How many professional football teams are there in Canada?
Professional football in Canada
Only one professional football league has a permanent presence in Canada: the Canadian Football League (CFL), an organization founded in 1958 to accommodate the ongoing trend of professionalism in the Canadian football ranks since the 1940s. The CFL, like most amateur Canadian football leagues, plays on a larger field using a rulebook with several significant rule differences compared to the game as it is played in the United States. The league is composed of two divisions and nine teams in most of the largest Canadian markets, with at least one team in each province between British Columbia (BC Lions) and Quebec (Montreal Alouettes) inclusive. The only presence in Atlantic Canada is a semi-regular series of games in Moncton (Touchdown Atlantic) and a smattering of earlier preseason contests. The CFL operates a two-week preseason beginning in June, an 18-game season from July to October, and a six-team playoff tournament, culminating in the Grey Cup on the fourth weekend of November.
Canadian Junior Football League
The Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) is a national amateur Canadian football league consisting of 18 teams playing in six provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl. Many CJFL players moved on to professional football careers in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and elsewhere.
U.S. cities with teams from four major league sports
The debut of MLS's Toronto FC in 2007 gives Toronto five professional sports teams, although its football team plays in the Canadian Football League.
List of winless seasons
The Canadian Football League currently has a regular season of eighteen games; from 1952 to 1985 it was generally sixteen games as with the current NFL season, though those teams in the Eastern Division played only fourteen as late as 1973. Also, the CFL did not adopt interdivisional regular season play until the early 1960s. Consequently, especially given the much smaller number of teams playing, there have been fewer imperfect seasons than in the National Football League, with the exception of the first decade or so when fewer games were played.
Montreal Machine
The Montreal Machine was the sole Canadian team in the World League of American Football (WLAF), a springtime developmental professional league set up by the National Football League (NFL) that played in 1991 and 1992. There were also three European teams and six United States-based teams. Like all WLAF teams, the Machine played American rules football, 11 players per side on a 100-yard field, rather than Canadian rules football of 12 players per side on 110-yard field.
Professional sports in Canada
As well as the NHL, minor-pro hockey has existed in Canada in form of various American Hockey League (1936–present) and International Hockey League (1945–2001) franchises over the years. However they also moved to the United States in droves during the 1990s. the only remaining Canadian franchises in the 30-team AHL are the Manitoba Moose, St. John's IceCaps, and Toronto Marlies.
2015 in Canadian soccer
Twenty two teams play in this league, all of which are based in Canada. It is a Non-FIFA league previously sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and is now a member of the Soccer Federation of Canada (SFC).
Western Women's Canadian Football League
The Western Women's Canadian Football League (WWCFL) is a full-contact women's Canadian football league which began play in the spring of 2011. The league plays an annual season in the spring or summer, and with 8 teams it is the largest women's football league in Canada. The teams play 12-women tackle football games using the Football Canada rules, somewhat similar to those of the CFL. The league has teams in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta (the prairie provinces of Canada).
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL are commonly referred to as the "Big Four." Each of these is the wealthiest professional club competition in its sport worldwide, and along with the English Premier League they make up the top five sports leagues by revenue in the world. In addition, the sports of these four leagues were all developed in their modern forms in North America, and all except American football have become popular internationally. Because the leagues enjoy a significant place in popular culture in the U.S. and Canada, the best players from these leagues often become cultural icons in both countries. Each Big Four league, as well as Major League Soccer and Canadian Football League, averages at least 15,000 fans in attendance per game as of 2018.
Soccer in the United States
Major League Soccer (MLS) is the professional first-division league in the United States. It currently has 24 teams — 21 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. With careful cost controls and the construction of soccer-specific stadiums, some MLS clubs became profitable for the first time in the mid-2000s, and "Forbes" magazine found that three clubs were already valued at $40 million or more, with the Los Angeles Galaxy worth $100 million. 
The establishment of the Designated Player Rule in 2007 has led to the signings of international superstars such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry, and Cuauhtémoc Blanco.
2016 in Canadian soccer
Three Canadian teams (FC Montréal, Toronto FC II, and Whitecaps FC 2) play in this league, which also contains 25 teams from the United States. It is considered a Division 3 league in the Canadian soccer league system.
List of American and Canadian cities by number of major professional sports franchises
The major professional sports leagues, or simply major leagues, in the United States and Canada are the highest professional competitions of team sports in the two countries. Although individual sports such as golf, tennis, and auto racing are also very popular, the term is usually limited to team sports.
Amateur sport in Toronto
Rugby league in Canada was relaunched in 2010. The governing body of the sport Canada Rugby League has taken major steps to develop the sport at the domestic and international level. The province of Ontario now has 4 teams who compete in the domestic season. The Canada national rugby league team also known as 'The Wolverines', has come off a very successful season in 2011, recording victories against Jamaica and the United States, the qualifying nation of the 2013 RLWC. The match against the United States aired live on CBC as part of Spots Day in Canada, proving the rapidly growing fan base erupting in the commonwealth nation of Canada. British Columbia is also showing signs of developments with a domestic and university bodies developing in the Western part of Canada.
Canadian soccer league system
The Canadian Championship competition, established in 2008 to determines the Canadian representative at the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL), awards the national trophy, the fan-created Voyageurs Cup. The CCL is the region's largest club tournament qualifying a club to the FIFA Club World Cup. Currently, the Canadian Soccer Association has limited the Canadian Championship to the country's four professional clubs at the Division 1 and 2 levels and the winners of the two Division 3 leagues.
List of American and Canadian cities by number of major professional sports franchises
Other notable leagues include Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Canadian Football League (CFL), both of which compare to the other four leagues in certain metrics but not in others. Every major league, including the CFL and MLS, draws 15,000 or more fans in attendance per game on average as of 2015. Therefore, this list includes a ranking by teams in the Big Four (B4), and a separate ranking also including teams in the CFL and MLS, called the Big Six (B6).
Professional football (gridiron)
Canada has historically been sheltered from the rival leagues that the NFL faced for most of its first century of existence. John F. Bassett, a Canadian multimedia heir, was at the center of two attempts to bring the rival leagues to Canada, first with the Toronto Northmen in the WFL, then with a USFL team in Hamilton, Ontario. In both cases, Canadian Parliament threatened to pass the Canadian Football Act, a proposed law that would have codified the CFL's monopoly on football and outlawed any other professional league from playing in the dominion. (In each case, Bassett instead backed a U.S.-based team, the Memphis Southmen and Tampa Bay Bandits, respectively). The Act was never passed or made law.
