The Preliminary Round of the Canadian Championship to Kick Off Tuesday 10 May

Canada Soccer’s top domestic club competition, the Canadian Championship, will kick off this week with 5 matches including a triple-header on Tuesday 10 May as the journey to lift the Voyageurs Cup begins.

The 2022 Canadian Championship preliminary round will feature 10 teams while 3 teams have received byes and will be heading directly to the Quarterfinals. CF Montréal and Toronto FC both received byes for being the finalists of the 2021 tournament and Pacific FC received a bye for winning the 2021 Canadian Premier League season.

The opening match day of the 2022 Canadian Championship will see League1 Ontario Champion Guelph United FC hosting Canadian Premier League side HFX Wanderers, while a pair of Provincial Canadian Premier League rivalries will feature Atletico Ottawa hosting York United FC and Cavalry FC hosting FC Edmonton. The Preliminary Round will conclude with two more matches on Wednesday 11 May as the Canadian Premier League’s Forge FC host Première ligue de soccer du Québec champions and CS Mont-Royal Outremont and Major League Soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps FC host Valour FC of the Canadian Premier league. Guelph United FC and CS Mont-Royal Outremont will both be making their debut in the competition. 

Preliminary Round Schedule

Tuesday 10 May
Guelph United FC v HFX Wanderers FC 19.00 Local (19.00 ET) Alumni Stadium at the University of Guelph, Guelph ON
Atletico Ottawa v York United FC 19.00 Local (19.00 ET) TD Place, Ottawa ON
Cavalry FC v FC Edmonton 19:30 Local (21:30 ET) Spruce Meadows ATCO Field, Calgary AB

Wednesday 11 May
Forge FC v CS Mont-Royal Outremont 19:00 Local (19.00 ET) Tim Hortons Field, Hamilton ON
Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Valour FC 19:00 Local (22.00 ET) BC Place, Vancouver BC

All Canadian Championship matches are produced by Mediapro Canada and will air live and exclusively on OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Telus’s Optik TV (Channel 980) as well as online at OneSoccer.ca, through the OneSoccer app and on the fuboTV Canada platform. Fans will find extended coverage for the Canadian Championship across Canada Soccer’s digital channels on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube featuring the hashtag #CanChamp.

Across the four rounds of the 2022 Canadian Championship, the Preliminary Round will take place from 10-11 May, the Quarterfinals will be scheduled from 24-26 May, the Semifinals will be scheduled from 21-23 June, and the Final will be scheduled in July.

Canada Soccer’s Canadian Championship, also known as the Battle of the North, is the nation’s highest men’s domestic competition featuring clubs from coast to coast across the country, notably professional teams in Major League Soccer and the Canadian Premier League as well as league winners in both League1 Ontario and Québec’s PLSQ (Première ligue de soccer du Québec). Winners of the 2022 Canadian Championship lift the Voyageurs Cup and qualify to the annual international competition, Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League. Winners of the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League then qualify to the FIFA Club World Cup.

The Voyageurs Cup has been awarded to the Canadian Championship winner since 2008. Created by the Voyageurs Canadian Supporters group, the trophy represents Canadian fans’ commitment to the game in our country. At the completion of the competition, the tournament MVP is named as the George Gross Memorial Trophy Award winner. The reigning MVP is Sebastian Breza. The Young Canadian Player Award is awarded to the best Canadian player in the competition 21 years of age or under. The reigning Young Canadian is Jacob Shaffelburg. 

Canadian Championship Past Winners

2008: Impact Montréal
2009: Toronto FC
2010: Toronto FC
2011: Toronto FC
2012: Toronto FC
2013: Impact de Montréal
2014: Impact de Montréal
2015: Vancouver Whitecaps
2016: Toronto FC
2017: Toronto FC
2018: Toronto FC
2019: Impact de Montréal
2021: CF Montréal