's division.^[12]

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."^[13]

Men's division

**L1O Men's Trophy Winners**
Season	Teams	L1O Champions Play-off winners	L1 Cup Cup winners
2014	9	Toronto FC Academy	Vaughan Azzurri
2015	12	Oakville Blue Devils	Woodbridge Strikers
2016	16	Vaughan Azzurri	Vaughan Azzurri
2017	16	Oakville Blue Devils	Woodbridge Strikers
2018	17	Vaughan Azzurri	Vaughan Azzurri

Competition format

The League1 Ontario regular season runs from May through October using a single table format, with each team playing one match against all other teams. The top eight teams compete in the league playoffs at the end of the season.^[14] Since 2017, the league champion has qualified for the Canadian Championship.

A single-elimination cup tournament runs concurrently with the regular season, with cup games taking place during mid-week.

Clubs

Current clubs

Aurora

Darby

Durham

London

Oakville

Ottawa South

ProStars

Windsor

Location of Men's Division teams for the 2018 League1 Ontario season.

Current team

See Toronto inset

Alliance

Master's

North Miss.

Sigma

Skillz

Unionville

Vaughan

Woodbridge

Location of Men's Division teams in or near Toronto for the 2018 League1 Ontario season.

Current team

^ Unless otherwise noted, this information was obtained from team directories on the league website

^ Durham United was on hiatus in 2018 & returned in 2019^[15]

^ Some matches were played at Bronte Athletic Park

^ Ottawa South United Force played one home match against Windsor TFC Stars at the Ontario Soccer Centre

^ Some matches were played at Terry Fox Park

Former clubs

Timeline

Organization

Regulations

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. Some of these regulations include:^[20]

Standards-based club licensing, renewed annually (not a franchise/ownership model). Standards include technical, organizational, facility and financial criteria.

Maximum of 3 non-Canadian players per club.

18-man game day rosters must include a minimum of 8 U-23 players.

Starting 11 must include a minimum of 4 U-23 players.

Maximum of 5 substitutions per match.