The 2025 Major League Soccer season is the 30th in the league’s history, and while it has made great strides in attempting to replicate its European counterparts, the MLS still lags behind several other top soccer leagues. One reason is its lack of promotion and relegation.
While there are no indications that the system is coming anytime soon for the league, American soccer will indeed adopt it with another professional league, the United Soccer League (USL).
The USL is the organizing body of the USL Championship—which is the top American professional soccer league outside of MLS—as well as USL League One (USL1), which is a tier below the USL Championship. The United Soccer League will introduce USL Division One in 2027, which will be on par with MLS and will compete with it, giving the USL three separate divisions, and thus allowing for promotion and relegation.
“A new chapter in American soccer begins. The decision by our owners to approve and move forward with this bold direction is a testament to their commitment to the long-term growth of soccer in the United States,” Papadakis said.
“This is a significant milestone for the USL and highlights our shared vision with our team ownership to build a league that not only provides top-tier competition but also champions community engagement. Now, just as it is in the global game, more communities in America can aspire to compete at the highest level of soccer. It’s time.”
In simplest terms, promotion and relegation mean that the teams with the worst records will be relegated to a lower-division league, while the teams with the best records from those lower-division leagues will be promoted to a higher division. It would be akin to the best G-League team getting promoted to the NBA, with the worst from the latter being sent down to the developmental league.
Starting in 2027, USL Division One will be the top soccer league in the USL system. The USL Championship, currently the USL’s top division, will then become a Tier 2 league, while USL League One will be Tier 3. The USL Division One will be able to relegate teams down to the USL Championship, with that league both promoting teams up to USL Division One and relegating teams down to USL League One. USL1 will be able to promote teams to the USL Championship.
This system is widespread in just about every major soccer league outside of MLS. It’s best known for its use in Europe, particularly within the English Football League System. The English Premier League sits atop that system, which has 20 divisions. After each season, the bottom three teams in the EPL are sent down to the second division, which is the English Football League Championship. The EFL Championship then automatically promotes its top two teams to the EPL, with the next four teams then competing in a playoff for the final promotion spot.
The United Soccer League has not yet announced how many teams will be promoted/relegated each season. It said more details will be shared in the coming months.
“Promotion and relegation transforms the competitive landscape of American soccer,” said Paul McDonough, president and chief soccer officer of the USL. “Fans and stakeholders have been clear—they want something different. They’re drawn to the intensity of high-stakes competition, where more matches have real consequences—just like we see in European leagues. This shift challenges the status quo and brings a level of excitement and relevance that can elevate the game across the country.”
In terms of commercialism and public perception, the USL has always lagged well behind MLS. This change is an attempt to close the gap between the two, with the creation of USL Division One being another example. Aligning the USL soccer system with what is used globally should attract a new legion of fans who are used to the concept of promotion/relegation within the soccer leagues they follow.
MLS has long opposed the adoption of promotion and relegation, as it prefers the fixed, franchise-based model that all of other major North American sports leagues—the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL—currently use. The worst teams in MLS each year don’t have to worry about being sent down to a minor league, nor are there new teams introduced to the MLS each year via promotion.
