Association Football
While Major League Soccer does not have any affiliated minor leagues, several lower-level leagues that operate on both sides of the U.S.–Canada border exist as part of the American and Canadian soccer pyramids. As is standard for sports in both countries, the formal promotion and relegation system is not used, although teams have been informally "promoted" from lower leagues up to Major League Soccer. Today, the second level is the current North American Soccer League. The third level is USL Pro, operated by the United Soccer Leagues (USL). The USL also operates the Premier Development League, a semi-professional league that has some age restrictions.
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Famous quotes containing the words association and/or football:
“It is not merely the likeness which is precious ... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing ... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think—and it is not at all monstrous in me to say ... that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist’s work ever produced.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)