Canada will once again feature a top flight domestic women’s soccer league at the professional levels in 2025 as the Northern Super League prepares to kick off its inaugural season.
Former Canadian international member Diana Matheson, who is the co-founder of Project 8 alongside Thomas Gilbert, unveiled the new league’s logo and namesake at the ESPNW Summit on Tuesday.
Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Halifax have been confirmed as the league’s founding franchises. Each club will take part in a 25 game regular season followed by playoffs and a national championship.
“It’s huge,” said Matheson. “At the end of the day, we’re in six of the biggest markets across Canada, which we’re thrilled about. Ottawa, Montreal specifically have huge girls’ and women’s soccer communities.”
“We’re happy with the representation we have from (the) West Coast to the Maritimes, in Quebec,” she added. “It’s just the beginning. We’ll, of course, still be looking to roll our expansion plans in the next year and talk about when we’re adding teams (No.) 7 and 8. But we’re really happy with the six teams we’re launching with.”
The NSL will be owned equally by the clubs as well as Matheson’s Project 8 group, and will feature a $1.5M salary cap along with minimum salaries in year one. Canadian Tire, DoorDash, CIBC and Air Canada have already signed on as corporate partners in the venture.
The new league will have a heavy emphasis on developing domestic talent, with each roster only being able to carry a maximum of 7 foreign born players. Matheson also announced that clubs will be able to sign 1 “marquee player” each, for whom only $75,000 of their salary will count against the cap.
Canada Soccer has agreed to increase player registration fees beginning in 2025 with portions of those funds going towards supporting the new league. The goal is to provide $1M in annual funding to the NSL, which would match the level of support the men’s Canadian Premier League is currently receiving.
“Congratulations to everyone involved in the exciting evolution of the newly named Northern Super League,” Kevin Blue, Canada’s Soccer’s CEO and general secretary, said in a statement. “Canada Soccer remains steadfast in its support for professional women’s soccer in our country, and we will continue to work alongside Diana and the staff to ensure a successful kickoff next April.”
While a formal announcement regarding the league’s leadership group, including roles such as commissioner and the board of governors, have yet to be confirmed, the start up appears to be off and running in anticipation of a 2025 launch.
Photo: Douglas O’Brien. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.