Canada national cerebral palsy football team
Canadian Soccer Association oversees the national team. The sport was originally governed by the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Sports Association. The Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) began governing the team in 2005, with an initial player pool of 13 player. In 2011, the team was coached by Drew Ferguson. In this early period under CSA governance, the team was coached by Drew Ferguson. The team held nine national team camps and mini camps in 2011. This totals 4,732 player camp days. By the end of the 2011, the player pool for the national team exceeded 100 players. By 2016, Canada had a national championships to support the national team and was active in participating in the IFCPF World Championships.
Professional sports leagues in the United States
The NFL is the only one of the major leagues not to have a presence in Canada, where the Canadian Football League is the premier professional league in the sport.
Sports in North America
The men's professional soccer league systems in both the U.S. and Canada instead primarily use the closed, franchise model which primarily always has the same teams playing. Major League Soccer (MLS) represents the highest level, while the second level consists of the North American Soccer League (NASL) and the United Soccer League (USL). Although MLS, NASL, and USL all have teams in both countries, they are only sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), the governing body of soccer in the United States. The Canadian Soccer Association, the governing body in Canada, instead sanctions two third-level all-Canadian leagues at the third level: League1 Ontario and Première Ligue de soccer du Québec. There are no USSF sanctioned leagues at the third level. For women' professional soccer, the National Women's Soccer League is at the top level, and National Women's Soccer League and Women's Premier Soccer League are at the second level. College soccer is played both in the U.S. and Canada, with top players often going on to play professional.
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The NHL has been the dominant professional sports league in Canada, and was first established in Canada in 1917. 
The NHL was initially based entirely in eastern Canada; by 1925, Hamilton and Quebec City no longer had NHL teams, while Ottawa would leave in 1934, by which point American teams were slowly being added. The first Canadian expansion team would come in 1970 with a team in Vancouver; the NHL later added teams in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec City (through absorption of WHA franchises), Calgary (via relocation from Atlanta) and Ottawa (via expansion) to go with the still-extant Toronto and Montreal teams. The distinctive place hockey holds in Canadian culture allowed these franchises to compete with teams in larger cities for some time. However, the teams in Winnipeg and Quebec City were eventually moved to larger media markets in the U.S. The NHL returned to Winnipeg for the 2011–12 season, with the Atlanta Thrashers relocating to become the current version of the Winnipeg Jets. Excluding the CFL, the NHL is the only major league to have teams in Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg or Ottawa, all markets with fewer than 1.25 million, smaller than any U.S. NHL market except Buffalo. However, those Canadian cities benefit from the country's very high level of hockey fandom. A 2013 study by Nate Silver estimated that all of these markets had roughly the same numbers of avid hockey fans as U.S. markets with several times their total population.
Canadian Football League in the United States
The Canadian Football League (CFL), the sole major professional sports league in the United States and Canada to feature only teams from Canada, has made efforts to gain further audience in the United States, most directly through expansion into the country from 1993 to 1995. The CFL plays Canadian football, which is somewhat different from the American football usual in the United States.
Professional football (gridiron)
In North America, the top level of professional football is the National Football League, with the Canadian Football League second to the NFL in prominence and pay grade. Despite the lower level of pay, the CFL has greater popularity in Canada because of its long history in the country, the NFL's limited presence in Canada, and a general environment of Canadian cultural protectionism.
Sports in Canada
Both the Canadian Football League (CFL), the sport's only professional football league in Canada, and Football Canada, the governing body for amateur play, trace their roots to 1884 and the founding of the Canadian Rugby Football Union. Currently active teams such as the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats have similar longevity. The CFL's championship game, the Grey Cup, is the country's single largest sporting event and is watched by nearly one third of Canadian television households. The nine CFL teams are the B.C. Lions, Calgary Stampeders, Edmonton Eskimos, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Montreal Alouettes, and Ottawa Redblacks. A tenth team, the Halifax-based Atlantic Schooners, is currently in an advanced planning stage.
List of American and Canadian cities by number of major professional sports franchises
The following list contains all metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada containing at least one team in any of the six major leagues. The number of teams in the big four leagues (B4) and the big six leagues (B6), and the city's teams in the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Soccer (MLS), and the Canadian Football League (CFL). No metropolitan area has teams in all six leagues, as NFL teams are exclusively in the United States and CFL teams are exclusively in Canada.
Atlantic Football League
The Atlantic Football League (AFL) is an amateur club-level Canadian football league that features four teams based in Atlantic Canada. The league is for players aged 18-24 that either attend universities without U Sports football programs or for players in the area. Since member teams operate as club teams (and not varsity teams), they do not receive funding from their universities. Some players eventually join U Sports programs and all Canadian players are eligible to join Canadian Football League teams.
Canadian football
Semi-professional leagues have grown in popularity in recent years, with the Alberta Football League becoming especially popular. The Northern Football Conference formed in Ontario in 1954 has also surged in popularity for former college players who do not continue to professional football. The Ontario champion plays against the Alberta champion for the "National Championship". The Canadian Major Football League is the governing body for the semi-professional game.
Professional sports in Canada
The Canadian Football League is the second most popular professional sports league in Canada. Each of the CFL's 9 teams draw anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000+ spectators per game. Although western teams enjoy consistently higher stadium attendance numbers than their eastern counterparts, the league enjoys strong TV ratings across the board, comparable to other major sports leagues in North America.
Canadian Championship
The Canadian Championship is a club soccer competition organized by the Canadian Soccer Association. The championship determines Canada's entry in the annual CONCACAF Champions League. Fully professional Canadian soccer teams play in United States-based leagues. Prior to the creation of the official competition in 2008, there was no domestic competition to determine the best Canadian professional team (as Canada Soccer's Challenge Trophy only crowned the best amateur team). An unofficial Canadian Champion determined in the same manner as 2008–2010, a home-and-away series with the games taken from USL First Division (USL-1) regular season league games, was awarded by the Canadian national teams' supporters group, The Voyageurs. This unofficial Canadian Championship became less legitimate when Toronto was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to start play in 2007 in the USSF Division 1 MLS league above the USSF Division 2 USL-1 league. Toronto's USL-1 team self relegated, while the other two Canadian professional soccer teams did not play meaningful games against the new MLS team in 2007.
