The Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) has announced the addition of the New England Mutiny as the seventh team in the new WPSL Elite League. The team will join four other WPSL teams and two teams fromWomen’s Professional Soccer (WPS) in the new league for the inaugural 2012 season. The East Coast and Midwest-based WPSL Elite League launched on February 9, 2012, with WPS clubs Boston Breakers and Western New York Flash and WPSL teams Chicago Red Stars and FC Indiana. ASA Chesapeake Charge of Maryland and Boston areaAztec MA joined the league five days later, on February 14. The WPSL Elite League expects to add one more club before the season begins in the spring to bring the total to eight (8) teams. High-level women’s soccer is alive and flourishing just days after the decision by the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) Board of Governors to suspend the 2012 season. The WPSL Elite League was created in response to the obvious need for women’s soccer to have a new, highly competitive option.
“This new Elite League is a way of continuing the growth that the WPSL has been working on for over a decade,” said WPSL Commissioner Jerry Zanelli. “We already had plans for an elite league on the West Coast starting in 2013 when the WPS suspended its season. We realized the huge gap created and realized we needed to offer a league for these pro players.”
The WPSL Elite League will includes teams with professional players, and teams in the league have the option of fielding squads of all professional players, a mix of professionals and amateurs, or all amateurs. The New England Mutiny is the oldest East Coast team in the WPSL and helped to launch the Eastern Division in 2003. Proud to now be participating in the launch of the new Elite League, owner Joe Ferrara is enthusiastic about the opportunity to match his team up against professional-level competition. New England Mutiny has won the division championship five times. In both 2004 and 2007 the team reached the WPSL National Finals. According to Ferrara, “Mutiny’s highlight was when the team played the Women’s National Team of China. While we were ahead 3-1 after 60 minutes, we lost to the then fifth-ranked team in the world 4-3 in the final minutes.”
“Regardless of the final score, there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment,” Ferrara said. “And I expect I will have that feeling when we go into that first game against the Boston Breakers or Western New York Flash. We want to be a part of the Elite League and play against top women’s teams.”
WPSL Commissioner Zanelli has every confidence in the ability of New England Mutiny to succeed in the new league. “Joe Ferrara has had one of the best-run organizations in the league and is the main reason we have an Eastern Division in the WPSL,” he explained. “His hard work through the years has resulted in us having twenty teams in the east. No matter what we have asked Joe to do for the league he has done a great job, and I feel confident that he will do well with his new WPSL Elite League team.”
“The WPSL goes to great lengths promoting the women’s game,” Ferrara said, “and it is wonderful working with a league that truly supports women’s soccer.”
Zanelli said, “Today, the WPSL is the nation’s largest women’s soccer league with over 75 women’s soccer teams across the country. With an eye towards the continued steady growth, the WPSL has also formed a separate U20 nationwide league to meet the needs of our younger female soccer players and help them continue to develop.”
Right now, all eyes are on the 2012 season, but Zanelli and Ferrara agree, “We all want to do what we can to help the women’s professional league return to the field in 2013.”
