Players in the American second tier staged a rare and pointed protest on Saturday as the USL Championship final between FC Tulsa and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds began under a cloud rather than fireworks.
Both teams walked out for the anthems wearing shirts from the players union that read Pro Rel Try Pro Standards First.
It was a blunt message aimed at a league that has talked loudly about introducing promotion and relegation and launching a first division in 2028 while failing to meet basic working conditions for its own athletes.
The protest followed months of stalled negotiations between the league and the USL Players Association over a new collective bargaining agreement. Talks broke down in September and the current deal expires at the end of the year.
With the season now complete after the Riverhounds title win the league faces a critical off season with no progress in sight.
At the centre of the dispute are issues players insist should be non negotiable. They want employer provided healthcare safer and more consistent working conditions and better pay.
The current minimum monthly compensation sits at two thousand six hundred dollars and can be patched together from wages bonuses health benefits or a housing allowance.
Clubs are not obliged to provide housing or healthcare and many players survive on ten month contracts that leave them unpaid during the off season.
The union has argued that the league cannot chase the glamour of promotion and relegation while players chase rent.
It has also pointed to the gulf between the USL and Major League Soccer where the minimum salary surpasses eighty thousand dollars a year.
While standards have improved since the first CBA in 2021 many players still feel the league is clinging to an outdated model.
The USLPA warned in September that without real change professional soccer in the United States cannot grow.
Players are now making it clear that the league must choose between lofty ambitions and the welfare of the people who make the sport possible.
