A new professional women鈥檚 soccer league is coming to Canada.
The Vancouver Whitecaps announced Monday that the club will be home to one of two founding teams when the eight-team league begins in 2025. The other founding team belongs to Calgary Foothills Soccer Club.
Homes for the six other teams are expected to be named in 2023.
The league will operate countrywide across two conferences, with four teams in each conference.
Diana Matheson, a former member of the Canadian women鈥檚 national soccer team, and her business partner Thomas Gilbert are launching the league under the banner of Project 8 Sports Inc.
鈥淲e are thrilled to announce that the development of a Canadian professional women鈥檚 soccer league is well underway,鈥� Matheson, Project 8鈥檚 CEO, said in a statement. 鈥淢uch work has gone on behind the scenes to get to today.鈥�
Project 8 said in a release that the league will be led 鈥減rimarily by former national team players,鈥� with gold medallists Christine Sinclair and Stephanie Labbe 鈥渃ontributing to the planning and development of the league.鈥�
鈥淭he creation of this league is something we have been advocating for over many years, and to be part of seeing it come to fruition is truly exciting,鈥� said Labbe, the Whitecaps鈥� general manager of women鈥檚 soccer. 鈥淲e look forward to working with stakeholders across the Canadian soccer environment to make this league successful.鈥�
It鈥檚 important that women are building the league, said Sinclair.
鈥淲e are committed to developing something that is built differently, for women by women,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e want to change the soccer landscape in Canada so women鈥檚 players can develop and play professionally here at home instead of having to go abroad, as every one of our national team players must do now to be successful.鈥�
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