Canada Soccer announced this morning how the 2019 Canadian Championship will unfold, with Canadian Premier League teams welcomed into the tournament for the very first time. It’s a pretty weird schedule, with the competition now expanding to include 13 teams.
It’ll now have five total rounds, with certain teams getting byes to all except the final. The first qualifying round will feature PLSQ champions AS Blainville, League1 Ontario champions Vaughan Azzurri, and four CanPL teams — Cavalry FC, HFX Wanderers FC, Pacific FC, and York9 FC.
Three winners from that round will advance to play FC Edmonton, Forge FC, and Valour FC, all of whom received byes to the second round (Edmonton because they’ve played in the tournament before, and Forge and Valour because they were the first two CanPL clubs granted membership by Canada Soccer).