Christine Sinclair, the Canadian women’s national team captain and Diana Matheson, a now-retired player for the national team, have announced plans to launch a Canadian women’s soccer league with eight teams in 2025.
The two revealed their plans on CBC’s The National where they explained how the new league came to be.
“Mens’ sport is an older industry, it’s a more mature market so it’s growing but the pace is pretty slow,” Matheson explained. “Women’s soccer is just newer. Over the next two decades, women’s sport is going to be the fastest growing area of sport.”
Matheson and her business partners at Project 8 Sports have already begun paving the way for the league, having already secured CIBC and Air Canada as sponsors.
Though the league is still without a name, both the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Calgary Foothills Soccer Club have already committed to joining. Each team will have at least one member of the Canadian national team, and the league will aim to bring over 100 Canadian soccer players back to Canada in hopes that they can succeed at home.
“Whitecaps FC are thrilled to be one of the first teams to sign on to a professional women’s soccer league in Canada,” said Stephanie Labbe, Whitecaps FC general manager of women’s soccer in a press release. “The creation of this league is something we have been advocating for over many years, and to be part of seeing it come to fruition is truly exciting. We look forward to working with stakeholders across the Canadian soccer environment to make this league successful.”
Prospective owners for the remaining six teams will have to pay a franchise fee of $1 million and will also need to invest eight to $10 million to operate their respective clubs through the first five seasons. Project 8 Sports will own 20 percent of the league while the eight teams will own the remaining 80 percent.
Sinclair is the world’s all-time leader for international goals scored in soccer with 190, and the second footballer to score in five World Cups.
The league aims to become a Canada Soccer member in 2023 and hopes to have full sanctioning by 2024.
