In late November, as the holidays were about to begin, 22 professional soccer players from USL Championship teams Tulsa FC and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds took to the Oonoke Field in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wearing matching black shirts. These shirts display a unified message: “Pro Rel? Try Pro Standard first.”
It was a subtle but loud statement – a blistering attack on the United Football League’s plans to launch a first-division men’s league and subsequently impose promotion and relegation across the ecosystem – while the players remain in intense year-and-a-half negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement with the league. Before the championship game, the players made their position clear.
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“There’s a disconnect between what’s released publicly and how players are treated internally,” Duke Lacroix, an 11-year veteran of the league and current president of the USL Players Association, told us Competitor. “That’s what’s on public display right now – the league promotes professional promotion and relegation, and we still lack professional standards.”
The USL Championship is a second-tier professional men’s soccer league, below Major League Soccer. There has always been fluidity between the two leagues, as multiple USL clubs have successfully transitioned to MLS. Now, the USL is at a crossroads.
The USL Players Association and USL Championship Players have been negotiating with the USL since August 1, 2024, and are about to enter 2026 with an expiring CBA. Players have become increasingly vocal in public messaging over the last year; their November protest was one of the most high-profile actions to date. Now, their contracts are set to expire at midnight on Wednesday, December 31, with a possible shutdown in the new year.
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On Tuesday night, the USL Championship players issued an open letter to their supporters following the final negotiating session in 2025 and the 38th since negotiations began. They outlined how negotiations with “USL headquarters” had reached an impasse. They made it clear that USL headquarters is separate from the clubs themselves. The players wrote that when players signed their first CBA contracts in 2021, they “agreed to an extremely limited starting point” so that the league could survive and grow.
“Over the past four-plus years, we have witnessed the rapid expansion of the USL. We have witnessed the launch of new leagues, including the announcement of the Women’s Super League and Division One,” the players said in their letter. “We’ve seen announcements of new stadiums and ambitious growth plans. We’ve heard open discussions about promotion and relegation. Now is the time to look after the players who make this league possible.”
The letter outlines three numbers for 2025: approximately 85% of players do not have 12-month contracts; more than 25% of players do not have access to health insurance options provided by their clubs; and approximately 25% of players have a total salary of less than $35,000.
The players said the league “must play an active role in investing in and strengthening the USL Championship”. “We are not asking for anything radical. We are asking for continued progress toward professional standards and livable wages that reflect the growth of the league we play every week. As our CBA expiration date passes tomorrow, we remain steadfast in our pursuit of that goal and committed to bargaining in good faith.”
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The MLS declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations Tuesday night. Talks are scheduled to resume on January 8.
The USL operates one of the largest soccer ecosystems in the United States. The league has more than 200 USL-affiliated teams at all levels, including lower divisions such as League One, League Two and the W-League.
Last summer, the USL launched the Gainbridge Super League, a professional D1 women’s league. It is the second D1 women’s league in the United States, joining the National Women’s Soccer League. In early December, the Chinese Super League players took the first step in bargaining. Players spoken to exclusively around the league Competitor Hopefully this first negotiated contract will set a standard for all teams to allow the league to thrive and remain sustainable in the long term. While women’s players are also represented by the USLPA, negotiations for the women’s teams are separate from the men’s teams.
At the same time, the USL Championship is currently the top USL men’s league, located in the second echelon of American men’s professional football. The USL plans to launch a new D1 league by 2028, becoming the second D1 men’s league in the United States after Major League Soccer.
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It plans to implement a promotion and relegation system between the men’s tiered leagues, joining the ranks of many leagues around the world and becoming the first soccer league in the United States to do so. This means that the team at the bottom of the top flight will be relegated to the second division, while the team at the top of the second division will be promoted to the second division.
On the men’s side, talks have focused on several key issues, including requiring clubs to provide players with healthcare, increase pay and improve working conditions. Under the terms of the 2021 CBA, the current minimum salary for a USL Championship player is $2,600 per month for a 10-month contract, a figure that can also include other expenses such as housing or health care.
