There will be a new soccer landscape in the Southeast in 2017. After a highly productive Annual Owners Meeting summit this past weekend, the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) announced that the Southeast Conference will have ten teams this year, split evenly between an East and West Division. Chattanooga FC will play in the West Division.
Joining CFC in the West will be Birmingham Hammers and New Orleans Jesters as well as interstate rivals Memphis City FC and Inter Nashville FC.
2017 will be Inter Nashville FC's first year in the NPSL.
The East Division will be home to Asheville City SC, Atlanta Silverbacks, FC Carolina Discoveries, Georgia Revolution, and the Knoxville Force. Asheville City SC is new to the NPSL, while the Georgia Revolution and FC Carolina Discoveries spent last year in other conferences within the NPSL. The Silverbacks and CFC share a long standing healthy rivalry, both on and off the pitch, making for some great matches this summer.
"The southeast conference has historically been one of the more competitive conferences in the NPSL. With the addition of the Carolina teams, a new Nashville group and our long-term rivals from Atlanta, we expect this trend to continue." said Sean McDaniel, GM for Chattanooga FC. "Coach Elliott is aggressively pursuing new talent and our veteran players are already training. We realize this will be a battle as always but I'm confident we are up to the challenge."
Schedules are expected to be released in early January.