Canada Soccer visits St. John’s as part of preparations for 2025

Canada Soccer has wrapped up an official site visit to St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador as part of the hosts early preparations for the 2025 Toyota National Championships. The visit included meetings with St. John’s SC and the Newfoundland & Labrador Soccer Association as well as the local soccer staff for the Canada Summer Council.

It will be a big year for soccer in the city and across the province in 2025. Alongside the multi-sport Canada Summer Games in August, the city will host the 101st edition of Canada Soccer’s National Championships in October. In support of these national competitions, the Newfoundland & Labrador Soccer Association will take a keen leadership role to help grow the game and strengthen the sport’s deep roots in the province.

Canada Soccer and the local hosts St. John’s SC have selected historic King George V Park to host both the men’s and women’s amateur finals on Monday 13 October 2025. It will mark the eighth time that the men’s Challenge Trophy has been lifted at King George V Park and the sixth time that the women’s Jubilee Trophy has been lifted in the same stadium (since 1989). Incidentally, the coming year will also mark the 40th anniversary since King George V Park hosted the final match of the 1985 Concacaf Championship when Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team lifted their first confederation title (the Gabriel Kafaty Cup) and qualified for the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

Across the three days of the visit, Canada Soccer met with local organisations and visited four potential fields including King George V Park. This will mark the first time since 2019 that Canada Soccer’s leading amateur competition is hosted in St. John’s.

As Canada Soccer’s largest national event featuring clubs from coast to coast, the Toyota National Championships have served as the nation’s primary amateur soccer competition for more than 100 years, with the men’s competition inaugurated in 1913, the youth competition inaugurated in 1966, and the women’s competition inaugurated in 1982. At all age levels, the Toyota National Championships provide a meaningful week-long soccer experience for host cities and participating teams, as well as the players, coaches, support staff, officials, and volunteers.

Since Canada Soccer introduced host cities for the final group of clubs competing in the Toyota National Championships back in 1973, King George V Park has been the venue in which the Challenge Trophy and Jubilee Trophy have been lifted more often than in any other city or stadium. In all, the province of Newfoundland & Labrador has hosted Canada Soccer’s premier amateur competition eight times before 2025: seven times in St. John’s (1973, 1974, 1989, 2002, 2008, 2016, 2019) and once in St. Lawrence (1977).

Welcome to St. John’s

Canada Soccer’s 2025 Toyota National Championships Challenge Trophy and Jubilee Trophy competitions will be based out of historic King George V pitch on the shores of Quidi Vidi Lake – the place where the Canada qualified for the men’s 1986 FIFA World Cup and the place where countless local, national, and international soccer battles have been won and lost. King George V pitch will host the championship matches for both the men’s Challenge Trophy and women’s Jubilee Trophy in 2025. Additional matches will be hosted at pitches around the St. John’s metro region.

St. John’s is an exciting destination, with wonderful places to eat, shop, relax and explore. We’re a hotbed for storytelling, music and artistry. From our beautiful downtown to our bustling business centres, St. John’s offers something for everyone and is an ideal base camp to check out the surrounding areas. Be sure to take in one of our beautiful parks or museums, visit iconic Signal Hill, hike the internationally recognized East Coast Trail, or stand on the edge of the continent at Cape Spear.

Whatever the colour of your jersey, we look forward to making you feel at home.

Photos by the City of St. John’s (Cape Spear by Troy Maher)