Women's Canadian Premier League Looks To Launch In 2025

Summary

• Canadian Premier League promoting women’s soccer to launch in 2025
• Canada Soccer backs CPL and says it will promote soccer in Canada
• Air Canada and CIBC are founding partners for the proposed Canadian Premier League

The Canadian men’s football team did not win any games at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and exited after the group stage. However, they did enough to win the support of football fans in Canada and spark a renewed interested in soccer throughout the country especially ahead of co-hosting the FIFA 2023 World Cup. 

Canada Soccer, the governing body for soccer in Canada were under pressure to do more to promote soccer in Canada. Canada Soccer has now endorsed a proposed Canadian Premier League that will look to promote women’s soccer in the country.

Canadian Premier League

The Canadian Premier League (CPL) is a proposed domestic franchise soccer tournament that is set to launch in 2025. The CPL’s founding partners are big guns as Air Canada and CIBC have backed the league which is set to have 8 franchises. Two of those franchises have already been named as Calgary Foothills and Vancouver Whitecaps have got approval. The remaining six franchises will be named in 2023.

The idea of the CPL was initially floated by Diana Matheson, an ex-national player for the women’s team. Matheson along with Thomas Gilbert, her business partner said it was the right time to launch a professional women’s soccer league in Canada. They released the initial set of plans for the CPL under a company called Project 8 Sports Inc.

Project 8 released a statement and said that the 8 CPL franchises will be led by ex-national players. They are also roping in ex-national players to take on key leadership roles in the CPL. Stephanie Labbé has been roped in to be the GM for the Vancouver Whitecaps and will also be involved in the development and planning departments while Christine Sinclair is serving as a CPL advisor.

Canada Soccer Backs CPL

Canada Soccer released a statement and threw their full support behind the proposed CPL stating that the organization was ready to back any organization that looked to further advance women’s soccer in the country as it is a key part of the strategic plan that Canada Soccer is looking to implement.

Dr. Nick Bontis, president for Canada Soccer said one of his priorities was to launch a women’s soccer professional league before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.