Electric City Football Club Launches Affiliations With FC Durham And Toronto Skillz As League1 Ontario Reserve Teams

Electric City Football Club (ECFC) has announced it has signed two affiliation agreements with well-established and successful League1 Ontario clubs FC Durham and Toronto Skillz FC.

Jake Doodnath, Toronto Skillz FC. Ron Clarke, FC Durham. Photos courtesy of Electric City Football Club.

These affiliation agreements give the club three well-established ‘farm teams’ that will allow players in the ECFC system that are not ready for the first team yet a place to play, develop and work towards that final goal of wearing the Electric City FC jersey in Peterborough.

Toronto Skillz FC, located in Scarborough, will field ECFC’s League1 Ontario U21 Men’s Reserve side.

“We are excited to partner with Electric City FC and to be part of this ambitious project. We believe that Rob and his team are setting the standards and creating a template on how to build a club and a team.” Jake Doodnath, President and Technical Director of Toronto Skillz FC said. “We see our relationship with ECFC providing a direct pathway for talented players to showcase themselves.”

FC Durham, located in Oshawa, will field ECFC’s only Women’s League1 Ontario Reserve side and the ECFC League1 Ontario U19 Men’s Reserve team.

“FC Durham programs have a long-standing history of providing scholarship opportunities to players making the transition to post-secondary play,” Ron Clarke, Technical Director at FC Durham, said, “This affiliation ensures a deep, talented, homegrown player pool providing female and male players the ability to stay local and provide a pathway to a professional soccer career.”

These relationships complete a clear pathway for local players who are currently playing for their local youth club but have ambitions to one day play professionally for the Electric City FC first team.

“We are very excited to have been able to partner with two great organizations to run our reserve teams this season,” ECFC President Rob Jenkins explained. “It was important to us to ensure that we have a complete, clear and realistic reserve team setup to develop potential first team players from the region. FC Durham and Toronto Skillz have both demonstrated their ability to develop and prepare players for the next level having both regularly sent women and men to the collegiate and pro levels.”

The reserve teams will compete in the League1 Ontario Reserve Leagues kicking off in spring of 2022 and running until the fall. All three teams will wear their own club’s jerseys for competitions but will also wear the Electric City FC Patch on their shoulder to acknowledge the partnership.

Engage with us on social media on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. Write to us at tips@ptbocanada.com. Sign up for PTBOBuzz newsletter here.