About Us

NELASA LEAGUE (PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE):

New England Luso-American Soccer Association, Inc. primarily known by its popular accronym "NELASA" is a highly-acclaimed amateur soccer league currently based out of City of Brockton, Massachusetts, a city that is considered by many to be the largest strongholds of Cape Verdeans and Cape Verdean descent in the entire United States of America. The NELASA organization was first established in 2001 when two well-known sister soccer entities LASA (Luso-American Soccer Association) and NESA (New England Soccer Association) joined forces in order to provide their affiliated teams with better services and resources from a soccer organizational standpoint as well as to provide its affiliated athletes with a wider platform to display their soccer talents. The first entity LASA, was first established around 1973 and the latter NESA was formed around 1998. LASA was a more famous organization of the two. But, by late 1990's and early 2000's its organizational structure, its financial health and its brand recognition were in steady decline from its "great old days" when it was customary for talented soccer players to get paid for their soccer services rendered to the clubs in the LASA league.

In order to save its face and its name, the Directors of LASA approached its sister organization NESA, a less well-known but extremely successful organization which was then in an expansionary mode; As a result of series of discussion between the front-office of both entities, they agreed that it was in the best interest of both organizations for those two entities to merge; soon after, those pretty lengthy discussions on both sides culminated in the establishment of a newer and stronger organization which was then branded as NELASA. For approximately the entire existence of both organizations, those two leagues were strictly administered by Portuguese and Portuguese-American Directors; and most of then affiliated teams to both soccer leagues were also strictly Portuguese as well. However, most of those Portuguese teams relied heavily in the recruitment of talented Cape Verdean soccer players in order to fill their 23 men rosters. It was not until 1996, during a hotly contested General Assembly of the LASA league that Dinamo da Brava, an all-Cape Verdean amateur soccer team from Pawtucket, Rhode Island made an historic entrance into the elite powerhouse circles of organized amateur soccer in New England by being admitted into the LASA league. Soon after that historic chapter in the history of LASA, few other prominent Cape Verdean soccer teams joined the LASA league such as Emigrantes das Ilhas Futebol Clube and Fidjos Terra, both which are based out of Brockton, Massachusetts.

Even after NELASA league was established in 2001, the league was still under the sole leadership and guidance of experienced Portuguese Directors out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. But, with a steep decline in the arrival of new wave of Portuguese immigrants from the Islands of Azores and Madeira to New Bedford and Fall River region due to the improvements of economic conditions back in those islands, NELASA started to lose its glamour and the associated league sponsors started to lose interest in the league as well. At the same time while the Portuguese immigration to the New England region was in decline, the Cape Verdean immigration wave to the same region was at its heights and thus bringing new fresh, talented and experienced soccer players to the league on a yearly basis. All of sudden the majority of teams and players in the NELASA league were becoming predominantly Cape Verdeans. Yet, that changing of face indicator did not prompt the Cape Verdean team directors associated with the NELASA league to start their own league and they continued to rely on the experienced and knowledgeable Portuguese soccer leaders and enthusiasts to provide them with the organizational structure as well as the administrative "know how" of running an amateur soccer league.

After a couple years of discussing the idea of creating their own Cape Verdean amateur soccer league, which was to be organized and ran by Cape Verdean soccer enthusiasts, the Cape Verdean team directors realized that the existing NELASA organizational structure already provided much of what they were seeking to establish by creating a new league. So, in essence they realized that the only essential ingredient that prevented them from establishing their own organized league was a core nucleus of dynamic, capable and willing individuals willing to take over the NELASA league from the existing Portuguese leadership. A couple of months before the important 2008 NELASA General Assembly meeting was scheduled to take place in New Bedford, MA, a couple of leaders from the affiliated Cape Verdean soccer teams decided to organize a series of meetings amongst themselves in order to make preparations on how to eventually take over the leadership helm of NELASA. On a historic General Assembly meeting back on January of 2008, the majority of the NELASA league affiliated members elected an all-Cape Verdean leadership team to run the league's destiny for the next two years. Among those newly elected leaders that emerged from that historic General Assembly meeting were Mario Santos (Betinho) and Carlos Amado (Bibi), both great community leaders and soccer enthusiasts whom have worked tirelessly over the years in the development of organized soccer in our community.

Soon after the historic election, the new leadership team was sworn in, and they wasted no time in making a very bold and important decision that has been widely popular as well as accepted in the eyes of all associated stakeholders to the NELASA league. That important decision was to relocate the league's office from New Bedford to Brockton, Massachusetts. Once that mission was accomplished, the new leadership team shifted their attention to the new 2008 soccer season which successfully kicked-off in late April with the participation of 18 Cape Verdean amateur soccer teams. Thus far, the new leadership team of NELASA has proved all of their critics wrong by putting the league's overall short-term and long-term interests first over the personal individual interests of anyone in the leadership team.

NELASA league currently plays an important role in the lives of approximately 500 trained and proficient soccer athletes. The league is an important recreational and educational vehicle for a lot of young talented Cape Verdean soccer athletes who can either move on beyond the playgrounds of NELASA league to further polish their soccer skills on a collegiate level or even ply their soccer trade on US based professional soccer leagues such as the MLS (Major League Soccer), USL (United Soccer League) or in any other professional soccer leagues around the world such is the recent case of Val Teixeira, an ex-NELASA player who recently signed for Crystal Palace of the renowned English Championship league. Currently, the NELASA league directors have established a solid and credible organizational foundation for years to come. However, in order for NELASA to be recognized as a dynamic and productive agent of continued educational socialization in our community, it would require an active involvement as well as contributions from other key economic stakeholders/agents such as sponsors, local businesses, non-governmental organizations and even governmental entities. NELASA is a non-profit organization that is primarily funded by its affiliated teams through their yearly membership subscription fee. Any individual, organization or business entity that is interested in either partnering, sponsoring or learning more about NELASA and its associated teams should contact the NELASA league office at 508-895-9005 or via e-mail at info@nelasa.net..