College football
Unlike most other sports in North America, no minor league farm organizations exist in American or Canadian football. Therefore, college football is generally considered to be the second tier of American football in the United States and Canadian football in Canada; one step ahead of high school competition, and one step below professional competition. However, in some areas of the country, college football is more popular than professional football, and for much of the early 20th century, college football was seen as more prestigious than professional football.
Australian rules football in Canada
Australian rules football is a rapidly growing sport in Canada. Australian football is currently played in six Canadian provinces - Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and British Columbia. Saskatchewan is in the formative stages of development. The Ontario league, centred on Toronto but also including sides from cities as far afield as Guelph, Hamilton and Ottawa, is considered the largest league outside Australia. In western Canada, there are clubs in Edmonton, Calgary and a six-team league in the Vancouver area.
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The NFL is the only one of the major leagues not to have a presence in Canada, where the Canadian Football League (see below) is the premier professional league in a similar but not identical sport.
Sports in Canada
Canada's annual professional competition is the Canadian Championship, which is contested between Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the Montreal Impact, Ottawa Fury FC, all seven Canadian Premier League teams, and the champions of League1 Ontario and the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec. The national champion qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions League from which a confederation champion then qualifies for the annual FIFA Club World Cup.
List of Canadian Soccer League clubs
The following is a list of clubs who have played in the Canadian Soccer League since its formation in 1998 to the current season. CSL teams playing in the 2017 season are indicated in bold, while founding members of the Canadian Soccer League are shown in "italics". As of the 2017 season a total of 37 teams have played in the Canadian Soccer League with seven teams (Hamilton Croatia, London City SC, North York Astros, Toronto Supra, Serbian White Eagles, St. Catharines Wolves, and Toronto Croatia) having played in the predecessor league the Canadian National Soccer League. Two of the eight founder members of the Canadian Soccer League are competing in the 2017 season.
Soccer in Canada
Despite the difference in popularity of their respective professional leagues, association football overtook ice hockey in the 1980s and 1990s as the sport with the most registered players in the country. In 2008, there were 873,032 footballers, compared to 584,679 registered hockey players in Canada in 2008–09.
Sports in North America
The Canadian Football League (CFL) is the highest professional level of Canadian football, with teams across Canada. Teams from Canadian universities compete in U Sports football. The Canadian Junior Football League and Quebec Junior Football League field teams with players aged 18–22.
Canadian Football Act
The Canadian Football Act (1974), also known in its long title as An Act respecting Canadian Professional Football, was a proposed Act by the Parliament of Canada in April 1974 designed to give a government-protected monopoly over professional football in Canada to the Canadian Football League (CFL). Although it was never signed into law, the move by the government eventually compelled the World Football League's Toronto Northmen to move to the United States as the Memphis Southmen. The spectre of the Act was again raised when John F. Bassett, the owner of the Northmen/Southmen franchise, proposed a United States Football League franchise for Hamilton, Ontario, in 1983.
Australian rules football in Canada
AFL Canada was formed as governing body on 30 July 2004, when the Canadian Australian Football League changed its official name. The move corresponded with funding from the Australian Football League, and a junior participation program was put in place. The clubs were split into two regional leagues, the Ontario Australian Football League and the North West Pacific Football League. The remaining Alberta-based clubs participate in AFL Canada organised regional conferences such as the British Columbia Cup.
Canadian Soccer League
After the demise of the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) in 1992 Canada was without a Division I national professional league. The Canadian soccer landscape was fractured into several different foreign and regional senior leagues. When the CSL ceased operations three of their clubs the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto Blizzard, and Montreal Supra joined the American Professional Soccer League, which at the time constituted as the highest tier league in the Canadian soccer structure. While the remaining clubs with the exception of London Lasers joined the National Soccer League (NSL) the country's oldest and only exclusively Canadian professional league. After the addition of the Winnipeg Fury it changed its name to the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL).
Canadian soccer league system
Various women's leagues operate throughout North America below the NWSL in a pro-am setup. As with the men's system, there is often no formal relationship (or results-based promotion/relegation) between leagues. Three of these leagues contain Canadian teams; League1 Ontario has twelve Canadian teams and is the only one of these leagues based in Canada, while United Women's Soccer and the Women's Premier Soccer League have two Canadian team each (Calgary Foothills WFC and the North Shore Girls Soccer Club - TSS FC Rovers, respectively).
Canadian football
Canadian football is also played at the bantam, high school, junior, collegiate, and semi-professional levels: the Canadian Junior Football League, formed May 8, 1974, and Quebec Junior Football League are leagues for players aged 18–22, many post-secondary institutions compete in U Sports football for the Vanier Cup, and senior leagues such as the Alberta Football League have grown in popularity in recent years. Great achievements in Canadian football are enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame located in Hamilton, Ontario.
Professional football (gridiron)
In Canada, where the threat of competing sports leagues is far less, the CFL opts instead for an exclusive contract with TSN, available only by subscription to a cable or satellite service, to carry all of the league's games. The CFL on TSN exclusive contract began in 2008; previously, like the NFL, it split its broadcasts up between two providers.
United States Soccer Federation
A fourth-division league in the United States is the USL League Two, which as of 2015 is expected to have 58 U.S. teams, and six Canadian teams. Though League Two does have some paid players, it also has many teams that are made up entirely or almost entirely of college soccer players who use the league as an opportunity to play competitive soccer in front of professional scouts during the summer, while retaining amateur status and NCAA eligibility. Another fourth-division league in the United States is the National Premier Soccer League.
1998 Canadian Professional Soccer League season
After the demise of the Canadian Soccer League in 1992 Canada was without a Division I national professional league. The Canadian soccer landscape was fractured into several different foreign and regional senior leagues. When the CSL ceased operations three of their clubs the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto Blizzard, and Montreal Supra joined the American Professional Soccer League, which at the time was constituted as the highest tier league in the Canadian soccer structure. While the remaining clubs with the exception of London Lasers joined the National Soccer League the country's oldest and only exclusively Canadian professional league. After the addition of the Winnipeg Fury it changed its name to the Canadian National Soccer League.
