Fourteen clubs, including three newcomers, will take part in the 2024 Canadian Championship, a four-round competition set to kick off in April.
The winner hoists the Voyageurs Cup and advances to the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the region’s elite men’s club competition.
The 19-game tournament features clubs from five different leagues: Major League Soccer, Canadian Premier League, League1 BC, League1 Ontario and Ligue1 Quebec.
The defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps and 2023 runner-up CF Montreal will receive first-round byes to the tournament, which is sponsored by Telus. The remaining 12 teams will take part in a single-match preliminary round divided into West and East brackets for games between April 23 and May 1.
The six winners will join Vancouver and Montreal in the two-legged May quarter-finals. The semi-finals will also be home-and-away affairs, with the first leg scheduled for July 9-10 and the return leg Aug. 27-28.
The championship game will be a single match Sept. 24 or 25.
The competition draw is scheduled for Feb. 23. Another draw will be held to determine semi-final matchups and host for the final.
The field includes the semi-pro Victoria Highlanders FC (League1 BC), CS St-Laurent (Ligue1 Quebec) and Simcoe County Rovers (League1 Ontario).
Second-half goals by Brian White and Ryan Gauld helped the Whitecaps defend their 2022 title with a 2-1 win over Montreal in the 2023 final before an announced crowd of 20,072 at B.C. Place Stadium on June 7.
Canada Soccer is using a club ranking index for the first time to determine hosting duties for the preliminary through semi-final rounds. The index is based on the past three editions of the competition (2021, 2022, 2023), with the 2023 edition weighted the heaviest.