International Soccer League - History

History

In 1960, William Cox, a wealthy U.S. businessman and former owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, a U.S. baseball team, saw a potential market in the United States for top level soccer. Recognizing that U.S. teams did not play at a sufficiently high level to attract the attention of most fans, he began to consider the possibility of importing European and South American teams during their league off-seasons. Traditionally, tours by European clubs in the northeast United States had drawn well and Cox decided to pursue this approach. However, soccer in the U.S. is run by the U.S. Soccer Football Association (USSFA). As a member of the soccer's international governing organization, FIFA, the USSFA had the sole power in the U.S. to authorize the creation of a new league. If a league was created without USSFA authority, it would declare it an "outlaw league". Any person playing in an "outlaw league" would then be banned from playing in any other league or team affiliated with the FIFA. As nearly every league and team in the world was affiliated with FIFA, this would effectively ban a player from playing the game anywhere. To get USSFA approval, Cox worked through the existing American Soccer League, a USSFA recognized league. This went so far that in 1961, the ASL scheduled only one game during the ISL season in order to keep from drawing fan support from the league. Each year, ISL played two halves to its season. The two halves had different sets of teams with the top team from each half playing each other in a season ending championship game. In order to give the U.S. fans a greater stake in the league, Cox also decided to enter one team of U.S. based players into the league. This team, called variably New York, the New Yorkers and the New York Americans, was rarely composed of U.S. players, but was more often a mix of U.S.-based European professionals with some native all stars. Cox also gained regional television coverage, and the associated revenue stream. While the games were initially played in the New York City metropolitan area, as interest in the ISL increased, he expanded the league to Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Los Angeles. The ISL lasted only through the end of the 1965 season before folding, not so much by its continuing financial losses, which were minor compared to most other U.S. soccer leagues (Cox had lost $100,000 on the league over five seasons), but by the hostility of the USSFA. USSFA had grown suspicious of Cox as his league experienced growing success and with it the possibility of USSFA losing control of soccer in the U.S. Faced with Cox’ refusal to allow USSFA a part in the league management, in 1965 USSFA forbid Cox from importing teams into the U.S. and threatened to declare the ISL an "outlaw league". Cox was forced to fold the ISL, but sued USSFA in federal court for anti-trust violations, a suit he eventually won. While the league played its last season in 1965, the model was used again in 1967 when the United Soccer Association imported foreign teams to populate its league and again in 1969 when the North American Soccer League (NASL) used imported teams for the first half of its season. Cox also refused to allow the USSFA to have the final say. In 1967, he joined with several other investors to found the National Professional Soccer League, a non-USSFA sanctioned league which, in 1968, became the NASL.