Canada to get WPSL team?

[MM3/MM2/MM]

Big question, has or will the CSA sanction the league?  

[red card]

Northern Tribune article offers a bit more details vs copy/paste the press release articles that are mostly out there.

The leadership group behind WPSL Canada currently consists of Santiago Almada (FC Berlin), Sam Basco, and the US-based WPSL organization. With FC Berlin having joined the WPSL in January, it’s expected that the Kitchener-based team will transition to WPSL Canada for the league’s inaugural season.

The league states that it has been in talks Canada Soccer over the last eight months, putting the building blocks in place for a national-scale division two league that it hopes to see launch next year with eight teams apiece for its Eastern and Western conferences.

“Whether the league will start in 2022 depends on the adequate club licensing process coming through on time,” he explains, “if the season does not start in 2022, we will still be looking to host highly-produced exhibitions, tournaments, and events.”

Almada notes that the league’s partnership model will mean that clubs that buy into the project receive votes and financial incentive in a similar way that all CPL sides take a stake in Canada Soccer Business.

“We cannot have sixteen professional teams across Canada,” says Almada bluntly, “the ownership groups vary team by team: some want professional play tomorrow, others are not ready. I believe that the division we are creating right now could act as a reserve league for the future professional league. Some clubs will move up, some will stay.”

WPSL Canada will not currently be able to bring our players home,” he says, “but when you are competing against a group like Stephanie Labbe’s team at PSG or other European giants it would be hard to see that ever happening.”

Instead, the league aims to help curate a pathway to professional soccer for women in Canada, rather than catering to current professional players in Canada.

Almada points to U SPORTS athletes such as Liz Hicks (Trinity Western) and Samantha Gouveia (MacEwan University) as examples of domestic talent who could benefit from the league, both of whom spoke out in support of WPSL Canada.

“Players like this who may not get that big professional contract abroad,” he offers, “will now can continue their career with WPSL Canada and not have to hang up their boots.”

To that end, WPSL Canada intends to co-exist with leagues like League1 Ontario and the PLSQ, which Almada states are necessary leagues, with WPSL Canada offering something different in that it will play on a national scale, with a governing body and financial model that replicates professional level organizations. Over half of the draft picks in the NWSL have come from WPSL roots, he says, so it’s a name that the league is happy to be attached to.

https://northerntribune.ca/wpsl-canada-details/

[narduch]

 

[Cblake]

Does the CSA even have D2 guidelines/polices in place at this point for either the women or men ? WPSL Canada really no different than L1O, PLSQ and now L1BC which all have women's leagues. 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Cblake

[_Vic_]

What's great about the CPL?

Hint: it's not the P or L, those are/were in USL2, W League, PDL, etc.

It's the "C", as in the C in CPL, CFL, CEBL, etc.

By, for, and about Canadians. 100% Canadian with no ties of any kind to foreign control or influence in any manner whatsoever.

This is ours. Not someone else's brother or half-sister.

[Kent]

If the WPSL could fill in the prairie gap until a D3 league can get up and running there (at which time the WPSL Canadian teams move over to the Canadian D3 league) that would be OK. But if they are bringing in teams in BC, Ontario, or Quebec, I feel like it would be better for those teams to go to L1BC, L1O, or PLSQ instead.

And yeah, they were definitely intentionally misleading people with what this league is. That doesn't bode well for the league in general.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

On 12/13/2021 at 5:24 AM, Cblake said:

Does the CSA even have D2 guidelines/polices in place at this point for either the women or men ? WPSL Canada really no different than L1O, PLSQ and now L1BC which all have women's leagues. 

A short season summer league aimed primarily at NCAA scholarship and U-Sports players is not the same format as a regional semi-pro league that typically plays a longer season format. There is space for both.

[Big_M]

Womens plsq ends in august so players can go to their college teams

[_Vic_]

Imagine the impact on player development if our best players staying in the country were in full year-round national league programs while going to school => instead of playing a two month season and then another two month in the summer (all against lesser competition, and in the case of school against a limited age-band of players).

We can do that here and it would be completely transformative.

The USA are billions of dollars invested into a college system and that dinosaur will takes decades to turn. There is too much money and jobs involved. Also because of the high scholarships given, the schools would block the best players and the players would be helpless to do otherwise.

Scholarships in Canada are very low comparatively and if you ran very strong programs in a national league most players would be thrilled and jump onboard.

We have a really good opportunity here the Americans don't.

Edited December 15, 2021 by _Vic_
an/a typo