Canadian Soccer League

For the previous league with the same name, see Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992).

Canadian Soccer League

Country	Canada
Confederation	Non-FIFA
Founded	1926 (as NSL) 1992 (as CNSL) 1998 (as the CPSL) 2006 (as the CSL)
Divisions	CSL First Division CSL Second Division
Number of teams	23 (12 1st Div, 11 2nd Div)
Level on pyramid	N/A
Domestic cup(s)	Givova Cup
Current champions	York Region Shooters (2014)
Most championships	Toronto Croatia (9 titles) (1st in 1970)
TV partners	Rogers Television
Website	Official CSL website
CSL 2014

The Canadian Soccer League (CSL) is an unsanctioned semi-professional soccer league in Canada. It was formerly sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association but now has affiliated itself with the organization known as Soccer Federation of Canada (SFC). It was formerly known as the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL), and was officially re-branded on May 17, 2006. CSL teams do not currently participate in the Canadian Championship, which determines the Canadian entry into the CONCACAF Champions League, and cannot participate in any FIFA-sanctioned events.

Despite its name, the CSL is not a national league as the teams are located in Southern Ontario. The Canadian Soccer League also operates a reserve league, the CSL Reserve Division.

Competition format

The Canadian Soccer League season runs from April/May through October/November annually. There are currently 12 teams in the league that compete in a single table format. Teams play a balanced schedule of 22 games, with the top 8 ranked teams advancing to the playoffs. The playoffs operate as a two-leg quarterfinal home and away series, followed by a one-game semi-final for the four surviving teams and a one-game final to crown the CSL Champions.

The CSL has appealed to the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) for its league champion to be added as the 5th team to the Amway Canadian Championship, in which the winner qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions League. As a non-FIFA entity, they have not yet been permitted to enter.

History

For the previous league with the same name, see Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992).

Old CPSL logo (1998–2005)

The CSL's first season was in 2006. The forerunner of the CSL, the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL) played its first season in 1998 by amalgamating four teams from the Canadian National Soccer League namely St. Catharines Wolves, North York Astros, London City, and Toronto Croatia with four expansion franchises (Mississauga, York Region Shooters, Glen Shields and Toronto Olympians).

In 2006, the change to the CSL was more than merely a cosmetic alteration. An international division was added, including bringing the Serbian White Eagles into the league, a new set of rules, regulations and a new constitution were established, the schedule format was changed, and the relationship with the OSA and QSF was upgraded; in early 2008, the CSL and the OSA established a "Memorandum of Understanding" which provided the CSL with an increased level of autonomy and independence from the governing body.

The league was re-branded and managed by former Hamilton Bulldogs president, Cary Kaplan (First CSL Commissioner), and veteran soccer executive Stan Adamson (Executive Director) from its inception.

2007 saw the debut of the Trois-Rivières Attak, replacing the Laval Dynamites franchise. The team was the junior/reserve side for the Montreal Impact USL Squad. In 2008, Toronto FC of Major League Soccer, and owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, entered their Academy Team (TFC Academy) into the CSL. As a result, the CSL is now affiliated with two of Canada's top three professional soccer franchises.

On May 12, 2009, the CSL formally announced that they had received conditional approval to be in membership with the CSA as Canada's national professional league. The vote by the CSA Board was unanimous by all provinces and territories. This the first league to receive this endorsement from the CSA in 16 years.

Following four and a half years as Commissioner, Cary Kaplan resigned following the 2009 Championship Game. Accomplishments during his tenure included rebranding as CSL, affiliation with Toronto FC and Montreal Impact; establishment of a Reserve Division; establishment of Television contract with Rogers and official recognition and approval from CSA.

Domenic De Gironimo was named as his replacement. Shortly following the completion of the 2010 final, De Gironimo announced his resignation from the league after only one season at the helm; citing irreconcilable differences.

Vince Ursini, who previously was Chairman of the former CNSL/CPSL until 2004, followed him in 2011. Mississauga, Ottawa, Kingston, Waterloo, Niagara and Windsor were all added to the CSL under Ursini's watch, expanding the league's membership to 16, the highest in several years.

Match-fixing controversy

On September 12, 2012, the CBC reported that a CSL game between the Trois-Rivières Attak and Toronto Croatia held in September 2009 was fixed. The report, which aired on the news program The National, revealed court documents showing that €15,000 ($18,000 CDN) in bribes were paid to several players on Toronto Croatia. The game was part of a larger match-fixing scandal in Europe in which six people were convicted.

