Canadian Championship
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| Founded | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Region | Canada (CONCACAF) |
| Number of teams | 5 |
| Current champions | Toronto FC (5th title) |
| Most successful club(s) | Toronto FC (5 titles) |
| Television broadcasters |
The Sports Network Réseau des sports |
| Website | canadasoccer |
 2016 Canadian Championship
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The Canadian Championship—known as the Amway Canadian Championship for sponsorship reasons—is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. As of 2015, it is contested by MLS sides Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and Montreal Impact, NASL side FC Edmonton and USL side Ottawa Fury FC. It is currently sponsored by Amway Canada and organized by the Canadian Soccer Association.
The Amway Canadian Championship is a club soccer competition organized by the Canadian Soccer Association. The championship determines Canada's entry in the annual CONCACAF Champions League. Fully professional Canadian soccer teams play in United States based leagues. Prior to the creation of the official competition in 2008, there was no domestic competition to determine the best Canadian professional team (as Canada Soccer's Challenge Trophy only crowned the best amateur team). An unofficial Canadian Champion determined in the same manner as 2008-2010, a home-and-away series with the games taken from USL First Division (USL-1) regular season league games, was awarded by the Canadian national teams' supporters group, The Voyageurs. This unofficial Canadian Championship became less legitimate when Toronto was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to start play in 2007 in the USSF Division 1 MLS league above the USSF Division 2 USL-1 league. Toronto's USL-1 team self relegated, while the other two Canadian professional soccer teams did not play meaningful games against the new MLS team in 2007.
For the 2008-2009 season, CONCACAF changed their eight team FIFA Club World Cup qualification tournament from a two leg aggregate goals knockout elimination format, named the CONCACAF Champions Cup, to a format mirroring the UEFA Champions League with a play-in round, a group stage, and lastly a two-leg aggregate score knockout format for the final rounds. The format change for the 2008–09 CONCACAF Champions League provided the opportunity to expand the number of qualifying teams from different countries, and Canada was awarded a single entry in the play-in round preceding the group stage. The year 2008 was the first time a Canadian entry had been awarded by CONCACAF since 1992, and the first time a Canadian team participated since 1976. To award the new Canadian entry, the CSA created a new competition consisting of a home-and-away round-robin series between the three fully professional Canadian teams: Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. As the Canadian champions, Montreal qualified for CONCACAF Champions League 2008–09.
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