A new minor football league for five- to 13-year-olds will launch this fall in the West Island. The Western Minor Football League (WMFL) is the culmination of four years of discussions between representatives from Ile Bizard, Lakeshore, St. Lazare and Western Patriots football associations in collaboration with the North Shore Football League (NSFL).
For the last 20 years, the four aforementioned associations had played in the North Shore Football League (NSFL) against teams from Alexander Park, A Ma Baie, Sunnybrooke and Westpark fields. The NSFL had collaborated in the talks for a new regional league but backed out of the project in January.
The NSFL announced in late February that its teams would compete in the Montreal Regional Football League this season instead, meaning local NSFL teams will face off against Joliette, Sherbrooke. Châteauguay, Laurentian, LaSalle, Sun Youth, St. Laurent and St. Léonard, among others.
The North Shore Football League could not be reached for comments but the president of the newly formed WMFL and former president of the Ile Bizard association, Martin Lemire, said last week that the NSFL backed out of the project for some unexplained reason.
“We wanted to build a true regional league with North Shore, in which all of the participant associations would have had a voting right and a right to say in the league’s evolution. That was almost accepted by our friends at North Shore football but at the last minute, they decided not to finish the project,” he said. “We’re still moving ahead with the plan because it’s important West Island kids have football and we believe it’s also important that all the associations can contribute equally to the league’s evolution.”
<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page WordSection1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} -->
