Canada Is Getting A Professional Women's Soccer League & It'll Kick Off In 2025
It's finally happening! ⚽
Calling all Canadian soccer fans! Canada is officially getting its first women's professional soccer league and there's already a lot of excitement going around.
The currently-unnamed league will kick off in 2025 with eight teams in total, two of which have already been confirmed.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Calgary Foothills Soccer Club are the first to announce their involvement in the professional women's soccer league, with the remaining six expected to be formally named in 2023.
What's more, the league already has Air Canada and CIBC on board as corporate sponsors.
It's being launched by Diana Matheson, a former member of the Canadian women's national soccer team, and her business partner Thomas Gilbert, under the banner of Project 8 Sports.
"The plan is to have eight teams across Canada, four in the east, four in the west," Matheson said in an interview with CBC.
"And then the goal is to attract some of the world's best women soccer players to Canada, including Canadian women's national team players."
What's perhaps unique about this league is that it's going to be player-led for the most part, with stars like Olympic Gold Medallists Christine Sinclair and Stephanie Labbe contributing to its planning and development.
Sinclair described their ambition to create a league that's "built differently, for women, by women," per The Canadian Press.
"We want to change the soccer landscape in Canada so women’s players can develop and play professionally here at home instead of having to go abroad, as every one of our national team players must do now to be successful," she said.
At the moment, Canada doesn't have a professional domestic league for female players. However, it is home to many successful women soccer stars, including the likes of Adriana Leon who plays as a winger for Manchester United.
Canada remains the only nation ranked in FIFA's top 20 that doesn't currently have a professional, domestic women's league.
That's probably why news of the new league has been met with largely positive feedback. On Tuesday, Justin Trudeau congratulated everyone involved in making this a reality.
"We're looking forward to seeing the players and teams on the pitch," he tweeted.