Canadian soccer is on the rise after the men’s and women’s national teams have experienced recent success. The women’s Canadian team won gold in the 2020 Olympics, while the men’s side recently reached its highest FIFA World ranking since 2007.
There is a growing national interest in soccer following the recent achievements of the national teams and even though betting on soccer isn’t as popular as betting on basketball in Canada, there is still a rising uptake in soccer. Furthermore, some Canadian soccer players are achieving global recognition, with Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David playing leading roles for European stalwarts Bayern Munich and Lille.
Comparisons are now being made between the future of Canadian soccer and the MLS following recent success.
Success of the MLS Since 1994
Major League Soccer (MLS) began in 1996 as there was no competitive soccer outfit capable of competing at the elite international level. In response, the MLS was formed to bring more professionalism to US soccer and to raise the profile of the sport.
Initially, the MLS comprised of just ten teams that competed in Eastern and Western conferences. Progress and recognition of the league were slow, to begin with, but injections of funding for newly formed soccer clubs saw world-renowned players being attracted to compete in the MLS.
Since its inception in 1996, some of the world’s best-ever soccer players have represented teams in the MLS. David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry and Kaka are just a few world-class players to join the MLS in the past two decades.
The rise of the MLS and its increasing competitiveness has contributed to improvements from the men’s national team (USNMT) in recent years. The USNMT has made the knockout stages of the World Cup in four of their six appearances since hosting the tournament in 1994. The national team has also won the CONCACAF Gold Cup six times since 2002.
Ultimately, the rise of the MLS has contributed to the success and popularity of international soccer in the US. A new generation has grown up watching and supporting soccer, which has improved the national and international spectatorship of the MLS.
Canadian Soccer: A Work in Progress
Canadian international soccer is improving. However, the domestic leagues may not reach the same audiences as the MLS has in recent decades due to the dis-jointed structure of professional soccer.
The leading league in Canada is the Canadian Premier League, which was formed in 2019. Before the Premier League, the Canadian Championship, a domestic cup competition, was the only national soccer tournament.
Currently, eight teams compete in the Canadian Premier League, and seven of them were set up at the same time as the new league. FC Edmonton are the only club created before the Premier League, while the largest Canadian sides (CF Montréal, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC) play in the MLS.
The new structure of the Canadian Premier League gives professional soccer a platform to build on. Along with the new league, broadcasting deals have formed between television companies and the Canadian Soccer Association. These will bring fixtures to Canadian television and hopefully raise the profile of Canadian soccer.
However, until there are sizeable sponsorship deals and until the league is fully established and teams can recruit leading soccer players, Canadian soccer is unlikely to reach the heights of the MLS in the coming years.