The fact that i am just hearing about this is somewhat embarassing,
But yes Canada is getting our very own football league

https://canpl.ca/

the teams will be :

6ixFC: Cavalry FC (Calgary)
FC Edmonton
Forge FC (Hamilton)
HFX Wanderers (Halifax)
Pacific FC (Victoria) (lazy ass club name)
Valour FC (Winnipeg)
York 9 FC (York Region)

This is great for the sport and canada, , season starts in 2019 ,

It's still pay-to-play here... which is why we'll always be ages behind Europe. Only the wealthiest 5-10% of people living in Canada/USA can afford to regularly put their child into a soccer/football academy. Even growing up in Toronto, the neighborhoods with the biggest football/soccer cultures that I have seen have been the poorer areas with many immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. Whenever I went to competitions or events, the best kids often ended up from the worst neighborhoods, and they were frequently better than the kids who were actually part of some kind of academy.

I like the fact that there's a league now, but Canada and the US both really need to remove this pay-to-play shit and start designing academies after successful European nations (i.e. Portugal, Netherlands, etc.). Otherwise there will always be a ceiling as to how good the homegrown products of these two nations will be. And I don't think it's a good idea to have an entire league that is overwhelmingly foreign (e.g. EPL) because that makes you lose your nation's own football identity (which is what I think England have struggled with in recent years).

td;dr Great news, but still need to remove pay-to-play.

Interesting, i agree if we are going to develop a league and hopefully a national team that can compete than we have to start with the youth and making the sport more accessible. With such a diverse atmosphere as Toronto there surely has to be some talent, when i grew up i played in a free league but its wasnt very competitive,
So in europe do soccer academies have more scholarships? and where is the funding coming from, the clubs themselves?

I could see the CPL clubs (hahaha has a nice ring to it ) forming their own youth academies. I think part of the problem is that the money has to come from somewhere and if their isnt a huge fanbase there arent rich clubs paying for it then the parents will.

I've been skeptical of this move for some time and my concern is only growing. It is difficult to take attention away from MLS (which while established, is hardly thriving in the North American sports landscape), and put it on another dangerous project. I do not like that the CPL will take resources and attention away from Canadian MLS clubs that have done decently well for themselves in the league (Vancouver non-withstanding rofl). I do not like, as Dynastian pointed out, the ambiguity around player growth. I am doubtful that the institution that is Canada Soccer has the ability to pull this off, when the national team remains a joke, and the women's team (the only successful iteration of Canadian Soccer outside of MLS) can't even be supported properly.

I hope Steve Reed knows what he's doing, as a guy with a numbers background, but my doubts outnumber my optimism at the present time.

I've been skeptical of this move for some time and my concern is only growing. It is difficult to take attention away from MLS (which while established, is hardly thriving in the North American sports landscape),

I am a bit skeptical there will be consistent interest outside of NHL for Canadian fans.

Obviously the national team is flailing but I don't see much investment coming in for soccer players. I see that Rugby 7s has taken off in Canada, mostly because of Olympics, but i just dont see what is going to change outside of what the MLS is already doing.

Damn, also is the first I heard of this. This is really cool, hope it end up doing the right things and going in the right direction.

Is it called Soccer in Canada 🇨🇦 still or Football

@Ledley Still pretty much called Soccer to be fair. :(