The MLS-bound Vancouver Whitecaps and five other United Soccer Leagues First Division teams have formed a new professional league that will begin playing in April.

The Whitecaps are scheduled to move up to Major League Soccer in 2011. They are joined by teams from Atlanta, Carolina, Miami, Minnesota and Montreal from USL-1. A new club, St. Louis Soccer United, will be part of the seven-team league that does not yet have a name.

The teams formed the new league because they were unhappy with how USL-1 is owned and structured.

The USL-1 owners had threatened to start their own league unless they were given more say in how that league is run. The owners believe only a league owned by its teams can be properly managed.

The USL said in a statement that it will oppose the new league’s application for certification by the U.S. Soccer Federation “on the grounds that there is misrepresentation, interference with USL business operations and substantial debt amongst the membership.”