See you later, not Goodbye

FC DIABLOS

Bloomington, IL 61701

Mar 17, 2023

To our community,

It is with great sadness that we are informing the public that we are temporarily ceasing all club operations effective immediately. On Saturday, March 11th, our board of directors held an emergency vote for the proposal to temporarily cease club operations. The board officially approved the proposal on March 13th. 

FC Diablos was founded in 2017 with the idea of bringing professional soccer to Central Illinois. The club was structured to have a U-23 and within 2 years have an independent semi-professional team. There were several flaws in the founding of FC Diablos. In the original marketing of the club, a location had not been established and most of our online following came from the Chicago area. Later on, we announced that a club named FC Diablos would be coming to Central Illinois. The name FC Diablos is not one that connects with our community nor does it represent our community. With these flaws, it has been difficult to properly serve our mission statement. We are a club that is here to serve our local players, our local businesses, our local talent, and our local soccer and overall sports families. In the last couple of years, we have made large strides to become a team made up of local players. We have worked effortlessly to find a way to get rid of the pay-for-play model but have not found a sustainable solution. With a pay-for-play model, we unintentionally exclude many players from our soccer community. Without a team of local players, we are not serving our mission to support the local community. With the difficulty of representing our local players and our reliance on the pay-for-play model, we were not set to have a financially stable season. We are sad to announce this news but it is the most responsible business decision we could make. 

We would like to thank all of our supporters, interns, players, staff, volunteers, and FC Diablos family that have supported us to this point. Without you, we would not have made it this far. This marks an end to FC Diablos but it does not mark an end to semi-professional soccer in our community. Our community consists of the players to compete at this level, the supporters to represent Bloomington-Normal, and the businesses that are worth showcasing. We simply can not provide the platform that the community deserves. This is a chance for us to take a step back, rebuild relationships, break divides in our soccer community, and re-strategize to come back stronger in the future. This community deserves the best and we will work tirelessly to plan to come back better than ever. 

This is not a goodbye but rather a see you later. 

Thank you for your support,

FC Diablos Board of Directors