Canadian soccer league system

The Canadian soccer system consists of several unconnected leagues and it does not have promotion and relegation. Leagues in the Canadian system are classified as either professional, pro-am, or amateur. The Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) is the governing body for the sport in Canada and directly sanctions leagues that operate in more than one province.[1] Leagues operating in a single province receive sanctioning from their provincial soccer association.

The Canadian Premier League (CPL) is the top division of soccer in Canada. It is the only fully professional, and only national league in the system. Founded in 2019, the CPL is composed of eight teams and is sanctioned by the CSA. There are also three Canadian teams which play in Major League Soccer, a division 1 league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation.

Pro-am (or semi-pro) soccer competitions in Canada are regionally-based due to its large geography and dispersed pockets of population. Teams playing in pro-am leagues are permitted to be composed of professional and amateur players.[1] There are three of such leagues in Canada: League1 Ontario (L1O); the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ); and League1 British Columbia (L1BC). They are based in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, respectively, and are sanctioned by their relevant provincial soccer associations.

The PLSQ was founded as a semi-pro league in 2012 and is sanctioned by Soccer Quebec. The league now includes 10 teams including a team from Eastern Ontario who competes with special permission from the CSA.[2]

Following the release of "The Easton Report" in 2013, the CSA set out to create a Division 3 semi-pro structure divided by region, similar to the major junior hockey leagues in Canada, with regional champions competing in a national tournament.[3] In November 2013, the Ontario Soccer Association announced the sanction of League1 Ontario as part of this new structure.[4]

On October 5, 2021, BC Soccer announced the establishment of League1 British Columbia as the nation's third regional pro-am soccer league.[5]

In 2022, Toronto FC II and an unnamed Vancouver Whitecaps club will begin play in MLS Next Pro, an American division 3 league. Toronto FC II had played in the division 2 USL Championship until 2018 and in the division 3 USL League One from 2019-2021.

There are various amateur provincial leagues that are sanctioned under their individual provincial or territorial associations. This includes such leagues as the Pacific Coast Soccer League, Vancouver Island Soccer League, Vancouver Metro Soccer League, Fraser Valley Soccer League, Alberta Major Soccer League, Saskatchewan Premier Soccer League, Manitoba Major Soccer League, Ontario Soccer League,[6] Ligue de Soccer Elite Quebec, Nova Scotia Soccer League, and New Brunswick Premier Senior Soccer League. This collection of leagues across the country collectively compete for the Challenge Trophy.

There are 13 provincial and territorial soccer associations in Canada, with a number of leagues organized as amateur competitions at adult and/or youth levels. Typically there is promotion and relegation plus league and cup competitions in each provincial and territorial association, which culminates in the national Challenge Trophy. However, not all associations consistently send representative teams to national championships.

The United Soccer League (USL) manages several leagues, including the amateur USL League Two (USL2). USL2 is sanctioned and administered under the USASA and is below Division 3 in the United States soccer league system. On November 18, 2015, four Ontario teams (including FC London, who then moved to L1O) were given notice by the Ontario Soccer Association that they would no longer be permitted to participate in the league starting in 2017.[7]

The Canadian Championship competition, established in 2008 to determine the Canadian representative at the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL), awards the national trophy, the fan-created Voyageurs Cup. The CCL is the region's premier club tournament qualifying a club to the FIFA Club World Cup. Currently, the Canadian Soccer Association has limited the Canadian Championship to the country's professional clubs and the winners of the regional pro-am leagues.

The Challenge Trophy is Canada's national men's amateur championship. It has been contested since 1913.

By the mid 1960s, there were four major leagues across Canada including the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League (1961–1967). From west to east, the other major leagues were the Pacific Coast Soccer League (British Columbia), the Western Canada Soccer League (Alberta, Saskatchewan and eventually Manitoba and British Columbia), and the National Soccer League (Ontario and Quebec). In 1968, Canadian soccer turned its attention to the cross-nation North American Soccer League that initially featured professional teams in Vancouver and Toronto. Over the next 15 years, the professional league also featured teams in Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal.

After the collapse of the original North American Soccer League, and Canada's participation in the 1986 FIFA World Cup the original Canadian Soccer League started operations as a nationally based CSA sanctioned Division 1 league.[8] When the original CSL folded in 1993, three Canadian teams moved to the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) where several had played preseason games and competed in post season tournaments. Later in 1993, Major League Soccer (MLS) beat the APSL and won the USSF's competition for U.S. Division 1 status. Canadian teams continued to participate in the APSL and subsequently with the United Soccer Leagues merger in the A League / USL-1. FIFA did not allow the U.S. Division 1 sanctioned league to include foreign teams which was why the APSL was never officially recognized as Division 1 before MLS.

MLS would eventually expand into Canadian cities with existing U.S. Division 2 teams. Newly created Toronto FC joined MLS for the 2007 season, whereas the existing Toronto Lynx self relegated from the USL-1 and began playing in the amateur-only USL Premier Development League.[9] The owners of Vancouver Whitecaps FC of the USSF Division 2 Professional League formed a team that joined MLS in 2011, and the owners Montreal Impact of the North American Soccer League created a team that joined in 2012.[10]

One of the other original CSL teams did not join the APSL, they joined the National Soccer League based in southern Ontario. The National Soccer League renamed itself the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL) with the addition of an out of province team. The CNSL had four teams found the second league named the Canadian Professional Soccer League (1998–2006) or CPSL with four other new teams. In 2006, the CPSL teams restarted in a new league, the second Canadian Soccer League (CSL). This second version of the CSL was initially sanctioned the Ontario Soccer Association and later by the Canadian Soccer Association as Division 3 in 2009.[11][12] Following a match fixing scandal the league was then de-sanctioned in 2014 and continues to operate as a member of the Soccer Federation of Canada (SFC) that is not associated with any international body.[13]

In February 2010, the Canadian Soccer League was granted full membership by the CSA and sanctioned as a semi-professional league. Sitting behind MLS and the NASL, the CSL operated as one of the Division 3 leagues within the Canadian pyramid.[14] However, following the release of a development study and subsequent change in CSA policy for the future growth and development of regional leagues, also coinciding with match fixing allegations in 2012,[15] the CSL was de-sanctioned by the CSA in 2013[16] and would not be considered a CSA sanctioned semi-pro league for the 2014 season.

In order to limit the Americanization of all of Canada's professional soccer clubs, the CSA issued a moratorium on the sanctioning of any new Division 2, 3, or 4 teams on November 15, 2010, which lasted until September 30, 2011.[17] Despite the moratorium, the NASL announced that Ottawa had been awarded a franchise on June 20, 2011.[18]