The Canadian Premier League is due to start on 27 April after almost 27 years without a Canadian soccer league, and while it may have flown well under the radar in Australia, it features a heap of factors that are different to what we’re used to.

Teams

There are seven teams in the CPL for its inaugural year: Forge FC (Hamilton), York 9 FC (Toronto area), FC Edmonton, HFX Wanderers (Halifax), Valour FC (Winnipeg), Cavalry FC (Calgary) and Pacific FC (Vancouver Island).

The MLS already comprises three Canadian clubs – Toronto FC, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps – and as the CPL develops they will attempt to bring these teams from the MLS back to the CPL.

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Format

We might be used to a knockout finals format in Australia and familiar with a first-past-the-post competition, but the (CPL) will do things differently.

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The CPL have their season split into two distinct seasons in one year. The first season will run between 27 April and 1 July, during which time each team will play ten games. The second part starts on 6 July and runs until mid-October, during which each team will play 18 games. This isn’t the first league to do this – the CPL have adopted this from other South American leagues.

But how does a split season work?

The two split seasons are exactly that: split and separate to one another. The winner of each which will be the team on top of the table at the end of each split season, and they’ll go head to head in a one-off championship match. If one club were to win both seasons, it will face the team with the next-best cumulative record from both seasons combined in the championship match.

Other rules

The league rules state that over 50 per cent of each team’s roster must be Canadian. As well as this, each team must also start a minimum of six Canadian players in each game.

Further, at least three Canadians on each team must be under the age of 21 and must combine for a minimum of 1000 minutes per season. Therefore, in the first season, which contains only ten matches, each team must have Canadian youth players play for at least 100 minutes each game. There is also a limit of seven foreign nationals allowed to each team.



Without doubt the CPL is focussing on building youth, and there is no randomness about the creation of this league. With eight years until they co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Mexico and the United States, Canada are trying to build up their national youth players and team.

Going forward it will be interesting to see if the CPL will flourish and manage to grow successfully. Could a similar format be introduced to the A-League? Would the focus on youth development and the time change to coincide with Australian winter help grow Australia’s national team? Let me know your thoughts below.