This news report found at the Glen Shields web site.

VAUGHAN – The Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL) owners held their February monthly meeting at the Hollywood Princess Banquet Hall, with the first order of business being to welcome the representatives of the two new franchises: Italo Ferrari, owner of the Hamilton Thunder and Anthony Ayo, President of the Toronto Lions.

With the main focus of the meeting the discussion of the 2002 League and Cup Schedule, it was unanimously agreed to divide the teams into two conferences for league play in order to accommodate the number of playing weeks available.

The two conferences are as follows:

EASTERN CONFERENCE Ottawa Wizards Montreal Dynamites Toronto Supra Vaughan Sun Devils Durham Flames York Region Shooters Toronto Lions

WESTERN CONFERENCE Toronto Olympians (Mississauga) St. Catharines Wolves Toronto Croatia Brampton Hitmen London City North York Astros Hamilton Thunder

Each team will play a home and away game in their conference with a single game crossover with the other conference, making a league schedule of 19 games for each team. Teams having a home game during the crossover in 2002 will play away in 2003.

League finals will be played on Sunday October 20th, 2002.

Completing the league schedule is one of the most difficult issues to resolve, as teams do not own their own stadiums and are often handcuffed to predetermined availability. The final schedule draft, however, will be finalized by March.

As always, the CPSL League Cup draw was the highlight of the evening with the anticipation of who was going to draw whom in the first round. The decision to play a
home and home series with the winner advancing on aggregate was approved.

Due to travel expenditures for Ottawa Wizards and Montreal Dynamites, it was decided that they would play one another to claim an automatic spot in the semi-final round. St. Catharines would play Hamilton Thunder and London City would play Brampton Hitmen
with the winner advancing to the second round. The names of the remaining teams names were placed in a bowl and drawn to a chorus of emotions, both positive and negative, in good fun.

Clifford Dell, Director of Discipline, CPSL drew the following teams in the following order.

1. York Region Shooters
2. Toronto Olympians
3. Toronto Croatia
4. Toronto Supra
5. Toronto Lions
6. Durham Flames
7. Vaughan Sun Devils
8. North York Astros


The following is the CPSL League Cup Draw:

G1 St. Catharines Wolves vs. Hamilton Thunder
G2 London City vs. Brampton Hitmen
G3 York Region Shooters vs. Toronto Olympians
G4 Toronto Croatia vs. Toronto Supra
G5 Toronto Lions vs. Durham Flames
G6 Vaughan Sun Devils vs. North York Astros
G7 Ottawa Wizards vs. Montreal Dynamites (automatic semi-finalists as Game A)


Clifford Dell, Director of Discipline, CPSL drew the following teams in the following order for the second round, single game knockout.

GA Game 7
GB Winner of G2 vs. Winner of G5
GC Winner of G1 vs. Winner of G6
GD Winner of G3 vs. Winner of G4


Clifford Dell, Director of Discipline, CPSL drew the following teams in the following order for the semi-final. Final Four Location TBD.

S1 Winner of GA vs. Winner of GB
S2 Winner of GC vs. Winner of GD

The final (Winner of S1 vs. Winner of S2) will be played on Sunday September 29th, 2002 with the Location TBD (same location as final four).

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