Canadian Football League
As of 2018, the league features a 21-week regular season, which traditionally runs from mid-June to early November; each team plays 18 games with three bye weeks. Following the regular season, six teams compete in the league's three-week divisional playoffs, which culminate in the Grey Cup championship game in late November, one of the country's largest annual sports and television events.
Expansion of major sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The NFL is the only one of the major leagues to not have any teams based in any Canadian city; the closest teams to Canada are the Buffalo Bills, whose stadium is located south of the Canada–US border, and the Detroit Lions, whose stadium is located from Windsor, Ontario. Both border teams consider portions of Southern Ontario part of their markets, with the Lions drawing from Southwestern Ontario and the Bills from the Golden Horseshoe, which includes Toronto and Hamilton. In the 1950s and 1960s, selected NFL teams would travel north to Canada to play a CFL team in pre-season interleague games (as did the Bills, at the time in the American Football League). From 2008–13 the Bills played one regular-season game each year and sporadic pre-season games in Toronto. The Bills were drawing about 15,000 Canadian fans per game during the time the Toronto Series ran, and the Bills' then-owner, Ralph Wilson, saw Toronto's corporate market as key to securing the franchise's future; the Bills have effectively maxed out their revenue potential in the economically struggling Western New York region. (Wilson's successor, Terrence Pegula, canceled the Bills' Toronto games.) The league also has agreements with the CFL that date to the 1990s regarding the honoring of player contracts.
Professional football in Canada
Professional football is one of the most popular sports in Canada. Unlike most countries, but paralleling its counterpart, the United States, the term "football" in Canada refers to the gridiron-based game developed in both countries over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and not to association football (which is known in Canada as "soccer").
Québec official soccer team
The Québec official soccer team () is the official soccer team representing the Canadian province of Québec. The stated mission of the team is "...to allow Québec to be represented at the international level to share our language, our culture and heritage through soccer." Originally, the team was not sanctioned by the Quebec Soccer Federation as the federation was suspended by the Canadian Soccer Association in June 2013 for not allowing players wearing turbans for religious reasons to participate in matches. However, the team communicated with the federation and regularly communicated the progress of the project to build a relationship in preparation for being sanctioned in the future. In May 2014, it was announced that the team had officially become associated with the QSF and were working together to perhaps eventually become a member of CONCACAF and play against other national teams. Québec is not a member of FIFA or any confederation or subconfederation as they are wholly a part of Canada. However, Québec is an official member of the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA), a global umbrella organization for national football teams outside FIFA. Usually in Québec, the majority of the population speak French, while English is the largest minority. Although the purpose of the team is said to be cultural, not political, the team is partially funded by the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society and Parti Québécois, a Canadian political party that advocates the Québec sovereignty movement. The team was formed in 2013 and played its first match against a Tibet select team in the 2013 International Peoples, Cultures, and Tribes Tournament, an event hosted by Marseille as the 2013 European Capital of Culture, on 24 June 2013. Québec won the match 21–0. The team currently consists mostly of players from the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec and former Montreal Impact players. They are currently coached by former Canadian international Patrick Leduc.
Australian rules football in Canada
Canada boasts 9 women's football clubs nationwide. Youth girls development programs operate in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. The national team, formed in 2007, is known as the "Northern Lights". They were formerly known as the "Eagles". They played in the first women's international footy matches during 2007, when they lost twice to the USA Freedom. In 2011 the national women's team competed in the inaugural women's division of the Australian Football International Cup, where they came second to Ireland.
In 2014 the Northern lights became world champions when they defeated the Irish Banshees at the AFL International Cup.
In 2015 the Northern Lights defeated the USA Freedom to win the annual 49th Parallel Cup.
2017 in Canadian soccer
Great Lakes Division – K-W United FC
Heartland Division – Thunder Bay Chill, WSA Winnipeg
Northwest Division – Calgary Foothills FC, TSS FC Rovers, Victoria Highlanders
Sixteen teams play in this league, all of which are based in Canada. It is a Non-FIFA league previously sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and is now a member of the Soccer Federation of Canada (SFC).
List of American and Canadian cities by defunct football franchises
The following list contains all metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada containing at least one team in any of the defunct national/international professional outdoor gridiron football leagues beginning with (for the sake of simplicity, this will focus on American football leagues post the AFL-NFL merger) the World Football League onward. The table contains the population rank based on the table of primary census statistical areas in the 2010 United States Census, and the list of census metropolitan areas in the Canada 2011 Census.
2014 FIFA World Cup squads
League systems with 20 or more players represented are listed. England includes two Premier League clubs based in Wales, Swansea City and Cardiff City (five World Cup squad members play for these clubs); the United States includes three MLS clubs based in Canada, Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Montreal Impact (three World Cup squad members play for these clubs); and France includes one Ligue 1 club based in Monaco, AS Monaco (four World Cup squad members play for this club). In all, World Cup squad members play for clubs in 54 different countries, and play in 51 different national leagues.
Professional sports leagues in the United States
Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top-level men's professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. MLS has 23 teams as of the current 2018 season — 20 in the United States and 3 in Canada. The league began play in 1996, its creation a requirement by FIFA for awarding the United States the right to host the 1994 World Cup. MLS is the first Division I outdoor soccer league in the U.S. or Canada since the North American Soccer League operated from 1968 to 1984. MLS has increased in popularity following the adoption of the Designated Player rule in 2007, which allowed MLS to sign stars such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry. In 2014, MLS reported an average attendance of 19,148 per game, with total attendance exceeding 6.1 million overall, both breaking previous MLS attendance records.
Soccer in Canada
Major League Soccer (MLS) is the highest level of professional soccer in the United States and Canada. Currently there are three MLS teams located in Canada. Toronto FC became the first Canadian club in 2007. An MLS franchise was awarded to Vancouver in 2009 and began play in the 2011 season. An MLS franchise was awarded to Montreal in 2010 and began play in the 2012 season. Both the Vancouver and Montreal clubs were long-time organizations that had played in lower divisions.
Canadian Football League
From the 1930s to the 1950s, the two senior leagues of the CRU, the eastern Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU or Big Four) and Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) gradually evolved from amateur to professional leagues, and amateur teams such as those in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) were no longer competitive for the Grey Cup. From 1945 onward, the WIFU's champion faced the Big Four's champion for the Grey Cup, though until 1954 it had to play in a semi-final against the champion of the ORFU–by then, the only amateur union still competing for the Grey Cup. The ORFU withdrew from Grey Cup competition after the 1954 season, and the WIFU champion was automatically awarded a berth in the Grey Cup final. For this reason, 1954 is reckoned as the start of the modern era of Canadian football, in which the Grey Cup has been exclusively contested by professional teams. Since 1965, Canada's top amateur teams, competing in what is now U Sports, have competed for the Vanier Cup.
