During a conference call with reporters today, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati revealed the timing of the NASL’s one-year sanctioning made it impossible for the league’s teams to compete in the country’s longest continuously running championship. He also ruled out the possibility of some kind of play-in mechanism.

What makes the news rather shocking is the fact that there are only five teams to deal with here for the NASL in the USOC. Given the fact that there are 11 USL-Pro teams that are eligible for the USOC, it makes this news a bit of a head-scratcher. You’d think an even 16 clubs from the two divisions would be easier to deal with than an odd number of clubs from the 3rd division league.

No word has been given yet on how the USOC will be structured this year to make up for the five NASL clubs missing from the brackets. I still believe the tournament needs a major restructuring anyways and now could be the perfect time to do it.

What do you make of the NASL not being allowed to play in the USOC this year? Do you think it won’t matter considering how well MLS clubs do in this tournament?

In a way this should come as no shock to those who’ve followed the story since last year and beyond. The second division in the US has always been a turnover pool of teams that continue to change each year with the exception of a few teams.

Recently the NASL lost another club to it’s bid in the form of Jeff Cooper’s AC St. Louis. The same guy who begged and pushed for his own MLS club a couple years back before settling on a division two side. Pretty rough stuff considering the club never really had a chance to get off the ground and possibly due to Cooper himself never saw enough financial support to keep it going. MLS saw this coming a mile away but others in the NASL decided to go with it.

Now that the NASL is without a second division option the group of owners has wait until probably February to appeal their case at the annual USSF General Meeting. The thing is if they aren’t certified then and they do still play games between one another they are subject to FIFA penalties that include preventing players from player for their national teams.

Now the NASL could drop their case for a second division league altogether and go the third division route like the USL did with their now 15-team USL-Pro. But that option seems less likely given the fact that the NASL only has a few clubs now and most are facing financial difficulties. According to reports, the Carolina Railhawks have been facing serious financial trouble and have sought assistance from Traffic Sports USA, a sports management company that already controls three NASL clubs.

This is a setback and a blow for US Soccer though no matter which way you spin it. I think Jason Davis put it well on Friday that does the US really need a second division? To me the USL will likely still be that just as a 3rd division model. And really without any form of promotion/relegation the US will never really know that answer.

I do think the USSF putting regulations on the second division was worth it though. Having so many clubs come and go over the years due to financial issues shows that there was always a need for some form of regulation on that division.

Looking at it from a MLS perspective, the thing that stands out the most is what happens to Montreal. This was suppose to be their final year of D2 soccer before joining the ranks of MLS. They had the chance to do what Seattle, Portland and Vancouver have done before them by building up momentum in their final D2 year. Losing a year could be tough on the club but I’d imagine they’ll be able to work around things a bit with the help of the CSA. I’d imagine they’ll get sanctioning through them to allow players to at least play in Voyageur Cup games and possible other things.

But you do wonder what that means for their expansion outlook in MLS. I think they lose a little bit of steam but that club has a big enough following that they’ll make up for it in year one.

Last winter it was all USL v. NASL. It looks like the drama of that is now turning into the drama of how the NASL can become a Division II league under the USSF soccer pyramid. The NASL released a press statement this morning stating they have submitted to the USSF their final bid for sanctioning of Division II.

With the USL taking a backseat to the whole D-2 thing now days with their USL-Pro league that they are forming, the NASL is the sole group of teams that hope to keep the D-2 level alive and kicking (no pun intended).

Per the guidelines for sanctioning, the application needed eight teams; six were certain prior to the NASL’s annual general meeting, with two surprises. We knew for certain about those six teams (Carolina RailHawks, FC Edmonton, FC Tampa Bay, Montreal Impact, Miami FC Blues, and the Puerto Rico Islanders) but the two surprises announced today were the rebirth of the Atlanta Silverbacks and the NSC Minnesota Stars who are run by a non-profit group that are still looking for investors.

The application also includes San Antonio (which will commence play in 2012) and an additional team to be announced (which will commence play in 2013). The group hopes to get sanctioning later this month.

Yes the whole Atlanta and Minnesota thing is causing some heads to spin. We’ll probably know more about Minnesota once Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer finds out what the outlook for potential investors is at the moment.

But as for Atlanta, a club that hasn’t seen any action on the field since 2008 really makes you wonder how the hell the NASL is going to really rely on them considering their intentions to play in 2011 were basically wiped off the table earlier this summer. The Atlanta Soccer Blog wonders if MLS going full force after a New York club for their 20th franchise instead of Atlanta helps the Silverbacks case for a return in the NASL. Possibly.

As a soccer fan in American I have to hope this works out for the best though. With all the financial issues the D-2 leagues have had over the years, seeing a stable and productive D-2 and D-3 league will really go a long way in enhancing the play here in the country.

SI.com’s newest writer and WVH fave Tobias Lopez wrote an interesting little piece yesterday on some comparisons between the old NASL and Major League Soccer. Normally I’m right on board with Lopez but on this not so much. For the most part Lopez is saying the league right now is following a little too closely in the footsteps of its predecessor.

I get pieces like this from time to time from folks either through email or comments. Hey its understandable to think the league is moving a little too rapidly here after all those years of saying they had learned from the NASL’s mistakes.

There are some arguments to the rapid expansion that I understand as well but looking at the facts the league is expanding right where it should be. The NASL went from nine teams in 1973 to 20 teams in 1975 and peaked at 24 in 1980. During all of this expansion in MLS we’ve never seen more than two teams come into the league at once. Doubt we’ll ever see more than that.

A lot of the worry however surrounds the Beckham rule or the Designated Player rule if you will. There is cause for worry and concern there that a club like New York can spend the money on three big name guys while other teams in the league fail to even spend the entire salary cap of $2.8 million.

