League1 Ontario Reveals 2021 Season Start Date
By Ontario’s semi-professional league has set a target date of July 2 for the 2021 League1 Ontario season.
Two months ago, league officials had earmarked three potential start dates for the upcoming season: May 28, June 16, and July 2. With the province still under a strict lockdown due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the semi-professional league has now selected the latest date from the trio.
As player safety is always a top priority, our planning for a July 2 start date will take this into account allowing teams significant time for preseason training to reduce the risk of injuries due to the extended layoff.
Managing Director Matthew Braithwaite
Much like the Canadian Premier League at the professional level, League1 Ontario has remained committed to doing all it can to ensure this year’s season takes place. Despite the difficulties brought on by the pandemic, the league added five new men’s teams and three new women’s teams earlier this year.
The semi-professional league has set a ‘drop-dead date’ of June 7 for staging the season, which means that if things aren’t ready to go at that point, the outlook of the upcoming League1 Ontario season will look much dimmer.
The Canadian Premier League, meanwhile, has set May 15 as a date in which it will update fans on the status of the 2021 CPL season. While the league has been hopeful to include home markets, it remains to be seen whether a bubble or dual-bubble tournament format will need to take place.
Last year saw League1 Ontario forced to nix its 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first year that would have seen the League1 Ontario entrant for the Canadian Championship determined by a new “Champions Final” format between the regular season champions and the playoff champions.
It was also due to be the first season that was set to receive more regular OneSoccer coverage, though the depth of the streaming service’s focus was still to be confirmed by the time the season was called off.
For now, League1 Ontario fans will need to wait until June 7 at the latest to find out more about the 2021 League1 Ontario season.