There has been a fundamental problem in most of American soccer for years. It hasn’t been corrected and continues to plague the American version of the game. It’s the lack of connection to a massive section of this country’s soccer fan/talent base – Spanish-speaking soccer players, typically of Mexican-American descent. It’s a blind spot incomparable in professional sports, because, on average, Latin American immigrants and their children, are overwhelmingly soccer fans. The love soccer is a key aspect to their heritage and social identity, yet the American leagues, broadcasts, and even the federation, have ignored this significant part of the country.

So it’s thrilling to see one of the amatuer leagues we cover begin to step up in a real way. Earlier this year, I began to notice that all of the press releases from the UPSL were coming in both Spanish and English, as separate emails. So I reached out to Dennis Pope, Communications Director for the UPSL, to learn more about it.

So can you discuss the new approach we've seen from the UPSL providing spanish language press releases? What sparked it and when did you implement it?

Not much to discuss, really. There was a clear need to do it, going back to before 2019 even, and so I made sure the Management Team brain-stormed it in January during the UPSL's Annual General Meeting at the USC Convention in Baltimore. We first implemented in late February with the announcement of the UPSL MVP and All-UPSL teams.

How does that work? Do you have an inhouse translator?

We go outside for the translation. There's a number of good options available, but we've made a good relationship with a translator using a third-party app.

While the UPSLenespanol twitter account exists, it's pretty sparse. Any thoughts or plans on building up the spanish social media?

That's part of the initiative moving forward. We're currently looking for the right candidate to run that account while adding an UPSLespanol Instagram account.

Do you think there's a significant market for non English content?

There's a MASSIVE market for non-English content. Southern California, the Southwest, Texas, Florida are all brimming with Spanish speakers looking for native content about the UPSL. It's our job, as a league and a league communications department, to support that as best we can with the resources we have available.

It’s thrilling to see a league taking the right steps in growing their appeal and connection into a market ignored by everyone else, even the federation! The UPSL deserves massive props for doing this and it certainly sparks hope that others will follow their lead and begin to focus on the Spanish-speaking audience that’s hungry for soccer.

On a side note, expect something similar from our site soon.

- Dan Vaughn