Alliance United Futbol Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Markham and Scarborough, Ontario. The club was founded in 2017 to compete in League1 Ontario. The club was formed as a partnership between two youth clubs - Markham FC and Wexford SC. It fields teams in both the men's and women's divisions of League1 Ontario.
Founders
The club was founded in 2017 as a joint partnership between clubs Markham FC and Wexford SC with the team playing out of Centennial College.[1][2] The name Alliance United was initially meant to be a temporary with a 'name the team' initiative planned, but it ultimately remained the official name.[3][4]
Markham FC
Founding clubs of Alliance United
Markham FC is a youth soccer club in Markham, Ontario. It was founded in 1971 as the Markham Minor Soccer Club, before changing its name to the Markham Youth Soccer Club.[5]
Wexford SC
Wexford SC is a youth soccer club in Scarborough in Toronto. It was founded in 1967 as the Buchanan Soccer Club and is the longest running club in Scarborough.[6]
History
Alliance United joined the men's division of League1 Ontario for the 2018 season.[7] They played their inaugural match on April 29, 2018 against North Mississauga SC at home, which they lost by a score of 1–0.[8] They finished in 7th place in their debut season.[9] They improved to a 3rd-place finish in the 2019 season, but had a very poor showing in the playoffs where they lost 15–0 to FC London on aggregate in the semi-finals over the two-game series, due to being unable to field many of their best players, who missed the series due to college and university commitments,[10] thereby having to rely on many youth players instead.[11]
In 2019, the club added a team in the League1 Ontario women's division.[12] In their debut season, they finished in a three-way tie for fifth, but did not play in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] In their return in 2022, they finished 6th in the regular season, but advanced to the Championship Final in the playoffs, where they were defeated by NDC Ontario.[13] In addition, they advanced to the League1 Canada Women's Interprovincial Championship for 2022, as NDC Ontario was unable to compete due to player unavailability,[13] where they finished in 3rd place, following a defeat to PLSQ side AS Laval in a penalty shootout in the semi-finals,[14][15] before defeating League1 British Columbia side Varsity FC in the third-place match in another penalty shootout.[16] In 2023, after finishing 4th in the regular season, they won the women's league championship defeating NDC Ontario in the playoff final.[17][18]
In 2023, they formed an affiliation with Canadian Premier League club York United FC, which enables York United to send players to Alliance on short-term loans.[19] On July 29, 2023, they recorded their largest victory, defeating Unionville Milliken SC by a score of 13-1.[20]
