Eastern Soccer League

The Eastern Professional Soccer League, better known as the Eastern Soccer League (ESL), was a U.S. soccer league which existed for only a season and a half in 1928 and 1929. Born of the internecine strife between U.S. soccer organizations known as the “Soccer War”, the ESL was created by the United States Football Association as a counter to the professional American Soccer League which was contesting USFA control of professional soccer in the U.S.

The Eastern Professional Soccer League was created in response to an attempt by the American Soccer League to break the control of the United States Football Association over professional soccer in the U.S. This conflict, known as the “Soccer War”, had its roots in 1925 when the ASL boycotted the National Challenge Cup, now known as the U.S. Open Cup, in order to play a one time American Professional Soccer Championship with the St. Louis Soccer League. This led the USFA to briefly suspend the ASL, only to reinstate them when the league agreed to enter its teams in the next Challenge Cup. The ASL caused more problems for USFA in 1927 when the league signed numerous top European players to lucrative contracts. This led FIFA to consider suspending USFA. However, at the Sixteenth Annual Congress of FIFA, the USFA offered several concessions which led to an agreement among national organizations regarding player contracts. In 1928, several ASL team owners began to chafe again under USFA rules. The most vexing was the requirement to enter the National Challenge Cup which ran during the league’s season. The ASL had two main objections to the Challenge Cup, one financial, the other scheduling. As the cup was open to all teams registered with USFA, ASL teams found themselves playing unknown amateur and semi-professional opponents before non-paying crowds. These games also interfered with the league’s schedule. As a result, the ASL decided to boycott the 1928 cup. Three of the ASL teams, Bethlehem Steel, Newark Skeeters and New York Giants chose to enter the cup. On September 24, 1928, the ASL suspended the three teams and fined each $1000. On October 2, 1928, USFA suspended the ASL and designated it an “outlaw league”. The USFA then brokered the creation of a new league, to be called the Eastern Professional Soccer League. To fill in the league, the USFA induced several teams from the Southern New York Soccer Association (SNYSA) to leave that league. That led the SNYSA, under the leadership of new president Nat Agar, who was also the owner of the Brooklyn Wanderers of the ASL, to leave the USFA and ally itself with the ASL.

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