following the 1967 season, the usa and the fifa-blacklisted national professional soccer league merged to form the north american soccer league. the merger meant that teams from the predecessor leagues competing against each other in the same markets needed to be moved, combined, or folded. as part of this process, george fleharty bought the vancouver royal canadians from e.g. eakins and folded his npsl team, the san francisco golden gate gales. the new owner shortened the name to vancouver royals and chose player-coach ferenc puskás over future england manager bobby robson, the previous owner's new manager for the vancouver royals; he resigned when offered the demotion to assistant manager. the 1968 vancouver royals' roster was put together without the preparation or advantage of importing an entire team. a significant amount of the team was recruited by bobby robson including two brothers from hong kong playing in england. ferenc puskás also brought in several europeans, a few players with connections to the golden gate gaels, as well as at least two local players from local leagues. a few foreign players settled in vancouver after their playing careers including peter dinsdale.