The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is a national women's soccer league in the United States and Puerto Rico, and is on the 2nd level of women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, alongside the W-League and below Women's Professional Soccer (WPS).
There are both "professional"/senior teams and amateur teams in the WPSL. An organization has to choose to be one or the other due to NCAA regulations, since collegiate players cannot play on "pro" teams.
The WPSL started as the Western Division of the W-League, before breaking away to form its own league in 1997. The league is sanctioned by the United States Adult Soccer Association as an affiliate of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF).
The WPSL is unique in that it is one of the few women's leagues to spawn a men's league, rather than the other way around: the Men's Premier Soccer League, later the National Premier Soccer League, was created as an offshoot of the WPSL in 2003. According to the official WPSL website, the WPSL is the largest (in terms of number of teams) women's soccer league in the world.
When WPS suspended play for the 2012, WPSL moved forward with its ambitions toward professionalism and created the WPSL Elite League. Officially, the Elite League will be a pro-am league, though the vast majority of team (including three former WPS teams) will be fully professional. At the same time, an U-20 league was also created, further expanding the WPSL structure. Teams in the U-20 will mostly be associated with existing WPSL teams, but some will be stand-alone organizations.
Read more about Women's Premier Soccer League: WPSL - League Champions (1998-current), Former Teams
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