The Canadian Championship (french: Championnat canadien) is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the

Voyageurs Cup The Voyageurs Cup (french: Coupe des Voyageurs) is the domestic trophy for professional soccer in Canada, awarded to the best men's and women's clubs in the country. The Cup was conceived and commissioned by fans of the Canada men's nationa ...

and Canada's berth in the

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

. It is contested by

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

sides

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Marc ...

, and

CF Montréal CF Montréal is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1992 as the Montreal Impact (french: Impact de Montréal, links=no), ...

, eight

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's Association football, soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary nationa ...

sides, and the champions of

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league in the Canadian so ...

League1 British Columbia League1 British Columbia (L1BC) is a semi-professional men's and women's association football, soccer league in British Columbia, Canada, which began play in May 2022. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the British ...

, and the

Première ligue de soccer du Québec The Première ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) is a semi-professional soccer league created in 2012. The Quebec Soccer Federation operates both men's and women's divisions at the pro-am tier of the Canadian soccer league system. The league is pa ...

. The tournament is organized by the

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (Canada Soccer) is the governing body of soccer in Canada. It is a national organization that oversees the Canadian men's and women's national teams for international play, as well as the respective junior sides ( ...

and has been broadcast on

OneSoccer OneSoccer is a Canadian English language television channel and English and French language subscription over-the-top video streaming service owned by Mediapro Canada. The service broadcasts programming related to soccer including live and pre- ...

since 2019.

History

The Canadian Championship is a club soccer competition organized by the

. The championship determines Canada's entry in the annual

. Until the creation of the

in 2019, all fully professional Canadian soccer teams played in United States-based leagues. Prior to the creation of the official competition in 2008, there was no domestic competition to determine the best Canadian professional team (as Canada Soccer's Challenge Trophy only crowned the best amateur team). Though a notable attempt was conducted by the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

through the

Open Canada Cup The Open Canada Cup was an annual knock-out cup competition in Canadian Soccer. The competition was first held during the 1998 season as the CPSL League Cup. It was organized by the Canadian Soccer League (formerly the Canadian Professional So ...

, which ultimately managed to attract professional and amateur clubs from British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. The tournament was dissolved in 2008 after the creation of the Canadian Championship. An unofficial Canadian Champion determined in the same manner as 2008–2010, a home-and-away series with the games taken from

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

(USL-1) regular season league games, was awarded by the Canadian national teams' supporters group, The Voyageurs. This unofficial Canadian Championship became less legitimate when Toronto was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to start play in 2007 in the USSF Division 1 MLS league above the USSF Division 2 USL-1 league. Toronto's USL-1 team self relegated, while the other two Canadian professional soccer teams did not play meaningful games against the new MLS team in 2007. For the 2008–09 season,

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

changed their eight team

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

qualification tournament from a two-legged aggregate goals knockout elimination format, named the CONCACAF Champions Cup, to a format mirroring the UEFA Champions League with a play-in round, a group stage, and lastly a two-leg aggregate score knockout format for the final rounds. The format change for the

2008–09 CONCACAF Champions League The 2008–09 CONCACAF Champions League was the first edition of the CONCACAF club football championship modelled after the UEFA Champions League, replacing the CONCACAF Champions' Cup, and overall the 44th edition of the premier football club co ...

provided the opportunity to expand the number of qualifying teams from different countries, and Canada was awarded a single entry in the play-in round preceding the group stage. The year 2008 was the first time a Canadian entry had been awarded by CONCACAF since

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, and the first time a Canadian team participated since

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

. To award the new Canadian entry, the CSA created a new competition consisting of a home-and-away round-robin series between the three fully professional Canadian teams: Montreal Impact,

and the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

. The 2008 Canadian Championship was contested between May and July 2008 and won by the Montreal Impact. As the Canadian champions, Montreal qualified for the 2008–09 CONCACAF Champions League. The 2009 Canadian Championship's format and participants were the same, contested by the three clubs in May and June 2009. It was closely contended by Toronto and Vancouver and won by the former via

goal differential Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

in the tournament's final game against the defending champions, Montreal, giving the Toronto franchise its first ever trophy and a spot in the qualifying round of the 2009–10 CONCACAF Champions League. Toronto repeated as champions in the 2010 competition, qualifying for the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League. Toronto won it for the fourth consecutive season in the 2012 competition. In 2011, with the start of a fourth fully professional Canadian soccer team,

FC Edmonton FC Edmonton was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club was founded in 2010 and competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 2011 to 2017. The club went on hiatus when NASL ceased competitive operat ...

, the competition was changed from the home-and-away round robin series to a double-leg aggregate score knockout cup format with the two MLS teams seeded first and second, and NASL teams seeded third and fourth based on league standings of the previous year and the USSF tiering of Division 1 and Division 2. This format mitigated competitive concerns regarding already eliminated teams and the number of additional (extra to their regular league) games each team would be required to play during a season. On June 6, 2016, Canadian Soccer Association general secretary Peter Montopoli told TSN that plans were well under way to expand the tournament to include an access point for any team in Canada. He said that he expected the expansion to take place for 2017. His statement seemed to confirm other reports saying similar. On March 9, 2017, Canada Soccer Association announced that from the 2018 edition the winners of the

and

would compete. In January 2019, a new five-round format was announced to include the seven teams of the newly formed

, bringing the total number of teams competing to 13. In 2020, with the dissolution of Ottawa Fury FC, a modified four-round tournament was announced featuring 12 teams, the first contraction in the competition's history. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the 2020 edition was instead held between two teams qualified through league play, with the top Canadian MLS team meeting the CPL winners. Beginning in 2023, the league winner of

will join the tournament as a competitor. They will be joined by new

club,

Vancouver FC Vancouver Football Club, commonly known as Vancouver FC, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club in Langley, British Columbia (district municipality), Langley, British Columbia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier Le ...