“We advocate for improved baseline conditions in the workplace,” said Lacroix, who plays for the Colorado Springs Return Team and the Haiti national team. “Those include health security, health insurance, adequate housing, increased base compensation levels, and workplace safety. Those are just the basic standards you would expect in any employment opportunity, especially in professional sports.”
As the United States prepares to co-host the biggest FIFA men’s World Cup next summer, the success of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) makes it easy to forget the historically shaky state of the MLS. Leagues like the North American Soccer League, with their greats like Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer, have come and gone. The same goes for other women’s teams such as the Women’s Professional Football Association and Women’s United Football Association. The USL was founded in 1986 as an indoor league and has grown into the large organization it is today.
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USL Championship players credit their first CBA with pushing the league forward. They believe its success has prepared league leaders to move toward a men’s D1 league.
“They’re rolling this out on the basis of what the USL Championship has done and what the Super League is starting to do,” said Joe Farrell, who announced his retirement earlier this month after a decade in the USL. “If your business and your employees don’t give (you) a good product, you’re not going to grow your business.”
Farrell and Competitor Although he offered to continue playing, he decided to retire. While Farrell is proud of himself for chasing his childhood dream for so long, he’s lagging behind when compared to former college teammates or high school friends who chose more traditional paths. They could afford to set up a 401(k) or afford to start a family, while Farrell sometimes went years without health insurance and lived in an apartment with roommates. His health insurance depends on whether the team he plays for provides coverage.
“We wanted to be treated like professionals, with health care and a (competitive) salary,” said Farrell, 31. “We didn’t aspire to have millions of dollars, but we aspired to have a nice apartment.”
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Over the past three years, Farrell began working more closely with the USLPA, serving on the union’s board of directors while serving as an active defender. He spoke passionately about how his nieces and nephews looked up to him and inspired him to push for more stability in the league. In them he saw the next generation.
“This has nothing to do with myself,” Farrell said. “This is about how I can help boys and girls who want to be professional soccer players in the United States in 10, 20 years.”
Although Super League and Super League champion players negotiated separately, the two teams learned from each other during their respective bargaining processes. There have been instances where female players have shown solidarity with male players, especially on social media, and vice versa. People in the Chinese Super League also value the players’ existing experience in negotiations.
“We live parallel lives,” Carolina Rising linebacker Megan Nally told us Competitor. “We’re both professional football players, so their fight is our fight. When they fight for professionalism and basic standards, it’s very close to us because we do the same job.”
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The Super League’s business model revolves around providing more female soccer players with the opportunity to play professional soccer in the United States, primarily by establishing teams in cities where the NWSL does not exist. By creating more teams, this gives more players the opportunity to continue playing after college or start playing at a younger age than they thought.
Similar sentiments were felt on the male side. For Farrell, he has only known playing in the USL, where players of all ages come from all over the world. The 31-year-old said he is one of the oldest players in the locker room. The league also invites players to prepare for the biggest event of their lifetime in 2026.
“It’s great that we’re going to have players at the World Cup,” Farrell said. “However, will these players have health insurance? I don’t know. Can they send their kids to daycare? Can they afford their own comfortable apartment? That’s a different story and that’s what we want to change.”
With the men’s contracts set to expire on Wednesday, either the league or USL Championship players have the option of a layoff. “Our goal is to avoid this as much as possible,” Lacroix said. The league’s schedule runs from spring to fall, with the 2026 season beginning in March. Preseason games are scheduled for mid-January.
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Over the past year, Farrell has witnessed the unity among USL players and the community behind the USL championship team. During last month’s championship final, fans of the Riverhounds and Tulsa FC held signs with the same message that the players wore on their jerseys. After the final, players associations from sports leagues across the country reached out to them, including those representing players in the NFL, MLS, MLS and MLS.
“This is not just our battle at this moment. What we can achieve in the next few months, or however long it takes, is going to help move the roster forward. It’s going to help move the league forward. It’s going to help move U.S. Soccer forward,” Farrell said. “This is a pivotal moment and that’s why 22 players decided to wear a T-shirt as they prepare to play the biggest game of their lives. It’s more than just a T-shirt. It’s the future of our work.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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