On January 31, 2013, the Canadian Soccer Association announced they were withdrawing support of the league. On March 5, 2013, CSA formally decertified the league, however, due to adopting recommendations from the Rethink Management Report, and not from match-fixing. The league, however, fought the decertification based upon the failure of the CSA to provide adequate notice to the CSL and an opportunity for the league to comment on the CSA's approach. An arbiter agreed with the CSL and denied the CSA's attempt to decertify the league in 2013, allowing the CSL to play its 2013 season under CSA governance. Following the January 31, 2013 announcement, the Toronto FC academy teams withdrew from the league, followed by the Montreal Impact academy team.

On October 14, 2015, The International Centre for Sport Security released a report claiming that 42% of matches in the 2015 showed signs of suspicious betting activity, resulting in an estimated £4.5 million in potential “fraudulent betting profits”. All 12 teams had played in “suspicious” games on at least three occasions each. The report stated: “In the experience of the ICSS, the CSL has become a type of ‘rogue league’ that has not been seen before.”

Current teams

These are the teams from the 2014 season:

Team	City	Stadium	Founded
First Division
North York Astros	North York, Ontario	Esther Shiner Stadium	1990
Brampton City United	Brampton, Ontario	Victoria Park Stadium	2002
Kingston FC	Kingston, Ontario	Queen's West Field	2012
London City	London, Ontario	Hellenic Com Centre	1973
Niagara United	Niagara Falls, Ontario	Kalar Sports Park	2011
Burlington SC	Burlington, Ontario	Nelson Stadium	2013
SC Waterloo Region	Waterloo, Ontario	Warrior Field	2012
Serbian White Eagles FC	Etobicoke, Ontario	Lamport Stadium
Toronto Croatia	Mississauga, Ontario	Hershey Field	1956
York Region Shooters	Vaughan, Ontario	St. Joan of Arc Field	1998
Second Division
Brampton City United B	Brampton, Ontario	Victoria Park Stadium	2002
Burlington SC B	Burlington, Ontario	Sherwood East	2013
Kingston FC B	Kingston, Ontario	Queen's West Field	2012
Milton FC	Milton, Ontario	Bishop Reding	2014
Niagara United B	Niagara Falls, Ontario	Kalar Sports Park	2011
SC Waterloo Region B	Waterloo, Ontario	Warrior Field	2012
Serbian White Eagles B	Etobicoke, Ontario	Eglinton Flats	1968
Toronto Croatia B	Mississauga, Ontario	Hershey Field	1956
Winstars Shooters FC	Woodbridge, Ontario	St. Joan of Arc Field	2014
York Region Shooters B	Vaughan, Ontario	St. Joan of Arc Field	1998

CSL league executives

• Stan Adamson, Executive Director (2001–)
• Cary Kaplan, Commissioner, (2005–2009)
• Domenic Di Geronimo, Commissioner, (2010)
• Vincent Ursini, Chairman, (2011–)

Championship finals

For more details on this topic, see Canadian Soccer League championship final.

This is a list of all Championship finals played so far. The final was called Rogers Cup from 1998 to 2009. Since 2010 it's called the Givova Cup due to sponsorship change.

Year	Champion	Score	Runner-up
1998	St. Catharines Wolves	2–2 (aet) 4–2 (p)	Toronto Olympians
1999	Toronto Olympians	2–0	Toronto Croatia
2000	Toronto Croatia	2–1	Toronto Olympians
2001	St. Catharines Wolves	1–0	Toronto Supra
2002	Ottawa Wizards	2–0	North York Astros
2003	Brampton Hitmen	1–0	Vaughan Shooters
2004	Toronto Croatia	4–0	Vaughan Shooters
2005	Oakville Blue Devils	2–1 (aet)	Vaughan Shooters
2006	Italia Shooters	1–0	Serbian White Eagles
2007	Toronto Croatia	4–1 / 0–0 (4–1 Aggregate)	Serbian White Eagles
2008	Serbian White Eagles	2–2 (aet) 2–1 (p)	Trois-Rivières Attak
2009	Trois-Rivières Attak	0–0 (aet) 3–2 (p)	Serbian White Eagles
2010	Brantford Galaxy SC	3–0	Hamilton Croatia
2011	Toronto Croatia	1–0	Capital City F.C.
2012	Toronto Croatia	1–0	Montreal Impact Academy
2013	SC Waterloo Region	3–1	Kingston FC
2014	York Region Shooters	1–1 (aet) 5–4 (p)	Toronto Croatia

