As the landscape of professional soccer in the United States continues to change, the Chattanooga Football Club is ready to make the leap.
CFC, which has operated as an amateur team since launching in 2009, will begin play next March in the National Independent Soccer Association, which kicked off in late August.
“NISA is a great fit because its leaders understand clubs are more important than the league itself,” CFC chairman Tim Kelly told the Times Free Press. “In a lot of other leagues like the NFL and MLS, the league tries to make itself more important than the teams and there is a lot of central control.
“When your league is composed of community-based teams, I think the teams tend to have more character. The idea is for us to help each other – having these teams in their respective communities innovate and then share their best practices from team to team.”
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Chattanooga FC’s Juan Hernandez, front, struggles to slip away from a Detroit City FC defender on Oct. 5 at Finley Stadium.NISA received sanctioning from the United States Soccer Federation in February, a positive move that caught the eyes of several established teams in the National Premier Soccer League, including CFC. NISA is in American soccer’s third tier, as is USL League One, which began play this year and includes the Chattanooga Red Wolves SC.