A women’s professional soccer league is finally coming to Canada.
Canadian soccer legends Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson appeared on CBC’s “The National” on Monday night to announce that a new domestic professional women’s league will arrive in April of 2025.
“The whole idea behind this is to aim high. And like, if you’re not, what’s the point?” Sinclair, soccer’s all-time international scoring leader, said on the program. “So let’s go out from the get-go and compete with the best leagues in the world and bring in the top talent.”
The still unnamed league will feature eight teams — the Vancouver Whitecaps and Calgary Foothills Soccer Club are the first teams to commit — with at least one Canadian women’s national team member on each squad. Sinclair and Matheson said the goal is to bring home about half of the over-100 Canadians currently playing abroad.
The league is being built by Matheson and her business partners at Project Eight Sports. Sinclair is on board as an official advisor.
The women’s national team has for years led the way for Canadian soccer on the international stage with regular appearances at the World Cup, where they finished in fourth place in 2003. Most notably, they won Olympic gold last year in Tokyo after bronze medals at the two previous Summer Games. But there has never been a national league for women, only pro-am circuits in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
Sinclair and Matheson have long been linked to the possible creation of a women’s league in Canada.
“I hope we’ll see some investment in the women’s game,” Sinclair said after winning gold in Japan. “I think it’s time Canada gets a professional league or some professional teams, and if a gold medal doesn’t do that, nothing will. It’s time for Canada to step up.”
Sinclair and Matheson did step up. And a Canadian women’s league is officially in business.
“For us it’s about making this a strong business, period. A strong business that is going to market, brand and sell women’s sport in this country,” Matheson said on “The National.” “And make sure kids can have Christine Sinclair jerseys.”
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