All Time (1998–12) CPSL/CSL Regular Season Records By Clubs

(Pts) #	Club	Seasons	GP	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	PPG	(PPG) #	1st	2nd
1	Toronto Croatia	16 (1998–)	321	169	78	74	641	400	+241	585	1.82	5	1	4
2	York Region Shooters	16 (1998–)	321	154	78	89	600	426	+174	540	1.68	9	2	2
3	SC Toronto	12 (2001–2012)	257	117	66	74	516	363	+153	417	1.62	11	2
4	Brampton United	12 (2002–)	257	112	56	89	509	392	+117	392	1.53	14		1
5	St. Catharines Wolves	16 (1998–)	321	107	68	146	426	611	−185	389	1.21	19		3
6	Serbian White Eagles	8 (2006–)	178	97	38	43	356	200	+156	329	1.85	3	2	2
7	Trois-Rivières Attak	8 (2001–03), (2005–2009)	165	86	34	45	331	217	+114	292	1.77	7	2	1
8	Astros Vasas FC	16 (1998–)	320	73	59	188	413	750	−337	278	0.87	24
9	London City	16 (1998–)	321	63	64	194	414	852	−438	253	0.79	26
10	Durham Storm	8 (1998-05)	143	69	15	59	319	266	+53	222	1.55	12	3	1
11	Windsor Stars	8 (2004–08, 2011-)	178	60	34	84	283	319	−36	214	1.20	21
12	Brampton Stallions	6 (2001–06)	123	43	31	49	191	205	−14	160	1.30	17
13	TFC Academy	5 (2008–2012)	111	40	23	48	180	176	+4	143	1.29	18
14	Ottawa Wizards	3 (2001–03)	59	44	10	5	159	39	+120	142	2.41	1	3
15	Hamilton Thunder	4 (2002–05)	79	38	22	19	147	88	+59	136	1.72	8		1
16	Montreal Impact Academy	3 (2010–2012)	72	34	17	21	143	91	+52	119	1.65	10		1
17	Brantford Galaxy SC	3 (2010–2012)	72	26	9	37	118	172	−54	87	1.21	20
18	Mississauga Eagles FC	3 (1998, 2011-2012)	62	24	9	29	115	117	−2	81	1.31	16
19	Durham Flames	5 (1999-03)	87	20	14	53	136	231	−95	74	0.85	25
20	SC Waterloo Region	2 (2012-)	44	21	5	18	98	70	+28	68	1.55	13
21	Kingston FC	2 (2012-)	44	20	3	21	92	91	+1	63	1.43	15	1
22	Capital City F.C.	1 (2011)	26	15	7	4	52	22	+30	52	2.00	2
23	Niagara United	2 (2012-)	44	13	7	24	61	90	-29	46	1.05	22
24	Hamilton Croatia	1 (2010)	24	13	5	6	51	27	+24	44	1.83	4
25	Milltown FC	1 (2010)	24	12	7	5	43	22	+21	43	1.79	6
26	Burlington SC	1 (2013-)	22	7	0	15	34	56	−22	21	0.95	23
27	Caribbean Selects	1 (2006)	22	1	3	18	15	87	−72	6	0.18	27

