The Canadian Championship is one of the most popular soccer tournaments in North America. This tournament as folks can deduce from its name is specifically designed for soccer teams based in Canada. The tournament is currently the only soccer competition that determines the best soccer club in Canada’s professional soccer pyramid. More about the Canadian Championship is explored in this guide. The other popular MLS domestic tournament is the US Open Cup.
A Brief History of the Canadian Championship
The Canadian Championship was founded in 2008. Some however prefer to say that the tournament is an offspring of the Challenge Trophy. This assertion however doesn’t hold much water as the Challenge Trophy only crowned the best amateur soccer teams while the Canadian Championship on the other hand is specifically designed for professional teams.
At the start, only three teams participated in the competition. However, as time passed, new teams joined the pack. Today, 14 teams compete for bragging rights as well as the prize money in the Canadian Championship.
The biggest change to the tournament’s format came in 2019 owing to the emergence of the Canadian Premier League. At this time, organisers of the Canadian Championship dumped the home-and-away format with goal aggregates in favour of the five-round format.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the organisers of the Canadian Championship chose not to suspend the league. Rather they chose to change its format (just for that year). Only two teams participated in the 2020 edition that is, the top Canadian MLS team and the Canadian Premier League winners.
Canadian Championship Format
For the first two years after the formation of the Canadian Championship, only three teams participated in the competition. These three teams played each other in a home and away series with the top team winning automatic entry to the following season’s CONCACAF Champions League. Individual teams joined the competition at different intervals from 2011 up until 2019 but this didn’t necessitate changes in the competition’s format.
Key adjustments in the competition’s format only came in 2019 when the Canadian Premier League was founded. With a high of 13 teams available to compete in the tournament, the organisers of the Canadian Championship saw it fit to use the five-round format. In the first round, six teams face each other. Each new round thereafter would see three new teams enter the competition. The defending champions only entered the competition at the semi-final stage. All of the matches in the five-round format are two-legged matchups with teams playing both at home and away.
In 2021, the tournament’s organisers decided to do away with the two-legged matchups. Teams now face each other in single-leg ties. There has also been another tweak as teams are now paired depending upon their geographical region (East and West).
Canadian Championship Schedule
Normally in February, Canada Soccer which is responsible for running the Canadian Championship announces the official schedule of the competition for that particular year. The preliminary rounds generally start in April. The Quarter Final round will then proceed in May together with the Semi Final round. Teams that reach the Final will face off in June.
Canadian Championship Prizes
Before the Canadian Championship was founded in 2008, there wasn’t any domestic soccer competition in the country which determined the best soccer club. Owing to this, a supporter’s group which called itself the Voyageurs came up with an innovative way of tracking the league results of Canadian clubs to determine which team was excelling more than others. The team they picked was then awarded a trophy which became affectionately known as the Voyageurs Trophy.
At the inception of the Canadian Championship, the Voyageurs Group approached the organisers of the tournament and offered their Trophy. The trophy was accepted and now, every winner of the tournament is presented with the Voyageur Trophy.
Apart from winning the Voyageur Trophy, the winners of the Canadian Championship also earn an automatic entry to the following season’s CONCACAF Champions League as well as a bye to enter the next Canadian Championship competition at the semi-final stage.
Top Teams in the Canadian Championship
There are currently 14 teams that compete in the Canadian Championship. Among these is Toronto FC which holds the proud record of having won the most titles (8). CF Montreal comes in second place having won 5 titles while Vancouver Whitecaps FC has won 3 titles.
In all, the 14 teams currently participating in the Canadian Championship include Atletico Ottawa, Cavalry FC, Forge FC, HFX Wanderers, CF Montreal, Pacific FC, Toronto FC, Valor FC, Vancouver FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and York United FC.
Canadian Championship Interesting Facts
- The trophy awarded to the tournament’s winners is paid for and owned by a group of supporters, the Voyageurs
- Only three teams participated in the first two editions of the Canadian Championship
- The Canadian Championship can also be referred to as the Voyageurs Cup in respect of the supporters’ group that designed the tournament’s trophy.