Tampa, Florida – The United Soccer League announced Thursday the departure of Jake Edwards. This has made the USL one of the most extensive sports organizations in North America.
Edwards will work closely with USL CEO Alec Papadakis and the rest of the executive team to build a modern, internationally recognized league with seven national leagues, 36 professional clubs and nearly 200 pre-professional teams across the United States. Led the strategic transformation of the USL into a football organization. This extraordinary growth and sophistication is matched by unprecedented levels of on-field quality and commercial success across the USL ecosystem.
“Everyone at the USL is grateful to Jake Edwards for his contribution to the growth of football not just at the USL, but in America,” Papadakis said. “When he outlined his vision for the future of USL more than a decade ago, Jake proved to be the right leader at the right time to guide our organization through this time of transformation. We will continue to be part of the USL family.”
Edwards first joined the USL as Executive Vice President in 2013, before being named President in 2015. The 2019 transformation aligns the USL Championship, League 1 and League 2 as his three tiers in the men’s senior league structure.
In recent years, the USL has built the USL Academy to facilitate player development, creating an unprecedented women’s football network that includes the pre-professional USL W-League and a new professional women’s division, the USL Super League, due to launch in 2024. bottom.
In 2020, Edwards demonstrated league and club leadership through a pandemic-affected season and through historic collective bargaining agreements in the USL Championship and League One.
