1962 National Soccer League season

There was a major reshuffle in the league's membership due to competition from the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League (ECPSL).^[7] Two of the National Soccer League's (NSL) major clubs, the Polish White Eagles and Toronto Roma, were accepted into the ECPSL.^[8][7] The league also lost its final representative from Quebec with the departure of Montreal Concordia.^[9] The rivalry between the two leagues began to have a financial strain on the NSL, which caused a major decrease in gate earnings at Stanley Park Stadium.^[10][7] Since the creation of the ECPSL in 1961, the NSL's annual average attendance record dropped from 231,000 in 1960 to 35,000 in 1962.^[11] The average attendance at Stanley Park was around 1000 throughout the 1962 season.^[12]

Despite the departure of some of the league's top clubs, the membership increased to 12 members.^[13] The new entries were primarily former members of the Toronto and District Soccer League.^[14][15] The additions were Hellenic, Toronto Italian Virtus, Queen City, Toronto Croatia, Toronto Estonia, and Toronto Macedonians.^[8][16] The city of Oshawa was added to the circuit with the acceptance of Oshawa Hungarians and Oshawa Italia.^[13][15] Toronto Italian Virtus was granted a franchise with the hopes of attracting the Italian diaspora, whose fan support the league had lost due to the departure of Toronto Italia and Toronto Roma to the ECPSL.^[14]

Several league members capitalized on the usage of ECPSL players as the ECPSL season concluded earlier around August.^[17][18][19] The procession of ECPSL players to the NSL caused issues with the Canadian Soccer Football Association and Ontario Soccer Association over the control of player registrations.^[20] In an attempt to curb the free movement of players, the governing bodies issued fines to clubs and barred players who failed to obtain permission from their parent clubs.^[20][21]