NASL Puerto Rico Islanders???

By: BoriQa | September 1st, 2010

Rumor has it, that the NASL will submit its bid to the United States Soccer Federation this week, with hopes of getting approval to play in 2011, and this bid includes the USL Puerto Rico Islanders as one of the 10 teams making up the new proposed NASL league.

Today local Puerto Rico media published (in Spanish) an article claiming that there might be a possible change of leagues for the Islanders.

Earlier this month, the USSF announced a new set of standards for Division 2 leagues in the U.S.

There must be a minimum of eight teams to apply, and all must pay a $750,000 bond before the year that would be set aside in case a franchise hits hard times (as St. Louis and Baltimore did this year) and needs to finish the season.

Another standard aimed at removing the unstable franchises from the league was for a single owner, worth more than $20 million, to have at least a 35% share of the team.

“There are six [teams] of us who meet all of the standards, so we’re two short,” said Selby Wellman, owner of the Railhawks. “The candidates [who do not meet all of the standards] would be St. Louis, Baltimore, Puerto Rico and Minnesota, who are not in the core six.”

The deadline to apply for USSF sanctioning is Sept. 15. Wellman said NASL has requested USSF president Sunil Gulati to have an answer on or before Oct. 1 so franchises can move forward with ticket sales, promotions and sponsorships.

Puerto Rico, which was aligned with the USL before the rumored signing with the NASL this week, doesn’t meet the owner requirement.

The Islanders have been around Div-2 since 2004, and are playing in their 3rd consecutive CONCACAF Champions League, where they recently defeated the MLS’ Galaxy 4-1 on the road in Los Angeles, and 5-3 on aggregate.

“They’ve never done anything but play at a high level and represent our league at a high level,” Wellman said. “Trying to get a waiver for them we think would not be that difficult.”

Until yesterday, the Islanders management had shown a preference to stay in the USL, even though most teams had announced their jump to the NASL.

Islanders Operations Vice-Presidentde Isaac “Sao” Nieves, claimed the announcement by the NASL as premature. “Nothing is official yet”, he told the local Puerto Rico media.

“It is a decision that the board hasn’t taken yet. We need to have some room…” Nieves added, admiting though that indeed they had met with NASL officials.

“It looks very good and they have good ideas”, Nieves added.