Canadian Championship
The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. It is currently contested by MLS sides Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and Montreal Impact, USL Championship side Ottawa Fury FC, all seven Canadian Premier League sides, and the champions of League1 Ontario and the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec. The tournament is organized by the Canadian Soccer Association.
History of Canadian sports
Soccer in Canada has grown in popularity in recent decades, especially as a school sport for boys and girls. It has more players than ice hockey. At the professional level, the Toronto FC in 2007 became the first Canadian club in the American Major League Soccer (MLS). In 2009, another MLS franchise was awarded to Vancouver, and began play in the 2011 season. In 2010, an MLS franchise was awarded to Montreal for the 2012 season. Both the Vancouver and Montreal clubs had their roots in lower-tier professional soccer leagues.
Professional sports leagues in the United States
The most popular sports league in Canada, and widely followed across the northern U.S., the NHL has expanded southward in recent decades to attempt to gain a more national following in the United States, in cities such as Dallas, Miami, Nashville, Phoenix, Raleigh, and Tampa, with varying success. Hockey remains much more popular in the northern states of the U.S. closer to Canada, such as the Upper Midwest (8 NHL teams), New England and the New York to Washington area (5 NHL teams), than in the rest of the United States. The NHL has more Canadian teams (seven) than MLB, the NBA, the NFL, and Major League Soccer combined (five).
National Football League
The NFL was always the foremost professional football league in the United States; it nevertheless faced a large number of rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s. Rival leagues included at least three separate American Football Leagues and the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), on top of various regional leagues of varying caliber. Three NFL teams trace their histories to these rival leagues, including the Los Angeles Rams (who came from a 1936 iteration of the American Football League), the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers (the last two of which came from the AAFC). By the 1950s, the NFL had an effective monopoly on professional football in the United States; its only competition in North America was the professional Canadian football circuit, which formally became the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1958. With Canadian football being a different football code than the American game, the CFL established a niche market in Canada and still survives as an independent league.
Playoff format
Like the NFL, the Canadian Football League also uses one game playoffs, and has used them almost exclusively since the 1973 season. In the CFL, six teams qualify for the playoffs, divided into two divisional brackets of three teams each. The second place teams in each division host the Division Semi-Final, while the division winners each receive a bye to the Division Final. The Division Final winners play in the Grey Cup. Unlike the NFL, divisional playoffs have been a regular fixture in professional Canadian football since the 1930s. The main rationale for their introduction was that Canadian football clubs were (and, to a considerable extent, still are) more heavily dependent on a steady stream of gate receipts compared to their NFL counterparts, largely due to their playing in relatively small markets and smaller stadiums compared to NFL teams. A more inclusive playoff structure was therefore seen as necessary to ensure as many games as possible up to the end of the season were "meaningful" so as to encourage fans to attend games.
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 24 teams—21 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada and constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues in both countries. The regular season runs from March to October, with each team playing 34 games; the team with the best record is awarded the Supporters' Shield. Fourteen teams compete in the postseason MLS Cup Playoffs through October and November, culminating in the championship game, the MLS Cup. MLS teams also play in domestic competitions against teams from other divisions in the U.S. Open Cup and in the Canadian Championship. MLS teams also compete against continental rivals in the CONCACAF Champions League.
2012 in Canadian soccer
The home team or the team that is designated as the home team is listed in the left column; the away team is in the right column.In 2012 there were nine Canadian teams playing in the US-based USL PDL:
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
In the late 1940s and 1950s, the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the U.S. National Football League (NFL) operated on roughly equal footing financially, with even some U.S.-born star players joining CFL teams. The situation changed along with the rise of the American Football League (AFL) founded in 1959. By the end of the 1960s, revenue from the U.S. television market and absorption of the AFL helped the NFL become much more successful than its Canadian counterpart. By the 1980s, the CFL became virtually unknown outside of Canada. Attempts to promote the CFL included the failed CFL USA experiment in the 1990s. In 2009, a record number of 6.1 million viewers watched the CFL's annual Grey Cup championship game, while 151.6 million viewers watched the NFL's annual Super Bowl championship game that same year.
National Football League in Toronto
Any NFL team that entered the Toronto market would have to deal with the Canadian Football League (CFL)'s Toronto Argonauts, as well as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who play in nearby Hamilton, Ontario, both of which—as well as the CFL—have objected to a NFL team in Canada. The Tiger-Cats supported the Bills Toronto Series on the premise that it would keep other suitors for the Toronto market at bay. The NFL has been reluctant to hurt the CFL. Godfrey claimed that "the city is big enough ... they both could co-exist in the city." The World Football League (WFL) intended to place a franchise in Toronto known as the Toronto Northmen, but after the Canadian Parliament began debating the Canadian Football Act, which would have banned foreign football leagues from playing in Canada in an attempt to protect the CFL, the WFL moved the team to Memphis, Tennessee. Similar bills have been introduced to Parliament since the Bills Toronto Series was announced. It has been suggested that one of the reasons the NFL would not want to put a franchise in Canada and risk putting the CFL out of business is that the CFL offers antitrust protection as a competing league. However, Commissioner Rozelle said in 1987 that "I can't see where a league operating in Canada could possibly help us in any anti-trust trials."
List of defunct American and Canadian professional football teams
For the sake of simplicity, this list will only focus on national (non-regional, non-National Football League) outdoor North American football teams not covered in other lists (i.e. the All-America Football Conference, the first three universally recognized as major incarnations of the American Football League, Continental Football League, World Football League, American Football Association, United States Football League, non-European teams from the World League of American Football, Canadian Football League (including predecessors and South Division teams), and the XFL). As a general rule, only teams with existing Wikipedia articles are listed here.
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The CFL had a total of six teams in the United States over a three-year period between 1993 and 1995, all in medium-sized markets that lacked an NFL team at the time; of the seven markets those teams occupied, three (Baltimore, San Antonio and Sacramento) had other major league franchises at the time, and two would later receive a major team (Memphis and Las Vegas). The league also played occasional games in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.
