League1 Alberta

League1 Alberta (L1AB) is a semi-professional men's and women's soccer league in Alberta, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Alberta Soccer Association as a third division pro–am league in the Canadian soccer league system.

In the Canadian soccer league system, the men's division is behind the Canadian Premier League (CPL). It is part of League1 Canada, the national third tier with regional division, with L1AB equivalent to Ligue1 Québec (L1Q), League1 Ontario (L1O), and League1 British Columbia (L1BC). The men's league champion qualifies for the Canadian Championship, the domestic cup championship, while the women's league champion qualifies for the League1 Canada Women's Inter-Provincial Championship.

History
In 2021, a group of clubs from British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba organized the 2021 Summer Series, a series of friendly soccer matches played between Western Canadian soccer clubs to showcase a potential national second division. In 2022, another exhibition showcase was organized by four clubs – three from Alberta (Calgary Foothills FC, Edmonton Scottish, BTB Soccer Academy) and one from Manitoba (FC Manitoba) – as an entity known as Central League1.

In March 2023, League1 Alberta was announced with an exhibition series being organized, with six clubs participating (five in each gendered division) – the Calgary Foothills, Edmonton Scottish, St. Albert Impact, and BTB Soccer Academy would field teams of both genders, while Cavalry FC would field a team in the men's series and the Calgary Blizzard in the women's division. The first matches were played on May 12, 2023, with an official league season planned to be launch for the following season.

In December 2023, it was announced that the league would officially be sanctioned for official competition under the League1 Canada umbrella for the 2024 season, with seven clubs participating in each division.

Clubs
Currently seven men's teams and seven women's teams have been announced to participate in the 2024 season, of which four are based in Greater Calgary and three are based in Greater Edmonton.