Canada Soccer confirms format for 2025 youth competitions

Canada Soccer has confirmed the format for its 2025 Youth Competitions Network which includes this year’s PDP Championship in late August and the youth National Championships in October. In all, 80 teams will qualify for the eight divisions in the U-17 and U-15 age groups (split evenly between boys and girls).

The four divisions in the Player-Development Program stream will feature eight qualified teams per division (PDP U-17 Cup and PDP U-15 Cup) while the four divisions in the competitive stream for the youth National Championships will feature 12 qualified teams per division (U-17 Cup and U-15 Cup).

This represents the greatest number of qualified youth teams competing in Canada Soccer’s national amateur competitions in a single year. Those 80 youth teams will qualify through their respective provincial and territorial competitions with more than 650 youth teams expected to compete in the eight divisions across the two age groups in two streams.

Additionally this year, there will be 24 youth select teams representing 12 provinces and territories competing in two divisions at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in August (split evenly between boys and girls).

PDP CHAMPIONSHIP (27-31 AUGUST 2025)

With eight teams in each division (two groups per division), the PDP Championship will feature group matches from Wednesday through Saturday. Medal and ranking matches for all 32 teams will take place on Sunday 31 August.

Qualifiers for the 2025 PDP Championship run from May 2024 through July 2025 across four standards-based youth leagues: the BC Soccer Premier League; the Alberta Player-Development League; the Ontario Player-Development League; and the Québec Youth Soccer Premier League (Première Ligue de Soccer Juvénile du Québec).

YOUTH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (8-13 OCTOBER 2025)

With 12 teams in each division (four groups per division), the youth National Championships will feature group matches from Wednesday through Friday. The elimination and ranking matches will all take place from Saturday through Thanksgiving Monday. This year, only the medal matches will take place on Monday 13 October, with all other ranking matches scheduled for Sunday 12 October.

For both the Canada Games and youth National Championships, an official draw in early May will help compose the final schedule for each division. Qualifiers for the youth National Championships run from September 2024 through September 2025. This year’s U-17 Cup takes place in Kamloops, British Columbia while the U-15 Cup takes place in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.