Behind the Club de Lyon dual move - NPSL in the summer, stay in NISA for the fall

Club de Lyon's project continues forward

Days after NISA announced plans for a fall tournament, Club De Lyon FC has joined NPSL for the 2025 season which critically ends before the proposed NISA Fall Tournament.

“The NPSL is pleased to have Club De Lyon FC join the league,” NPSL Managing Director Cindy Spera said. “Orlando is an important soccer market for the conference, bridging the gap between Miami and West Palm Beach to the south and Jacksonville to the north.”

NPSL last had a Central Florida presence in 2022, but has historically had one or more clubs in the region.

Clud de Lyon is led by CEO and Owner Fabian Pourrain.

Pourrain is a former soccer and rugby player who has coached and managed professional clubs in Argentina. He is also an entrepreneur in Central Florida. He took an amateur club to the professional ranks, participating in the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) for three seasons. The club will remain in NISA for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. They will simultaneously field teams in NPSL

“Club De Lyon is committed to giving our players the opportunity to develop, advance, and realize their dreams of playing professional soccer,” Pourrain said. “The NPSL was the obvious choice to achieve these goals. The quality of the brand, the professional operations, and the organization of the NPSL most closely resembles the professional environment we want to provide to our players, our staff, and our supporters.”

Pourrain tells us that his players now will get games this summer instead of waiting for NISA’s fall tournament and Independent Cup. This also gives Academy products a place to continue to develop.

CDL will compete in multiple competitions in the future including the Independent Cup in Summer 2025 and NPSL in 2025 and 2026. This is in addition to whatever NISA tournaments or season occur. So if all goes to plan there will be more than enough games for the players in the CDL ecosystem to feature in and continue to develop.

Home matches for CDL during the NPSL campaign will take place at Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, FL.