All Time (1998–2012) CPSL/CSL Playoff Records By Clubs

(Pts) #	Club	Playoffs Reached vs Seasons Played	GP	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	PPG	Rank (by Champions, Runners-up, PPG)	1st	2nd
1	Toronto Croatia	14/16	36	24	4	8	75	33	+42	76	2,111	1	5	1
2	York Region Shooters	13/16	30	14	4	12	50	48	+2	46	1,533	3	1	3
3	Serbian White Eagles	8/8	24	11	2	8	38	33	+5	35	1,458	4	1	3
4	Durham Storm	5/9	11	7	1	3	27	16	+11	22	2,000	5	1	2
5	Trois-Rivières Attak	7/8	13	7	1	5	27	17	+10	22	1,692	6	1	1
6	St. Catharines Wolves	6/16	12	4	2	6	15	20	−5	14	1,167	2	2
7	Brampton United	9/12	14	4	2	8	15	29	−14	14	1,000	11	1
8	SC Toronto	9/12	15	4	1	10	19	38	−19	13	0,867	16		1
9	Brantford Galaxy SC	1/3	4	3	1	0	9	3	+6	10	2,500	7	1
10	Hamilton Croatia	1/1	4	3	0	1	5	4	+1	9	2,250	12		1
11	SC Waterloo Region	1/2	3	2	1	0	8	2	+6	7	2,333	8	1
12	Capital City F.C.	1/1	4	2	1	1	8	3	+5	7	1,750	14		1
13	Brampton Stallions	3/6	5	2	1	2	5	7	−2	7	1,400	10	1
14	Montreal Impact Academy	2/3	5	2	1	2	7	5	+2	7	1,400	15		1
15	Kingston FC	1/1	3	2	0	1	7	6	+1	6	2,000	13		1
16	Ottawa Wizards	3/3	4	2	0	2	5	6	−1	6	1,500	9	1
17	Astros Vasas FC	5/16	8	2	0	6	8	16	−8	6	0,750	17		1
18	London City	3/16	5	0	3	2	6	10	−4	3	0,600	18
19	Windsor Stars	6/8	7	1	0	6	6	20	−14	3	0,429	20
20	Milltown FC	1/1	2	0	1	1	2	3	−1	1	0,500	19
21	Niagara United	1/2	1	0	0	1	0	1	−1	0	0,000	21
22	Hamilton Thunder	4/4	4	0	0	4	2	7	−5	0	0,000	22
23	Mississauga Eagles FC	1/3	2	0	0	2	1	8	−7	0	0,000	23
24	TFC Academy	3/5	5	0	0	5	2	10	−8	0	0,000	24

Ten Best Seasons (2001–Current: 18 games played or more)

Rank	Club	Year	GP	W	D	L	Pts	PPG	Playoff Result
1	Serbian White Eagles	2006	22	17	4	1	55	2.50	Lost Final
2	Ottawa Wizards	2002	19	15	2	2	47	2.47	Won Championship
3	Ottawa Wizards	2003	18	13	5	0	44	2.44	Lost Semi-final
4	SC Toronto	2011	26	20	3	3	63	2.42	Lost Quarter-Final
5	Toronto Croatia	2012	22	15	6	1	51	2.32	Won Championship
	Vaughan Shooters	2005	22	16	3	3	51	2.32	Lost Final
	Ottawa Wizards	2001	22	16	3	3	51	2.32	Lost Semi-final
8	Toronto Supra	2004	20	14	4	2	46	2.30	Lost Semi-final
9	Toronto Croatia	2011	26	18	5	3	59	2.27	Won Championship
	Kingston FC	2013	22	16	2	4	50	2.27	Lost Final

Complete team list

Brampton Stallions (2001–06), Brampton Hitmen (2001–04), (currently 'dormant') Brampton United (2002–), Metro Lions (2002–04), Oakville Blue Devils (2004–06), Canadian Lions (2007), Brampton Lions (2008–2010) Burlington FC (2014-) Caribbean Selects (2006), (folded) Durham Flames (1999-03), Oshawa Flames (1999-00), (folded) Durham Storm (1998-05), Toronto Olympians (1998-01), Mississauga Olympians (2002–03), (folded) Hamilton Thunder (2002–05), (folded) Hamilton Croatia (2010), (folded) Kingston FC (2012–) Laval Dynamites (2001–03), (2005–06); Montreal Dynamites (2001–03), (absorbed by Trois-Rivières Attak) London City (1998–) Milton FC (2014-) Mississauga Eagles P.S.C. (1998), (folded)

Niagara United (2011–) North York Astros (1998–) Ottawa Wizards (2001–03), (folded) SC Toronto (2011–2012), Toronto Supra (2001–05), Toronto Supra Portuguese (2006), Portuguese Supra (2007), Portugal FC (2008–11), (on hiatus) Serbian White Eagles (2006–) St. Catharines Wolves (1998–13) TFC Academy (2008–13), (moved to League1 Ontario) Toronto Croatia (1998–) Trois-Rivières Attak (2006–2009), (took a sabbatical year in 2010 and did not return) SC Waterloo Region (2012–) Windsor Stars (2011–13), "Winsor Boarder Stars" (2004–2008), (moved to League1 Ontario) Winstars Shooters FC (2014-) York Region Shooters (1998) (1998-02), (absorbed by Italia Shooters) York Region Shooters (1998–), Glen Shields (1998), Glen Shields Sun Devils (1999-01), Vaughan Sun Devils (2002–03), Vaughan Shooters (2004–05), Vaughan Italia Shooters (2006–09)

See also

• Major League Soccer
• North American Soccer League
• USL Premier Development League
• USL Pro
• Canadian National Soccer League
• Canadian soccer pyramid

External links

• Official website
• Leagues at soccerway.com
• List of Past Champions