Trophy

The winners of the Canadian Championship are awarded the

. From 1993 to 2007, there was no domestic competition open to top-tier Canadian professional clubs. From 2002 to 2006, the

was the highest level in which Canadian men's soccer teams competed.

The Voyageurs The Voyageurs is an unofficial Canadian soccer supporters group founded in 1996, notable for their support of Canada's national teams, awarding of the annual Voyageurs Cup for men's club soccer, and influence in the Canadian soccer media. H ...

, a

supporters' group A supporters' group or supporters' club is an independent fan club or campaign group in sport, mostly association football. Supporters' groups in continental Europe are generally known as ultras, which derives from the Latin word ultrā, mean ...

, developed a method of tracking league results between Canadian clubs to determine a professional Canadian champion. With the introduction of the Canadian Championship as a separate competition. the Voyageurs donated the cup to the

to award to the winners. The trophy is still awarded by a Voyageurs member to the current winning club.

Format

Prior to 2011, the tournament consisted of the three professional teams in Canada in a home-and-away series with the top team winning entry into the qualifying stage of the CONCACAF Champions League. These teams competed in the two top US-based professional soccer leagues, which in 2010 was

and the temporary

USSF Division 2 Professional League The USSF Division 2 Professional League (D2 Pro League) was a temporary professional soccer league created by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) for the 2010 season. The twelve-team league was formed as a compromise between the feuding Un ...

. In 2011, the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

received sanctioning as the USSF's new second-division league. When

joined the NASL in 2011, the tournament was expanded to include the four highest-level professional clubs in the country. The tournament now consists of two

two-legged In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

semifinals and a two-legged final. In the first semifinal of 2011, Toronto, as reigning champions, was assigned the first-place seed and played Edmonton, which was assigned the fourth seed as newcomers to the tournament. The two remaining teams, Montreal and Vancouver, faced off in the other semifinal. This was to be followed by a one-game final to be hosted by the highest remaining seed; but the Canadian Soccer Association decided to go with a two-legged final instead. The format was repeated in subsequent years with the previous year's league placement being used to seed the teams. Starting with the 2014 competition, due to the introduction of the

Ottawa Fury FC Ottawa Fury Football Club was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competed in the North American Soccer League and USL Championship and played its home games at TD Place Stadium. The Ottawa Fury FC were diss ...

to the NASL, the two Canadian NASL teams play in a play-off quarter final to see which team makes it to the semifinals, in which the MLS teams will be introduced. Due to scheduling conflicts with the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

, the 2015 edition was held during April, May, and August but did not provide a competitor for the

2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League The 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2015–16 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 8th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 51st edition of the premi ...

; instead the best-placed Canadian Major League Soccer team in the 2014 regular season was the country's representative. The Whitecaps qualified for the championship on October 19, 2014. The winner of the 2015 Canadian Championship qualified for the

2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League The 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2016–17 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 9th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 52nd edition of the prem ...

instead and starting in 2016, the competition will be held in June and July. Since 2017, competition regulations state that each team must field a minimum of three Canadian starters for each match. In 2018, following the suspension of operations at FC Edmonton, the format of the Championship was amended once more to allow for the admission of two clubs from the Division 3 provincial leagues:

and

. The two provincial champions meet in a first qualifying round, with the winner progressing to meet the sole Canadian

USL The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

team (not including

Toronto FC II Toronto FC II is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, who play in MLS Next Pro, a third tier league of the United States soccer league system. It is the reserve team and minor league affiliate of Toronto FC as well as i ...

, which is a department of the MLS side Toronto FC), Ottawa Fury FC in a second qualifying round. The winner of this match joins the three Canadian MLS teams in the semifinals. A.S. Blainville and Oakville Blue Devils qualified to represent the Quebec and Ontario leagues respectively in 2018. The 2019 Canadian Championship was the first to feature teams from the newly created

. With 13 teams competing, the competition was expanded to include three qualifying rounds along with the semifinals and finals. The first qualifying round begins with six teams, with three new teams entering each round until the semifinals where the previous year's champion enters. All rounds are two-legged match ups.

Participants

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Results

By year

By club

All-time table

* Statistics for

include the original

who took part in the tournament in the first three editions from 2008 through 2010. This team ceased operations in 2011 and was replaced by a new MLS franchise of the same name and ownership. * In 2012 the Montreal Impact of MLS replaced the former Montreal Impact of the NASL in the Canadian Championship. Statistics include data from both iterations of the Impact. They re-branded as CF Montreal in 2021.

Awards

George Gross Memorial Trophy

The George Gross Memorial Trophy was created by the

in 2008 to recognize each tournament's most valuable player. The Trophy was named after the late George Gross, a former soccer administrator and a respected journalist.

Best Young Canadian Player award

The Best Young Canadian Player award was created by the

in 2019 to recognize each tournament's best Canadian under-21 player.

Top Scorer of the Canadian Championship

The Top Scorer of the Canadian Championship is the player who scores the most goals during the competition. In case two or more players are tied, the first tiebreaker is most assists and the second tiebreaker is fewest minutes played.

Competition records

Appearances

Top goalscorers

Bolded players are still active players with a Canadian team.

Top goalscorers by season

References

External links

Canadian Championship on Canada Soccer site

Canada Soccer Records & Results

Canadian Championship Final Match Program

RSSSF.com {{National association football cups (CONCACAF region)

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Soccer cup competitions in Canada Voyageurs Cup All-time football league tables Professional sports leagues in Canada