International Overview

USL is the cross-roads when it comes to an international influence of players, clubs, and executives in North America.  Given USL’s unique landscape of clubs from youth to professional, USL provides opportunities for foreign clubs to develop affiliations and partnerships with its franchises. It is USL’s goal to connect each franchise with a foreign club in an effort to provide opportunities for players and advance the sport in North America.

As part of the international partnerships initiative, USL partnered with Beswicks Sports, the specialist sports division of the UK based legal group, Beswicks. Beswicks Sports is actively working with USL and its franchises on strategically identifying European clubs that aspire to have a North American presence for player, commercial, and branding opportunities. 

Identifying Talent

If you’re an avid fan of the game, you’ll recognize that that there are many more Americans, Canadians, and players from the Caribbean competing in Europe.  In fact, many of these players have had experience playing in USL.  Seeing players like Tim Howard, Jozy Altidore and Charlie Davies move on from USL to European clubs is just a fraction of what USL has meant to the sport in North America.

Identifying players in North America can be challenging if a foreign club does not have the right partners.  If you take geography into consideration, the United Kingdom is one-third the size of the State of Texas.  Where as a club in Europe can establish a player scouting network on its home soil to identify players across the respective country, it is not as easy for that club to do the same in North America. USL’s multi-league platform coast-to-coast in North America can provide forigen clubs the partners they need to develop the best network to identify players.

Identifying talented players and creating new commercial opportunities is a priority for clubs around the world. USL can provide the best platform to connect these opportunities with clubs that desire to have a presence in North America.

The Global Game

The global game is increasingly shrinking as technology connects the furthest corners of the planet to one another, increasing player, coaching, as well as additional platforms for commercial opportunities.  USL is in a unique position to provide beneficial partnerships at numerous levels and is striving to expand its league opportunities with international clubs.