Update: January 29, 2020 As per league confirmation, Ottawa has been awarded a Canadian Premier League expansion team set to play beginning in April 2020. Matches will be hosted at TD Place. Club Atlético de Madrid’s ownership will be working alongside well-known Ottawa sports manager David Hunt who has been confirmed as a strategical partner. A public unveiling event will take place with the ownership, hunt and CPL Commissioner David Clanachan at TD Place on February 12th. Ottawa fans are also invited to begin registering for season membership seats here. Free jersey with purchase.

January 16, 2020.

When news broke in early November that Ottawa’s professional soccer team was suspending operations, it seemed like it could be a while until professional soccer returned to the capital region, if ever. Fast forward two months, and if various reports are to be true, Ottawa will field a team in the 2020 Canadian Premier League season.

How this all started

It was first reported in late December that a group of foreign investors had visited Lansdowne Park in hopes of a potential CPL investment. This was further corroborated by other Canadian soccer pundits and reporters who each added pieces to the puzzle, including the fact the investors were European and that Ottawa was now a front runner as the next CPL expansion side.



TSN 1200’s AJ Jakubec reported that there was a strong possibility that Ottawa could field a team for 2020, with Duane Rollins citing January 31st as the deadline to make a deal for the upcoming season. Rollins said this group of investors approached the league in November, meaning this has all unfolded at a fairly rapid speed.

Reports then said that the investors include a party from Spain’s top division, La Liga. Several reported they were hearing it was Espanyol that was interested in the investment, however it broke yesterday evening that the club is non other than Atletico Madrid.

This news came just hours after Chicago Fire announced a partnership with the Spanish giants in a press release that discussed how Atletico Madrid has a foot in every North American top division (apart from CPL at the time of release) as part of their global strategic alliance.



Thomas Nef first reported the deal to be done, with Dan Ricco from Sportsnet and OneSoccer reiterating this a few hours later. OneSoccer then proceeded to post several videos and gifs in relation to Ottawa soccer, helping fuel the reports that it is a done deal. Rollins simply tweeted “Ottawa is back”. Some reports suggest the deal may be agreed upon but not signed off as of yet. If true, an announcement is expected next week.

Who are the investors?

Atletico Madrid are ranked the 14th most valuable club in the world with a value of over $700m by Forbes.



There have been varying reports that the investors are a group, rather than just one single person or one single entity(club). It appears the driving force behind the investment is in fact Atletico Mardrid, however early on it was reported Landon Donovan could be part of the group, however that remains to be confirmed or denied.



This is not the first time a major investor of CanPL has come from Spain. OneSoccer’s parent company, MediaPro, is based out of Barcelona and is stretching its influence around the world. It would appear the Spanish influence in Canadian soccer is fairly strong, at least from an investment perspective.

There is at least one person among the group of investors who is Canadian and knows the Ottawa Sports community very well. While the identity of this person is still unconfirmed, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it were someone who helped build soccer in this city in the past and can help get this new club off the ground in a respectable manner.

Where do we go from here?

If the reports are true and a deal is done or close to being done, then you will see a lot of movement out of Ottawa in the coming weeks and months. This new club will need to build from scratch in three months, coming up with a name, logo and kits, while also hiring front office staff, coaching staff and at least twenty players.



There are still players and coaches from 2019 who could be brought in for this new project such as Julian De Guzman, Callum Irving, Jamar Dixon who know Ottawa well and can help this club hit the ground running. It is short notice to put together a competitive roster in such short notice, however most Ottawa supporters will likely just be happy to have a club for 2020.



Stay tuned to the NSXI network in the coming months for all your Ottawa CanPL news, stories and opinions.

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Stuart Mactaggart Stuart has covered Ottawa soccer for six years, most recently covering Atletico Ottawa.

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