Columbus Crew and the Dayton Dutch Lions FC Announce Partnership

Published on December 19, 2013 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Dayton Dutch Lions News Release


DAYTON - The Dayton Dutch Lions FC today announced that the club has formed an affiliate partnership with the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer. Besides the Crew sending a minimum of four players to the Dayton Dutch Lions FC for their 2014 USL PRO season. There will also be several joint marketing activities.

President Mike Mossel commented on the partnership: "The partnership is exciting from both a marketing as well as a technical point of view. On the marketing side, the Columbus Crew has built a very strong soccer brand in Ohio and has a great group of fans, also in the Dayton and Cincinnati area. The partnership brings recognition, professionalism and opportunities to market both clubs in Ohio. On the technical side we will be adding several good Crew players to our USL PRO team to become a strong team in the League. On the other hand we give talented Crew players a competitive platform to develop themselves and return as better and more experienced players. "

"We are proud to unveil our new partnership with Dayton Dutch Lions FC," said Columbus Crew President Mark McCullers. "We have known the Dutch Lions organization since they came to Ohio. This partnership creates a formal alliance that encompasses player development at its heart but also allows the Columbus Crew to partner with Dayton Dutch Lions FC in growing our respective fan bases and brands."

The complete list of Crew players to be sent on loan to Dayton Dutch Lions FC will be announced at a later date.

"This affiliation with Dayton is an important step in developing our younger players. We believe it's beneficial for them to play competitive games at a high level, and this agreement accomplishes that goal for us," said Crew Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter. "This move is specifically targeted toward players that we think have a bright future but won't necessarily see immediate playing time in MLS, or those players that need to recapture their best form. We're excited about this affiliation, we like the direction Dayton is heading as an organization and believe that this relationship will strengthen our squad."

Prior to the agreement between the two clubs, the Crew and Dutch Lions FC competed in matches that counted in Major League Soccer Reserve League play for the Crew and the USLPRO standings for Dayton. With the current agreement, the Crew will not participate in the MLS Reserve League in 2014 and the two teams would only potentially face each other in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup meeting and in a friendly.

Head Coach Sid van Druenen also commented on the partnership: "For us it is the one piece that we were missing in being a "Gateway to professional soccer". After we recently added Cincinnati Dutch Lions FC to play in the PDL we now offer kids a path from playing in the Academy (Dayton) to PDL (Cincinnati) for college players to playing professionally on three different pro levels: USL PRO (Dayton), MLS (Crew) and Europe (FC Twente). This will be a big boost for our club. Both for the professional team as well as all the academy teams, who get a chance to be looked at by one of the nation's top academies."

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