Tormenta Updates: Players Head to Free Agency
Per our sources, the proposed player draft will not proceed.
Over the weekend, we broke the news that South Georgia Tormenta would not field a team in 2026, despite the fact that the season begins in less than two weeks. Per multiple sources close to the situation, the team had never been able to practice due to the club’s failure to pay a worker’s compensation premium.
While we’re still waiting on any communication from the club, league or the USL Player’s Association, we’ve learned this morning that the proposed player draft will not be happening. Instead, at this time it appears all players head to free agency with three months of severance pay.
With only 12 days until the start of the season, this obviously puts the players in a bad spot, as most clubs in USL League One have all but finalized rosters. Players and agents will now have to negotiate for any of the few remaining spots, or seek opportunities in other domestic leagues or overseas.
After speaking to numerous players and agents off the record, the overall feeling is confusion regarding the final outcome.
In addition, all other teams in the league now have to come up with a replacement match, as season tickets have already been marketed and sold with a set number of matches. Several clubs told us off the record they are looking to schedule a friendly match to replace the date scheduled to host Tormenta.
It was expected that the league would make a statement Sunday night, but as of Monday at noon, nothing has been confirmed by the league or the club. We reached out for comment, but did not hear back.
South Georgia Tormenta is a founding member of USL League One, and was set to enter its tenth season as a club. The first squad hit the field in 2016, then in the USL PDL, now known as USL League Two. The club kept the USL League Two team, Tormenta FC 2, through the 2021 season before going on hiatus.
Tormenta was also scheduled to field a USLW team in 2026, with the schedule already announced. The club also has numerous pay to play youth teams. There is no word on the fate of these programs.
This is an evolving story, and we will provide further updates as we receive them. For more coverage, check out the Backheeled story, as well as coverage and commentary from our own Kartik Krishnaiyer:
just like how USL couldn’t even be bothered to do a combine before the launch of the Super League even though they had indicated their ward which left every club scrambling late to identify and signed players. Not so ironically the one club that didn’t wait which was Tampa Bay ended up winning the title.
Part of me hopes this is the league’s loose-ends falling to the wayside (sorry to the ten Tormenta fans out there) as it matures, a la Fuego, NoCo, and Texoma, and that League One can now really focus on quality organizations with good long-term outlooks. At the same time, it’s hard to distance this from the league at large, whether that’s with the mismanagement of the Championship CBA negotiations or with NCFC’s “hiatus.”