Canadian Football Act

The Canadian Football Act (1974) was a proposed Act by the Parliament of Canada in April 1974 designed to give a government-protected monopoly over professional football in Canada to the Canadian Football League (CFL). Although it was never signed into law, the move by the government eventually compelled the World Football League's Toronto Northmen, a team that was originally set to play in Toronto, to move to Memphis, Tennessee in the United States as the Memphis Southmen. The spectre of the Act was again raised when John F. Bassett, the owner of the Northmen/Southmen franchise, proposed a United States Football League franchise for Hamilton, Ontario in 1983.

Today, there is speculation that a similar act will develop if the National Football League tries to expand to Toronto and thus threatens the Canadian league's existence. Yet likely it would still allow for an NFL team to play in Canada in an NFL preseason game and the CFL's off season; thus allowing for a Canadian city to host the Super Bowl in the unlikely event that the NFL ever decided to host their premier event in a non-NFL city.

It is also unlikely that any future act will be passed to ever affect American college football, such as the NCAA and NAIA, who have or have had teams based in Canada and bowl games hosted in Canadian cities, with no opposition, in part because the CFL draws part of its players from American College teams as well (and, in the case of bowl games, because their December and January scheduling is well after Canadian university football ends its season).

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