AFC Mobile, the Port City’s local men’s soccer club, is stepping up to a bigger stage. The team announced this week that it will leave the Gulf Coast Premier League (GCPL) after three seasons and join the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) beginning with the 2020 season, putting Mobile on a path that could eventually lead to matchups against some of the country’s top professional clubs.
The NPSL is one of the largest men’s amateur soccer leagues in the country, fielding more than 90 teams across numerous conferences nationwide. The league is affiliated with both the United States Adult Soccer Association and the United States Soccer Federation, giving member clubs a direct line into the sport’s national infrastructure.
“It’s an exciting step for the club. Joining the NPSL gives us the opportunity to compete on the national stage and raises the profile of soccer in this area,” AFC Mobile head coach Steve Wieczorek said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
Rather than starting from scratch in an unfamiliar league, AFC Mobile will anchor a newly formed NPSL conference alongside several familiar faces from its GCPL days, including Tallahassee SC, Pensacola FC and Port City FC of Gulfport. Rounding out the six-team grouping will be the New Orleans Jesters and Jacksonville Armada, a club with roots in the former North American Soccer League.
“With a fully professional league office, a national footprint, a direct pipeline to competing against USL and Major League Soccer clubs in the US Open Cup, and the ability to keep our rivalries against Port City FC, Pensacola FC and Tallahassee SC intact, NPSL offers us a great platform to continue to advocate for the people and culture of Mobile through our club,” AFC Mobile chief financial officer Sean Landry said. “We’re eternally grateful to the GCPL for their support over the last three years, and we look forward to working with them as we continue to build our club and soccer on the Gulf Coast.”
The move keeps the rivalries that have defined AFC Mobile’s short history intact while opening the door to a broader footprint of competition. Club officials framed the jump as a natural progression for an organization that has spent its first three seasons building a following in Mobile and establishing itself as a fixture of Gulf Coast soccer.
AFC Mobile will compete during the NPSL’s summer season, which runs from May through August. The schedule will feature home-and-away matches against every team in the newly created Gulf Coast Conference, culminating in a conference playoff between the two top-ranked clubs. The conference champion then advances to a regional playoff and, with continued success, a shot at the national championship.
Beyond the standings, the move also raises the ceiling on what AFC Mobile can achieve each year. At the close of every NPSL season, the league allocates spots in the US Open Cup to its conference champions and other top-performing teams, based on the number of berths awarded by U.S. Soccer. Advancing far enough in that tournament would give AFC Mobile a chance to face clubs from the top tiers of American and Canadian professional soccer, a scenario that was out of reach in the GCPL.
For now, club leadership says the focus is on building out a roster and preparing the organization for its first taste of national-caliber competition when the 2020 season kicks off next spring.