Canada Soccer announces format for 2020 Canadian Championship Final

With 11 Canadian professional teams from across the country now in league action, Canada Soccer have announced its plans for a 2020 Canadian Championship Final featuring the top Canadian teams from two different leagues: one team from Major League Soccer and one team from the Canadian Premier League. The winner of Canada’s Battle of the North will lift the Voyageurs Cup and qualify for the next edition of Concacaf Champions League.
 
Canada’s three Major League Soccer teams will compete in a first phase of the revised regular season schedule with home matches from 18 August to 16 September.  The team that earns the most points in the first phase will qualify for the 2020 Canadian Championship Final. The eight Canadian Premier League teams, meanwhile, will compete in the 2020 Island Games starting 13 August on Prince Edward Island. The winning CPL team will also advance to the 2020 Canadian Championship Final. In all, more than 40 matches will be played between the 11 Canadian teams before the 2020 Canadian Championship Final.
 
Details for the Canadian Championship Final will be announced at a later date. As always, Canada Soccer will continue to closely monitor all COVID-19 developments in consultation with the Public Health Agency of Canada and relevant governing bodies through the Canada Soccer Sport Medicine Committee to ensure the safety of all players, staff and officials.
 
The Canadian Championship is Canada Soccer’s highest domestic professional soccer competition. Since 2008, 14 different clubs have participated in the competition with Toronto FC (seven), Impact de Montréal (four) and Vancouver Whitecaps FC (once) all previous winners. From the Canadian Championship, both Montréal (2014-15) and Toronto (2018) have reached the Concacaf Champions League Grand Final.
 
The 2020 Canadian Championship was initially scheduled to kick off on 16 June, but in March Canada Soccer and leagues around the world suspended all sanctioned soccer as a precaution against COVID-19. In working with both League1 Ontario and Québec’s Premier League (PLSQ), previously qualified clubs Toronto Master’s FA and AS Blainville have both been invited to compete in the 2021 edition of the Canadian Championship.

In 2020, the 11 competing Canadian professional teams feature eight from the Canadian Premier League (Pacific FC, Calgary’s Cavalry FC, FC Edmonton, Winnipeg’s Valour FC, Forge FC Hamilton, York9 FC, Atlético Ottawa, and Halifax’s HFX Wanderers FC) and three from Major League Soccer (Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Toronto FC and Impact de Montréal).