The Canadian Championship is back.
With the draw for the Preliminary round and quarter-finals being held tonight (8pm ET / 5pm PT), Canada Soccer announced the procedures and all details.
Without further ado, everything that you need to know about it.
Pots
As is usual with the Voyageurs Cup draw, teams will be placed in four separate pots.
Pot A (West):
- Pacific FC
- Cavalry FC
- Valour FC
- Vancouver FC
Pot B (West semi-pro teams):
- TSS Rovers (League1 BC)
- Edmonton Scottish (League1 AB)
Pot C (East):
- Toronto FC
- CF Montréal
- Forge FC
- York United FC
- Atlético Ottawa
- HFX Wanderers FC
Pot D (East semi-pro teams):
- FC Laval (Ligue1 QC)
- Scrosoppi FC (League1 ON)
There will also be two pots for matches:
POT 1 - West Preliminary Round Matches: Match 1, Match 2, Match 3
POT 2 - East Preliminary Round Matches: Match 4, Match 5, Match 6, Match 7
Placing the West Clubs
One club will be drawn from Pot A and one club from Pot B to determine the match-up, after which one sphere will be drawn from Pot 1 to decide the match number where the match-up will take place in the competition bracket. After both West Semi-Pro clubs have been drawn from Pot B, the remaining two clubs in Pot A will be drawn along with the final sphere from Pot 1.
Placing the East Clubs
One club will be drawn from Pot C and one club from Pot D to determine the match-up, after which one sphere will be drawn from Pot 2 to decide the match number where the match-up will take place in the competition bracket. After both East Semi-Pro clubs have been drawn from Pot D, two spheres will be drawn from Pot C to determine the match-up and one sphere from Pot 2 to determine where the match-up will take place in the competition bracket. Finally, the remaining two clubs in Pot C will be drawn along with the final sphere from Pot 2.
The Bye Club (2024 Champions Vancouver Whitecaps FC) will be allocated to Series 1 in the Quarter-Final stage.
A secondary draw will be completed at a later date to determine the Semi-Final matchups as well as the pathway to hosting the competition final.
Below, a handy graphic which shows where each match allocation will be:
Graphic credit: truenorthfoot.ca
The competition format:
While Canada Soccer has yet to formally release the competition's format, our information tells us that it will be an identical format as the 2024 edition.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals are set to be played in a 2-legged series, with the higher-ranked team from the Canadian Championship ranking index hosting the 2nd leg.
The semi-finals will be re-drawn after the quarter-finals are complete.
The host team for the final will be chosen with a random draw, rather than the higher-ranked team hosting.
Ranking index:
The Canadian Premier League published the rankings on their site:
- Vancouver Whitecaps
- Toronto FC
- CF Montréal
- Forge FC
- Pacific FC
- York United FC
- Cavalry FC
- Atlético Ottawa
- Halifax Wanderers FC
- Valour FC
- Vancouver FC
- League1 BC representative (TSS Rovers)
- Ligue1 QC representative (FC Laval)
- League1 ON representative (Scrosoppi FC)
- League1 AB representative (Edmonton Scottish)
In the Preliminary round matches, the higher-ranked team will host the single match.
For the quarter-finals and semi-finals, the higher-ranked team will host the 2nd leg.
Some things to know:
We can make out a few things with this information.
Whichever 2 teams get drawn into Match 1 will have the chance to face the Vancouver Whitecaps in the quarter-finals.
Vancouver FC and the Halifax Wanderers FC can only host their Preliminary round match if they face a semi-pro side.
Where and when to watch:
The draw will be broadcast for free on OneSoccer's Youtube channel.
It will be held at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.
