Despite being lined up to play in league that does not yet have sanctioning from US Soccer, the St. Louis NASL entrant is set to announce their new name and logo today via live webstream. St. Louis Soccer United, Jeff Cooper's group and the owners of WPS club St. Louis Athletica, is also launching the second divsion men's side.


While St. Louis prepares for their announcement, forging ahead while the future of the NASL is still in doubt, meetings have concluded between several of the involved factions.


No resolution to the standoff appears to be imminent, and the threat of legal action by USL against any of those parties they view as in violation of contracts or aiding NASL's effort to break away has cast a pall over the entirety of lower division soccer.


The guess is that US Soccer will cave under the pressure of lawsuits, specifically to avoid action by FIFA against the federation. As seen with Chile's recent trouble, the eligibility of a given country's national team for the World Cup is in play as leverage for FIFA; while there's no reason to believe yet that they would hold such a thing over US Soccer's head, the possibility must be acknowledged.


For the time being, names and logos are always fun, so tune into St. Louis Soccer United's 11:30 AM ET announcement via the link at the top of the post.


*UPDATE*

Here it is:




Athletic Club St. Louis, with the logo you see above. Per Jeff Cooper, that's called a "flame de lis".


Brother of Chelsea's Nikolas Anelka and a man once named one the ten worst football managers by The Guardian, Claude Anelka, will be the team's first coach (provided they actually play).


The team now has a live website as well, ac-stlouis.com