Soccer is not traditionally a major mainstream sport in Canada, but the sport is growing especially in places like

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. Up to 85,000 girls participate in soccer, which is 41% of all youth in the country. 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 ...

was hosted in Canada.

History

Women's soccer was first introduced in Canada in 1922. Soccer in Canada has often had to compete with

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

as a mainstream sport. In 1986, 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 ...

designed a women's soccer program in preparation for the

1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament The 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament, or International Women's Football Tournament, was organised by FIFA in China from 1 to 12 June 1988. The competition was a test to study if a global women's World Cup was feasible following the experi ...

in China. Which acted as a qualifier for the

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gove ...

which Canada failed to qualify for. Canada won the

1998 CONCACAF Women's Championship The 1998 CONCACAF Women's Championship was the fourth staging of the CONCACAF Women's Championship, the international women's association football tournament for North America, Central America and Caribbean nations organized by CONCACAF. The final ...

tournament. In the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

, Canada played Japan in front off 23,000 people. In 2002 Canada lost in final of the Gold Cup to the U.S. Canada reached the semi-finals of the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup and reached fourth place. In 2006, Canada again reached the final of the Gold Cup losing to the United States.

Senior team

The senior women's national soccer team's best achievement is gaining a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics, defeating Sweden. The national team enjoys greater mainstream support than their male counterparts.

Club soccer

, there are no professional or national women's soccer leagues in Canada. There are three regional pro-am leagues:

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's association football, 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 ...

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 p ...

and

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 ...

. From 2013 to 2021, some Canadian national team players had their salaries partially paid by the CSA and other federal government athlete funding programs to play in the National Women's Soccer League in the United States. The exact proportion of salaries paid by the CSA was negotiated with NWSL teams. Unsubsidized Canadian players could also play in the league as part of the international quota while others play in Europe. Canadian players play in the NWSL although all franchises are located in the U.S.; no Canadian franchises play in this U.S.-based league. Financial remuneration varies in the NWSL; the four-month-long league is new as of 2013 and salaries for unsubsidized players are not high enough to support them without other outside income.

References

{{Soccer in Canada Soccer in Canada

History

Senior team

Club soccer

See also

References