With just four days to go before the opening games of the 2025 season, the Canadian Premier League announced updates to its roster rules, regulations, and competition guidelines.
Salary cap increase
The salary cap was increased to $1,282,000 CAD. This can be achieved if a club chooses to implement the League’s Under-21 Player Incentive, where Under-21 players count at 50 percent of their total compensation against the Player Compensation Budget, up to a maximum benefit of $100,000 CAD per club.
Only players signed to the primary roster count towards the clubs' salary caps.
Change to international/domestic player designations
Perhaps the biggest news from the updates.
As of this upcoming season, any player who has been signed to an active Standard Player Contract (SPC) with a CPL club during any three league seasons, or any player who has resided in Canada for at least three (3) years will count as a domestic player in the Canadian Premier League's roster designation.
The following active players will now be considered domestic players:
- Alexander Achinioti-Jonsson, Forge FC
- Roberto Alarcón, Valour FC
- Elimane Cissé, Forge FC
- Alejandro Díaz, Vancouver FC
- Tom Field, Cavalry FC
- Kevin dos Santos, Atlético Ottawa
- Abdulmalik Owolabi-Belewu, Forge FC
- Andre Rampersad, Halifax Wanderers FC
- Tobias Warschewski, Cavalry FC
CPL clubs will continue to be limited to seven international players on their master roster and will be required to start each league match with a minimum of six domestic players in their starting lineup.
Changes to incoming loan rules
The CPL made the following changes to its incoming player loan rules to better align with the FIFA RSTP. During the 2025 league season, a CPL club may:
- Utilize a maximum of six incoming loans during a league season, up by one from 2024.
- Utilize a maximum of three incoming player loans from any one club, up by one from 2024.
CPL clubs will once again be able to utilize a maximum of six outgoing loans during the 2025 league season, not including any temporary loans through the league’s Downward Player Movement initiative, and may send a maximum of three players on outgoing loans to any one team.
Good behaviour incentive
Starting in 2025, Canada Soccer will apply a 'Good Behaviour Incentive' to a club official’s yellow card accumulation total. This incentive will reduce a club official’s yellow card accumulation by one caution after they go seven matches without receiving any disciplinary sanctions. The 'Good Behaviour Incentive' can be applied a maximum of three times in a season to a club official’s yellow card total.
