Canadian women’s national team captain Christine Sinclair and former teammate Diana Matheson announced on Monday that they plan to have a domestic professional women’s league kick off in 2025, featuring eight teams throughout Canada.
The two players sat down with CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault on The National to announce the news.
Many of Canada’s current national team members are playing in Europe for teams like Chelsea, Juventus and Benfica, or across the land border in the NWSL.
Players have expressed interest before in NWSL expansion to Canada, as the league has expanded in recent years with San Diego, KC Current, Racing Louisville and Angel City FC.
With many having to live far from home and a lack of pathways for Canadian women in soccer to stay close to home while achieving dreams of playing professionally, the Canadian soccer icons took matters into their own hands.
Matheson and her company Project 8, and her business partner Thomas Gilbert are spearheading the development.
The league, yet to be named, is planning to begin play in April 2025 with an inaugural champion crowned in the fall. Each team will have at least one Canadian international, and with over 100 Canadians currently playing abroad the league is aiming to bring many of them home.
The Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS are the first team to commit to the league, according to Matheson. Investors in Calgary Foothills Soccer Club and sponsors including CIBC and Air Canada are also on board.
“We are thrilled to announce that the development of a Canadian professional women’s soccer league is well underway,” said Matheson in a statement released by Project 8. “Much work has gone on behind the scenes to get to today, and we want to extend our thanks to our founding partners, CIBC and Air Canada, and Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Calgary Foothills, who have shown leadership in creating equal opportunity and recognizing the importance of bringing professional women’s soccer to Canada.”
The decade-old NWSL had a minimum salary of US$35,000 and a maximum of US$75,000, plus allocation money beyond its US$1.1-million salary cap, to spend on select superstars, numbers that Project 8 aims to replicate in their domestic league.
Owners would pay a franchise fee of $1 million, with each ownership group estimated to need eight to $10 million to operate a club through the first five seasons. Project 8 will own 20 per cent of the league, while teams own 80 per cent.
The plan is for the league to be independent from Canada Soccer, though it would need to be sanctioned through the governing body.
“We believe it is important that women build this league, and we are committed to developing something that is built differently, for women by women,” said Sinclair in the statement. “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.”
