British Columbia soccer officials announced today the launch of the BC Soccer Premier League. The league will feature eight of the largest clubs in the province and will have competitions at the U13, U14, U15, U16 and U17/U18 levels.
The founding clubs are:
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- Abbotsford Soccer Association
- Burnaby/ North Shore
- Coquitlam Metro Ford Soccer Club
- Lower Island Soccer Association/Upper Island Soccer Association (Vancouver Island)
- South Fraser Soccer Club
- Surrey United Soccer Club
- Thompson Okanagan Football Club
- Vancouver/Richmond
Officials are stressing that the league's focus will be on development. As the title of this article indicates, there is also a lot of reference to the hockey development pathway (a direct reference to how many BC Hockey League markets are represented is included). For long, many in Canada have suggested that hockey could offer a blueprint that soccer could follow -- it works there, so why not.
This is a good start. However, what's needed now is for these clubs to be required to offer a senior side that plays in a semi-pro or fully pro league at a D3 level.
As always, the connection from youth soccer to pro soccer is missing. For Canada to truly break thorough the full pathway is needed.
But that’s a discussion for another day. Today, we can celebrate what appears to be a good step in BC.