I know teams back in the day spent a lot of money on players they couldn’t afford but what club in the world didn’t do that back then? I’m fairly certainly a lot of clubs around the world had issues with spending money just like they do today. We shouldn’t think the NASL was the only league that wasted lots of money.

I won’t even get into the attendance issues from this article. Its hard to compare what the New York clubs of today and back then are able to do at the gate (well this year speaking for the Red Bulls). A lot of clubs struggled at the gate back in the NASL days while attendance figures today aren’t as bad as we really make them out to be. Sure they could be better but the league is still fairly new when you really get down to things.

Again I’m a fan of Lopez’s work but some of these comparisons just don’t work for me. I’m all for the slow growth that the league has done as much as the next guy but I do think its time to stop worrying back the old NASL issues. Maybe after another season or two the worries will go away as MLS will pass the old NASL in number of year in operation.

Today he has added a new podcast/video interview with NASL or USSF Div II Carolina Railhawks Brian Plotkin. The two discuss the crazy offseason that surrounded the USL/NASL/USSF Div 2 as well as some other items.

Enjoy.

The league will consist of two six-team conferences –  the USL conference and the NASL conference.

The USL Conference will include:

Austin, Minnesota, Portland, Puerto Rico, Rochester and Tampa Bay.

The NASL Conference will include:

Baltimore, Carolina, Miami, Montreal, St. Louis and Vancouver.

We will hear back in the coming days/weeks about the league rules, name, schedules, etc.

More on this to come after the conference call…

According to a press release (see below) sent out by the USSF, both sides failed to meet certain requirements to be sanctioned.

CHICAGO (Dec. 30, 2009) – The U.S. Soccer Board of Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to not sanction either the USL or the NASL to operate a Division II professional league in 2010.

The decision was made on the recommendation of the Professional League Task Force, which determined that neither organization on its own was able to provide a viable and sustainable operation during the upcoming season. Both organizations were unable to meet U.S. Soccer’s requirement of a minimum of eight viable teams for 2010.

Despite the ruling, the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors has given both organizations seven days to try to work out an interim solution for the 2010 season.

“After carefully reviewing the findings from the Task Force it was clear there are still too many uncertainties for both organizations, which would be extremely difficult to resolve in a timely fashion that would allow them to prepare for the 2010 season,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati. “In the best interest of soccer in the United States, we decided to not sanction either league at this point. However, we did encourage both leagues to come together in the next week and attempt to develop another plan which would allow a single league to be approved on a provisional basis. We are committed to finding ways to improve the long-term viability of all leagues and teams and continue the growth of soccer in the United States.”

Now things go back to the board room and both sides will have to some how work together to find a resolution. I think in a way it favors the USL side more than anything. Something about this just lets me think that even though the USL won’t be sanctioned for next year it does help them out in possibly getting some clubs back in their corner. The lawsuits obviously had something to do with this ruling as well.

Again, I’m not shocked by this ruling. I won’t say right now whether or not this is the right ruling by the USSF or the wrong ruling but I will say I am just not shocked by it. I think the USSF wants one single division two league here and not two separate leagues.

I know a lot of folks will not like this ruling but its the hand that has been given right now. Just another fun chapter in this story. I do think both sides need to just hug it out and settle their issues here.

The three clubs had allegedly�committed�contractually to play 2010 in USL�s First Division but instead opted to play in the yet to be sanctioned North American Soccer League. (Here is a link to the court filing.)

Seeing the league sue these clubs is probably a bit about protecting their best interest and I don’t think we can blame them for doing so since these clubs were slated to be apart of the USL in 2010.

I’m sure this was one thing the meeting with the USSF wanted to avoid here. Going down this road has to be a troubling path for both sides. This whole time I haven’t really been on either side of the fence between the USL and NASL. I like some things both have done but I’ve tried to stay as neutral as I can here with it. I do think though right now the NASL needs to cool their jets a bit though. They are a very ambitious bunch that still has loads of work to do like putting schedules together, getting a front office, doing some PR, etc. All that and more with only a few months time to do it in.

If the NASL wanted a season so bad in 2010, they should have decided to do a shorter season to get their stuff in gear before doing an actual full season in 2011. Sort of a dry opening before the grand opening if you will.

Now as far as the USSF goes, they need to act quickly here to cool the bad press that will come of this news. We know they put together a little “task force” to over see things here with this mess but really that won’t be good enough here. It’s pretty clear the USSF has no real stance on this situation right now, other than being sort of confused I think.

This messy situation just keeps getting messier.

The club is going to be called AC St. Louis. The logo as you see is pretty basic and I definitely like the colors (I’m a sucker for anything green and yellow). I think some folks will like the logo and others will not. To me it is a simple logo that doesn’t jump out at you, which I like. Elements like the St. Louis Arch are shown in the logo which are a must for any St. Louis team I think.

The teams website can be found here. Not much to go on here so far though for the new club, the website is basic and lacks a little design if you ask me.

Hat tip to Inside Minnesota Soccer for posting the logo.

So is the new NASL going to expand similar to the old NASL? It is almost starting to sound that way as clubs continue to line up to join the new league. While the approval by the USSF is still under review we learned today that Edmonton could be set to join the new league.

The Edmonton club will replace the Vancouver club once they join Major League Soccer in 2011 according to the report. The new club will take a bit of the past as well and be called the Drillers after the old NASL team.

The Drillers were in the NASL from 1979-82.

I guess you have to give the new league some credit here for going out and finding a potential replacement for Vancouver in 2011. Staying in Canada was probably a wise move for this replacement as well.