Football Canada
As of 2005 Football Canada is primarily responsible for running amateur football in Canada, including the national amateur football championships. It is actively trying to foster closer working relationships with both the CFL and the National Football League.
Men's
Canadian football
Rugby football in Canada originated in the early 1860s, and over time, the game known as Canadian football developed. Both the Canadian Football League (CFL), the sport's top professional league, and Football Canada, the governing body for amateur play, trace their roots to 1880 and the founding of the Canadian Rugby Football Union.
Canadian football
Amateur football is governed by Football Canada. At the university level, 26 teams play in four conferences under the auspices of U Sports (known from 2001–2016 as Canadian Interuniversity Sport); the U Sports champion is awarded the Vanier Cup. Junior football is played by many after high school before joining the university ranks. There are 20 junior teams in three divisions in the Canadian Junior Football League competing for the Canadian Bowl. The Quebec Junior Football League includes teams from Ontario and Quebec who battle for the Manson Cup.
List of top-division football clubs in CONCACAF countries
Bonaire League"As of 2018 season:"The professional clubs below play in soccer leagues consisting mostly of clubs from the United States. They contest the Canadian Championship for the Voyageurs Cup, along with Canadian Premier League teams and USL teams, to determine Canada's entrant into the CONCACAF Champions League."As of 2016–17 season:""As of 2017 season:""As of 2016 season:"As of 2017 season:
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The National Football League was founded in 1920 as a combination of various teams from regional leagues such as the Ohio League, the New York Pro Football League, and the Chicago circuit. The NFL partially absorbed the All-America Football Conference in 1949 and merged with the American Football League in 1970. It has 32 teams, all located in the United States.
2018 in Canadian soccer
Three Canadian teams (Montreal Impact, Toronto FC, and Vancouver Whitecaps FC) play in this league, which also contains 20 teams from the United States. It is considered a Division 1 men's league in the United States soccer league system.
National Football League in Toronto
There have long been efforts to establish an NFL franchise in Toronto due to its market size. Toronto is the third largest city in the United States or Canada, and the largest which is not home to an NFL team. The city hosts franchises in all of the other US based major professional North American sports in the United States and Canada. As of 2016 the league has no plans to establish a team in the city.
Canadian Premier League
Alberta and Ontario have two teams each from their provinces, while British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia each have one. Matches between Pacific FC and HFX Wanderers FC are the third-longest in domestic professional soccer globally, with the two teams separated by . The 905 Derby, between Forge FC and York 9 FC, is the shortest distance between two clubs at .
Soccer in Canada
Soccer in Canada is the most popular sport in terms of participation rate. According to FIFA's Big Count, 2,695,712 people played in Canada in 2006. Professional soccer in Canada is played in Major League Soccer, the United Soccer League, and the Canadian Premier League. Canada also has many semi-professional and amateur soccer leagues. Canada's men's and women's national soccer teams are ranked 79th and 5th respectively in the FIFA World Rankings, as of September 3, 2018.
2014 CFL season
The 2014 Canadian Football League season was the 61st season of modern Canadian professional football. It was the 57th season of the league. Vancouver hosted the 102nd Grey Cup on November 30. The league expanded to nine teams with the addition of the Ottawa Redblacks, giving the CFL nine teams for the first time since the 2005 season. As a result of the expansion, the schedule shifted to a 20-week regular season plus three weeks of playoffs (including the Grey Cup); the season started on June 26, 2014.
List of American and Canadian football leagues
Major League Football was founded in December 2014 with the intention of a being a spring football league in an attempt to fill the void left by minor or development football leagues. The MLFB is a single-entity business model where the league owns and operates all of the teams with franchises in cities that are absent of NFL or Major League Baseball teams. The MLFB's goal is to have franchises be individual owner and operated by 2019 or 2020. Average attendance is expected to be between 12,500 and 15,000 fans by the end of the first season and run from April to July..
List of Major League Soccer seasons
Major League Soccer is the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. As of 2016, it consists of 20 teams: 17 in the United States and 3 in Canada. The league has played since 1996. Each year, it plays a league which determines entry into the playoffs. The league is divided into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. In 2000 and 2001, there was also a Central Conference. The team with the overall best regular-season record is awarded the MLS Supporters' Shield, one of three major domestic trophies in North American soccer (the others being the national championships—the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup or the Canadian Championship—and the primary trophy: the MLS Cup league championship). In 2010 and 2011, the league played as a double round robin, with each team playing each other team one home and away—creating a balanced schedule. With a prime number of teams beginning in 2012, the league has moved to an unbalanced schedule weighted towards a team's respective conference.
List of American and Canadian football leagues
Major League Football (MLFB) is a proposed professional American football league consisting of eight teams and all teams are league-owned..
Professional football (gridiron)
In the long term, the CFL has shown significantly more stability than the American leagues. The league has, for all but three years of its history, had either eight or nine teams, all based in the same nine markets. The league has resisted expanding beyond its current nine teams and has, to date, never moved a Canadian team from one city to another. One particular market that has been a persistent topic of discussion has been the maritime provinces. The CFL approved an Atlantic franchise for Halifax known as the Atlantic Schooners in 1984 provided a stadium with sufficient capacity was built by then; however, no such stadium was ever built (the only outdoor stadium in Halifax, Huskies Stadium, only seated less than half of what CFL rules mandate and has since been demolished). The Touchdown Atlantic series is a series of one-off games that are played in Atlantic region stadiums; the first, a preseason game, was held at Huskies Stadium in 2003. A follow-up game was scheduled for the same venue for 2006, but was canceled due to the Ottawa Renegades (who were to play in the game) folding. The series was revived as a regular season game in 2010, but instead at New Moncton Stadium in Moncton, which is much closer to the CFL's capacity guidelines; three games were played in the regular season series.
Canadian Football League
Player compensation is not tied to league revenue, which remains a trade secret. Only the four publicly held teams in the league reveal their financial information, as those companies are required to do so under Canadian law. As of 2013, prior to Ottawa's rejoining the league (at which time Toronto, which is partially owned by a public company, was still fully private), estimates of the CFL's revenue varied between $150 million and .
