On Thursday, the Cosmos will announce plans to field a franchise in the NASL, Bigapplesoccer.com reports.
“The New York Cosmos are expected to announce this afternoon that will have a franchise in the North American Soccer League for the 2013 season, according to sources close to the team,” the report says.
“The Cosmos last played professionally in the United States in the original NASL in 1984.”
The Cosmos were a flagship franchise in the original NASL. It’s star-studded team won five league championships in the 1970s and 1980s. Fans flocked to Giants Stadium to watch the likes of Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and the late Giorgio Chinaglia strut their stuff in the swamplands of New Jersey.
The orginal Cosmos disbanded shortly after the NASL folded, but they were reborn in 2010 under new ownership. The club has expressed an interest in playing in MLS, but significant hurdles remain.
“It is not immediately known whether performing in the NASL was a prelude play in Major League Soccer, which is gung-ho on adding a 20th franchise, an expansion team in New York City,” Bigapplesoccer says. “The league is hopeful of building a new stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.”
The new NASL is the second division of professional soccer in the U.S. It currently has nine teams in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The Cosmos would be the tenth, while Ottawa will field a team in 2014.
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Thumbnail Photo via Flickr/The New York Cosmos
