Markham Soccer Club

The Club was formed in the winter of 1971/72 by a group headed by Gavin Berry.? It was initially known as the Markham Minor Soccer Club and then Markham Youth Soccer Club until 1991, when it merged with Markham (senior) Soccer Club to form today's Club.

It was a House League only Club until the 1976/77 season when Representative Teams were introduced under Len Notaro's presidency.? When Brian Crawford was President in 1978/79, Indoor Soccer was introduced.

January, 1988 saw the opening of the Mount Joy Community Centre which became home to the Club.

To further develop individual players, the Club introduced the Advanced Skills Clinic programming in 1991.

In 1994, Soccer School for U5 and a micro-soccer program for U6 and U7 was started.

The men's team migrated to the Ontario Soccer League in 1995 with a season that took them to the Ontario Cup quarter-finals.

By 1998, MSC had developed to the point of hiring technical staff and, in the same year, began the Thumbs Up program for special needs players.

In 2001, the OSA presented MSC with its Centre Circle Award.? The OSA then introduced the Club Excellence standard for soccer clubs and in April of 2012 the MSC was awarded "Club Excellence - Silver" in recognition of strong organizational and technical standards.? The following spring, the Club was awarded "Club Excellence - Gold" based on an upgraded application.

In the fall of 2013, the Board of Directors sought to secure a license to operate both a boys and girls program in the Ontario Player Development League (OPDL).? The OSA granted a license to the club for the 2014 & 2015 calendar year, permitting the club to enter U13 boys and girls teams in the first year of operation for the new league.? The Club has continued to be a license holder each year since that inaugural season.

For the 2020 season, the Markham FC OPDL program will have four boys squads and four girls squads, a complete line-up of OPDL teams.

Late in 2017, the Board of Directors inked a partnership deal with the Wexford Soccer Club to enter League 1 Ontario, the top semi-pro league in the province. For the 2018 outdoor season, the new entity known as "Alliance United Futbol Inc" fielded a men's squad that placed 7th out of 17 teams in its inaugural season under the leadership of head coach, Ilya Orlov.

The team qualified for the playoffs but failed to advance beyond the group stage.

In 2019, we added a League 1 women's squad, led by head coach and long-time MSC alumni, Laura Gosse. Both the women's and men's side qualified for the play-offs but the men's squad led the League 1 men's table for much of the season and finished in third place, a mere two points behind league frontrunners, Oakville.

For the 2020 outdoor season, ALLIANCE UNITED will have a women's squad, and a men's first team and a League 1 Reserve squad, with head coaches, Tim Verstraeten and Adrian Field.