Jean-François Crevier and Isabèle Chevalier founded the Montreal franchise in the new league being spearheaded by Diana Matheson.
A new Canadian professional women’s soccer league will be created next year, and one of its teams will be in Montreal.
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax will be the other founding teams for the new Northern Super League, which kicks off in April 2025.
Co-founders Jean-François Crevier and Isabèle Chevalier purchased the Montreal team in July 2023, but it was only last Friday that the deal with the new league was signed.
Chevalier said this new league was not only an investment, but also a passion project.
“Where I am in my life and my career, it’s really important to me to make a difference,” Chevalier said. “It’s time, it’s the right moment and it’s also the right product to do it with.”
Crevier said he saw an article in March last year about the league that co-founder Diana Matheson wanted to start.
“Right away, I told myself that I wanted to get involved in this,” Crevier said. “I didn’t know how or in what form, but I knew I wanted to help.”
Matheson, 40, represented Canada at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. She won bronze in 2012 in London, scoring the winning goal. Matheson also participated in the FIFA World Cup four times.
Former Canadian international Diana Matheson, chief executive officer and co-founder of Project 8 along with Thomas Gilbert, unveiled the name and other details about the new league in a speech to the espnW Summit Canada on Tuesday.
Choosing the right name proved to be anything but easy.
“For me, it was very difficult,” Matheson said in an interview. “Us in the Project 8 office, every spare probably 20 minutes we had over the first 18 months we would just brainstorm on our own — ’Hey, what should the league name be?’ And never came up with anything good.”
So they turned to professionals, with Canadian creative agency Broken Heart Love Affair providing the brand and aurora borealis logo.
“They came up with something that I really, really love,” said Matheson. “So I hope Canadians do too.”
The decision was made not to include women in the league title, even though “we are very proudly building for women and by women,” said Matheson.
“We landed on not including it, because at the end of the day what we are building here is going to be an internationally competitive professional soccer league, period,” she added. “And I think the women’s soccer part of that will speak for itself once we get up and rolling.”
While there is plenty more work to be done before the first ball is kicked, the new league now has a framework to work off.
“I like the runway we have, especially with the group of people we have. … There’s a very collaborative approach to building this league from every ownership group,” said Matheson, who won 206 caps for Canada between 2003 and 2020.
The addition of Ottawa and Montreal fleshes out the initial team roster, bringing the number of franchises to six — the minimum required for Canada Soccer sanctioning.
- “It’s huge,” said Matheson. “At the end of the day, we’re in six of the biggest markets across Canada, which we’re thrilled about. Ottawa, Montreal specifically have huge girls’ and women’s soccer communities.”
- “We’re happy with the representation we have from (the) West Coast to the Maritimes, in Quebec,” she added. “It’s just the beginning. We’ll, of course, still be looking to roll our expansion plans in the next year and talk about when we’re adding teams (No.) 7 and 8. But we’re really happy with the six teams we’re launching with.”
The new league is owned equally by the clubs, with Matheson’s group also holding an ownership share.
The league is looking at a $1.5-million initial salary cap for each team, covering rosters numbering 20 to 25. There will be an additional cap on player benefits such as housing and transportation.
Source: Article Montreal Gazette