Comparison of Canadian football and rugby union
Professional and most scholastic Canadian football team play has evolved from a single team with all players except limited substitutions playing the entire game, to a specialized "platoon" system consisting of three separate units (offensive, defensive, and "special teams" used for kicking and punting) with only one of the three being on the field at a time. That is to say that in Professional Canadian football, the majority of players only play in one specialization (or "one side of the ball") -- however, every player is eligible to play in any specialization. In rugby the teams are divided into eight forwards and seven backs. Both groups of players partake on attacking and defensive plays and are on the pitch at the same time. The eight forwards however only take part in the "set pieces" which are ways to contest ball possession when there is a minor rule infringement or the ball passes out of bounds. These are the scrums, a test of strength, and the line outs. A persons build and skill level determines which group they can play in. All forwards must be heavy and strong to scrummage well but not so heavy that they are too slow to partake in attacking plays. The backs are lighter and faster and include the expert kickers. The forwards numbered 6 through 8 are the players that need to have good all round rugby skills as well as speed and strength. In professional rugby there are very few players who can play equally well in a variety of positions and most will play in the same position from youth. Every position in rugby has its own unique name (except for number 8) and associated skill base.
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The Canadian Football League has teams in all seven current NHL markets, in addition to Hamilton, Ontario, and Regina, Saskatchewan. At least eight of these nine markets have hosted CFL teams every year since the league's officially listed inception in 1958, and no other Canadian market has ever had a CFL team of its own. In 2015, the CFL commenced Northern Kickoff, originally slated to be one preseason game and later expanded to a regular season game as well, both of which were played in Fort McMurray, an oil sands boomtown with a metro area population of less than 70,000, the smallest market to host major professional football in the modern era. Fort McMurray is in relatively close proximity to Edmonton, which was expected to boost attendance, but fewer than 5,000 fans attended the regular season game, and no games have been held in the city since (the city was devastated by a wildfire shortly thereafter). Regular season games have been played in Moncton in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2019 to gauge expansion to the Maritime provinces in the Touchdown Atlantic; the expansion team, the Atlantic Schooners, has been proposed twice, once unsuccessfully in the 1980s, and another in the late 2010s that is still being considered. Hamilton, in addition to hosting the 2013 Touchdown Atlantic, played the rest of their 2013 season in Guelph during the construction of Tim Hortons Field.
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The CFL's draft is limited to Canadian citizens, plus non-citizens who were raised in Canada. In addition to university/college football, the CFL draft also draws players from the long-established Canadian Junior Football League and its component leagues. The league also draws from the same pool of free agents as the NFL, with players who do not make the NFL often going north to seek work in the CFL. The CFL requires free agents to sign contracts, and thus stay in the league, for a minimum of two years. Unique to the CFL is the concept of the "negotiation list", which allows CFL teams to unilaterally declare exclusive rights to any given player. Described as an "enduring mystery," the negotiation list forces players to accept the offer they are given, usually at league minimum, with no leverage to negotiate with other teams; there is no order or limits to the negotiation list, and teams can add or remove players to a 45-position negotiation list without their permission and at any time, regardless of age. Since 2018, ten of the 45 players must be publicly announced.
Canadian soccer league system
By the mid 1960s, there were four major leagues across Canada including the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League (1961–1967). From west to east, the other major leagues were the Pacific Coast Soccer League (British Columbia), the Western Canada Soccer League (Alberta, Saskatchewan and eventually Manitoba and British Columbia), and the National Soccer League (Ontario/Quebec). In 1968, Canadian soccer turned its attention to the cross-nation North American Soccer League that initially featured professional teams in Vancouver and Toronto. Over the next 15 years, the professional league also featured teams in Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal.
2019 in Canadian soccer
One Canadian team (Ottawa Fury FC) plays in this league, which also contains 35 teams from the United States. It is considered a Division 2 men's league in the United States soccer league system.
One Canadian team (Toronto FC II) plays in this league, which also contains nine teams from the United States. It is considered a Division 3 men's league in the United States soccer league system.
Five Canadian teams play in this league, which also contains 69 teams from the United States. It is unofficially considered a Division 4 men's league in the United States soccer league system.
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
The National Hockey League is the only one of the major leagues to have been founded in Canada. It was formed in 1917 as a successor to the Canadian National Hockey Association (founded 1909), taking all but one of the NHA's teams. The NHL partially absorbed the rival World Hockey Association in 1979. There are 31 teams, with 24 in the U.S. and seven in Canada; the league will expand to 32 teams with the entry of a Seattle team in 2021.
Names for association football
In Canada, similar to the US, the term "football" refers to gridiron football (either Canadian football or American football; "le football canadien" or "le football américain" in Standard French). "Soccer" is the name for association football in Canadian English (similarly, in Canadian French, "le soccer"). Likewise, in majority francophone Quebec, the provincial governing body is the "Fédération de Soccer du Québec". This is unusual compared to other francophone countries, where "football" is generally used. For example, in FIFA, an acronym for the world governing body of the sport, the "FA" stands for "football association" (French for "association football"). Some teams based in the two countries have adopted "FC" as a suffix or prefix in their names; in Major League Soccer; these include FC Dallas, Seattle Sounders FC, Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Los Angeles FC and New York City FC.
Sports in Canada
Soccer has been played in Canada since 1876. The Dominion of Canada Football Association was inaugurated on May 24, 1912, and initially became a member of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association on December 31, 1912. Today, Canada's governing body for soccer (both professional and amateur) is known as the Canadian Soccer Association.
Sports in Canada
A minority of the teams in the Canadian Championship play in U.S.-based leagues. Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the Montreal Impact play in Major League Soccer. FC Edmonton played in the second-level North American Soccer League until going dormant in late 2017, and Ottawa Fury FC voluntarily dropped from the NASL to the third-level United Soccer League after the 2016 season.
List of professional gridiron football teams in North America by metropolitan area
This is a list of professional gridiron football teams in the United States and Canada by metropolitan areas. This list is based on census populations and not TV market size. The table below is up-to-date through the end of 2018. All metropolitan areas with at least 800,000 residents are shown in the table below, as well as any area with a professional team.
Soccer in Canada
The second and third tiers in the United States and Canada included the United Soccer League (USL) which has two Canadian clubs: Ottawa Fury FC in USL Championship (second tier) and Toronto FC II in USL League One (third tier). The North American Soccer League featured the Canadian club FC Edmonton, until the team went dormant in 2017 and subsequently reactivated in 2018 to join the CPL.
