Cosmopolitan Soccer League


The Cosmopolitan Soccer League is a regional soccer league consisting of clubs based in and around New York City. Established in 1923, it is one of the oldest soccer leagues in the United States and has contributed greatly to the nation's soccer history.
Currently, the league has four open divisions. The first two divisions require all clubs to also field reserve teams, a requirement that some leagues have abolished, but which the Cosmopolitan Soccer League believes makes its competition some of the strongest in United States soccer. The league also has an over-30 and an over-36 division. The league is USASA-affiliated.
The Cosmopolitan Soccer League plays a traditional international schedule with competition beginning the second weekend of September and running through June, with a winter break from the middle of December to early or middle March. During the winter months, the league runs an indoor tournament due to New York's cold climate.

History

The Cosmopolitan Soccer League was formed as the German American Soccer League in 1923. In 1927, the association changed its name to the German American Football Association. The league was highly successful in the 1920s and, in New York, was behind only baseball and basketball in terms of popularity. The league struggled through the Great Depression and by the 1940s the game was viewed by most Americans as an "ethnic" sport. Attendance and popularity declined sharply until the founding of the North American Soccer League in 1968. By the mid-1970s, league officials recognized that in order to maintain the league's viability in the same market as the star-studded New York Cosmos, it needed to appeal to a wider audience and in 1977, it voted to change its name to the Cosmopolitan Soccer League.
Prior to the professionalizing of the modern American game, the United States national team often consisted of Cosmopolitan League players.

2019–2020 team list

List of the participants in the current season:

Division 1

North

North

In 2014 the league was finally able to convince clubs to create an older division with a view to eventually having a fully fledged Over 40's division. Initially started as the Over 35's with 3 exemptions of 30–34, in 2018–2019 the division is currently Over 39 with 3 exemptions of 34–38. Next year the division will finally be Over 40, with the exemptions status unknown depending upon league votes.
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