Vancouver, Calgary first teams announced in new women's pro soccer league
A new professional women’s 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.
In a Twitter post on Monday evening, Foothills WFC said, “We’re thrilled to announce that Calgary Foothills Soccer Club will join the first Canadian Women's Professional League in 2025.”
Diana Matheson, a former member of the Canadian women’s national soccer team, and her business partner Thomas Gilbert are launching the league under the banner of Project 8 Sports Inc.
“We are thrilled to announce that the development of a Canadian professional women’s soccer league is well underway,” Matheson, CEO of Project 8, said in a statement.
“Much work has gone on behind the scenes to get to today."
Project 8 said in a release that the league will be led “primarily by former national team players,” with gold medallists Christine Sinclair and Stephanie Labbe “contributing to the planning and development of the league.”
“The 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,” said Labbe, the Whitecaps’ general manager of women’s soccer.
“We look forward to working with stakeholders across the Canadian soccer environment to make this league successful.”
It's important that women are building the league, said Sinclair.
"We are committed to developing something that is built differently, for women by women,” she said.
"We want to change the soccer landscape in Canada so women’s 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.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
New one-and-done therapy can help curb severe COVID-19 infection: Canadian-led study
A Canadian-led study of a new potential antiviral therapy shows a single dose can help cut the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19.

Are video games good for kids' brains or bad for them? New research suggests the answer is 'neither'
A small new study has found that neither the frequency of daily gaming reported by pre-teen children nor the specific video game genres they chose to play were linked with their performance on a standardized cognitive tests.
Canada deploys military assessment team to Turkiye after earthquake
Canada deployed a disaster assessment team to Turkey on Wednesday in the wake of a devastating earthquake that's killed thousands, as the federal government faced criticism that the window to help with rescue efforts was closing.
'It was a nightmare': 2 children dead, driver charged after city bus crashes into Laval daycare
Two four-year-old children are dead and a man has been charged with first-degree murder after a driver crashed a city bus into a daycare in Laval, Que. Wednesday morning. The driver, 51-year-old Pierre Ny St-Amand, was arrested at the scene and faces two counts of first-degree murder and several other charges.
Alphabet shares dive after Google AI chatbot Bard flubs answer in ad
Alphabet Inc. lost US$100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its new chatbot shared inaccurate information in a promotional video and a company event failed to dazzle, feeding worries that the Google parent is losing ground to rival Microsoft.
opinion | Before you do your taxes, take note of these tax credits and deductions you may not have known about
Many Canadians are experiencing strains caused by the increased cost of living and inflation. In his exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, contributor Christopher Liew shares some of the top credits and deductions that you may be able to claim on your income tax return to help you save money.
Indigo payment systems, online store down after 'cybersecurity incident'
Indigo's payment systems and online store are down after a 'cybersecurity incident,' the company announced on Wednesday evening.
Netflix Canada begins password sharing crackdown
Netflix Canada is rolling out its long-anticipated plans to crack down on password sharing, saying it will begin notifying Canadian users today by email about limitations.
Tyre Nichols documents: Officer never explained stop to him
The officer who pulled Tyre Nichols from his car before police fatally beat him never explained why he was being stopped, newly released documents show, and emerging reports from Memphis residents suggest that was common.