Soccer in Canada
The Canadian Premier League (CPL) is an upcoming professional tier 1 soccer league. Seven Canadian teams will compete in its inaugural 2019 season, including Pacific FC (Langford, British Columbia), Cavalry FC (Calgary, Alberta), FC Edmonton (Edmonton, Alberta), Valour FC (Winnipeg, Manitoba), Forge FC (Hamilton, Ontario), York 9 FC (York Region, Ontario) and HFX Wanderers FC (Halifax, Nova Scotia). The stated goal of the league is to develop Canadian soccer talent, and as such will have a minimum number of Canadian players on each roster and an annual draft of U Sports players.
List of Continental Football League teams
Successor to the Quebec Rifles of the United Football League. First Canadian-based professional team to play by American football rules.One of three Continental Football League teams to be based in Canada (Victoria, British Columbia), the Steelers are the only professional football team in Victoria's history. Originally in the Pacific Football League in 1966.
List of American and Canadian football leagues
The Rivals Professional Football League was founded by Quentin Hines in 2012. A Toledo team was considered for the initial set of teams, but could not come to term to lease the Glass Bowl with University of Toledo. The league expect attempt to get a team there for season two in 2015. As of February 2014, Hines had announced his league with five teams, Akron Blaze, Chicago Kings, Detroit Cougars, Indianapolis Racers and Southern Michigan Mustangs. At the time, Hines indicated that he was sole owner and would continue as such first the league's first stage before selling franchises.
Professional football (gridiron)
Indoor football has also developed in the United States, beginning with the Arena Football League, which formed in 1987. The AFL is the second longest running professional football league in the United States after the NFL, although its current incarnation is a separate entity from the original, which folded due to bankruptcy in 2008. From its debut until 1997, the Arena Football League operated with a monopoly on the indoor game, due to a broad interpretation that virtually all of the league's rules, collectively known as arena football, were covered under its patent; the Professional Indoor Football League successfully defeated the AFL's legal action against it in 1997, opening the possibility for other indoor football leagues to form. Only one significant aspect of the patent, the large rebound nets the AFL has used since its debut to keep balls in play, was fully protected; the patent expired in 2007, although no other professional indoor league has adopted rebound nets since. As of 2011, two national leagues (the AFL and the Indoor Football League), along with several regional professional and semi-pro leagues, are in operation. As of 2011, no professional indoor football league has had any significant presence in Canada (despite an abundance of hockey arenas that are ideal for the game); only one indoor team, the AFL's short-lived Toronto Phantoms (2000 to 2002), has ever played its games in Canada. The all-female Lingerie Football League had operations in Canada from 2011 to 2014, but that league dropped to amateur level by the time the LFL entered the country.
2016 in Canadian soccer
Fourteen teams play in this league, all of which are based in Canada. It is a Non-FIFA league previously sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and is now a member of the Soccer Federation of Canada (SFC).
List of professional sports
Rugby football in Canada had its origins in the early 1860s, and over time, a unique code of football known as Canadian football developed. Both the Canadian Football League (CFL), the sport's top professional league, and Football Canada, the governing body for amateur play, trace their roots to 1882 and the founding of the Canadian Rugby Football Union (later reorganized as the Canadian Rugby Union). In 1909, the Grey Cup was donated by the then Governor General of Canada Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, to recognize the top amateur rugby football team in Canada. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the two senior leagues of the CRU (the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union and the Western Interprovincial Football Union) gradually evolved from amateur to professional leagues, and found they had less and less in common with the amateur leagues, and consequently in 1956 formed a new umbrella organization, the Canadian Football Council. In 1958, the CFC left the CRU altogether and was renamed the Canadian Football League. By this time, teams from the amateur Ontario Rugby Football Union had stopped challenging for the Grey Cup, and ever since, it has been exclusively awarded to CFL teams. Since 1965, university teams have competed for the Vanier Cup.
Professional football (gridiron)
Compared to the other major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada, football has comparatively few levels of play and does not have a well-developed minor league system or pyramid, either official or otherwise.
Soccer in Canada
During the 1960s there was a concerted effort to push professional soccer in Canada. The Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League was formed in 1961 and featured teams in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, and (for one season) Buffalo, New York. One club, Toronto City, even featured some very prominent British soccer stars during its inaugural season, including Northern Ireland international Danny Blanchflower, England internationals Stanley Matthews and Johnny Haynes and Scottish internationals Jackie Mudie and Tommy Younger. This is also notable as the last time that the England, Scotland and Northern Ireland captains all played on the same side together. Despite this, the league proved unsuccessful and folded within 5 years. In western Canada, in 1963 a regional league, the Western Canada Soccer League was formed and consisted of between four and ten teams that by 1971, when it folded, was semi-professional and included teams from Winnipeg to Victoria in two divisions and included several national team players. Following a rise in the popularity of the game after the global broadcasting of the 1966 World Cup, the North American Soccer League was formed in 1968. The league primarily based in the United States also had clubs in Canada and used many European professionals brought in to supplement domestic talent. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Canada was represented by professional teams playing in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver with short-lived teams in Calgary and Edmonton. The NASL had a stormy relationship with FIFA and the USSF and their clubs did not compete in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. The league folded prior to the 1985 season.
Professional sports in Canada
Professional soccer in Canada has gone through many unsuccessful incarnations. things are much more stable with three teams playing within Major League Soccer: Toronto FC (joined 2007), Vancouver Whitecaps FC (joined 2011) and the Montreal Impact (joined 2012). As well, FC Edmonton have joined the North American Soccer League in recent years. The Ottawa Fury FC are an affiliate club to the Montreal Impact of Major League Soccer playing in the United Soccer League.
United States Football League
There were plans to establish four franchises in Canada prior to the inaugural season, located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal and Southern Ontario (specifically at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, Ontario). The proposal was pushed by John F. Bassett, the Canadian who would go on to own the Tampa Bay Bandits USFL team. However, Senator Keith Davey warned that the Canadian government would act to protect the Canadian Football League from competition. The Canadian Football Act had been proposed, but not approved, when Basset had tried to establish the Toronto Northmen in the World Football League in 1974. Such legislation would have banned US football leagues from playing in Canada. In particular, Montreal's CFL team, the Concordes, was on precarious financial ground, having just been established to replace the recently folded Alouettes. This led Bassett to drop the idea.