LOWELL, Mass., January 17, 2017 – Greater Lowell United Football Club, the Merrimack Valley’s premier soccer organization, announced today that it will join the Champions Soccer League (CSL-USA) for the 2017 season. The club also announced a change in ownership, with the installation of club co-founder Manny Andrade as sole owner.

GLUFC is entering its fourth season of competition, having played the first three in the National Premier Soccer League. For 2017, GLUFC will compete in the Champions Soccer League (CSL-USA), an organization in the fourth tier of the US Soccer pyramid, the same level as the NPSL. The CSL offers several advantages, including competition between local teams in the region as well as an automatic entry into the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup for the league champion.

The CSL, well established in Florida and now opening a New England Division, is also developing a promotion-relegation system and will play a European-style season with no playoffs. The club that amasses the most points in the standings during the season will win the league.

GLUFC will hold tryouts for the CSL squad on Saturday, Jan. 28, at noon at The Edge Sports Center in Bedford, Mass. Further tryouts at the same location will take place Sunday, Feb. 5, at 4pm; Sunday, Feb. 26, at 4pm; and Sunday, March 19, at 4pm. More details are available at www.glufc.com.

“Entry into the CSL represents an exciting new chapter in the history of Greater Lowell United FC,” said Hayden Barbosa, head coach of the GLUFC CSL team. “We’ll be able to offer our fans a truly global-style league with local derbies and a very high level of play. For the players, the opportunity to be scouted by professional organizations will still be very strong.”

“We’re excited to be able to build on the tradition we’ve built in Lowell over the last four years,” said Theo Booras, assistant coach of the GLUFC CSL team and head of the club’s Youth Academy. “This league will offer fans something new and exciting. We’re hoping to receive the continued support of the community in and around Lowell.”

On the ownership front, previous owner Andrea Gauntlett has broken from the club completely to start her own new entity. She and her new club are not associated with GLUFC in any way. Manny Andrade, co-founder of GLUFC, is now the sole owner of the club. Andrade and the GLUFC board are committed to bringing the club’s top-level games back to Lowell after playing last season at various locations in the suburbs.

“We’ve established ourselves over the last four years as the premier club in the Merrimack Valley, with a competitive professional-level team and a rapidly growing youth academy,” Andrade said. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to build on my vision for the club, which we see as continuing to be a positive force for players and the community in Lowell and surrounding areas.”

About GLUFC
Founded in 2013, Greater Lowell United Football Club fields a professional-level team in the Champions Soccer League and has an extensive youth academy. The club is online at www.glufc.com and at www.facebook.com/glufc2013.