After two years of paying the bills, Canadian Premier League pulls the plug on Valour

Valour FC goalkeeper Eleias Himaras lies on the field after the Vancouver Whitecaps defeated Valour FC during a Canadian Championship quarterfinal soccer match, in Vancouver, B.C., Wednesday, July 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

After two years of financing Valour FC, the Canadian Premier League has called time on the Winnipeg-based team.

The league announced Friday that Valour, one of its original franchises, is closing shop.

“I think it’s a case of a step back to take a leap forward,” said James Johnson, Group CEO of Canadian Soccer Business which shares ownership with the CPL. “A difficult day today for the CPL and of course, in particular, Winnipeg.

“Having said that though, it’s not indicative of the rest of the league and the rest of the business. It’s a tough call. Its one when we’re sitting down and planning out what we want 2026 to look like, we’ve got to make decisions around where we invest. And we couldn’t justify effectively running the club for a third year because we need to invest in other areas.”

Valour — owned by the Winnipeg Football Club, the non-profit, community-owned organization that runs the CFL’s Blue Bombers — has been on shaky ground for some time.

In April 2024, the Bombers reported that Valour had lost $1.25 million the previous year, noting the club’s finances continued to be uncertain. In 2022, the Bombers reported a $950,000 loss from operating the soccer team.

Valour, which finished sixth in the eight-team league last season at 7-16-5, was not on the WFC’s books this year. The Canadian Premier League covered the club’s operating costs in 2024, with a similar agreement in place this season.

The CPL noted that it will remain an eight-team league in 2026 with the addition of expansion FC Supra du Québec.

Johnson did not have an update on Pacific FC, which is up for sale. SixFive Sports & Entertainment, the current ownership group, also runs Vancouver FC.

In a release, Valour thanked its fans, players and staff and said it would fulfil any contractual obligations for players and staff to the end of the year. Players under contract after the 2025 season will become free agents or return to their parent club. Ticket-holders will receive refunds.

Valour is the second CPL team to pull the plug. FC Edmonton folded after the 2022 season, one year after the league took over the franchise.

Johnson believes soccer will return to Winnipeg, if certain conditions are met.

“It’s a market that we believe in. But it’s also a market that needs a different solution on the ground there. It’s a market that we can think can do a lot better that what we’ve seen in the past few years.”

A soccer-specific stadium is needed. Valour has been playing at the 32,340-capacity Princess Auto Stadium that is home to the Bombers.

With the Northern Super League looking to expand to Central and Western Canada, a Winnipeg venue conducive to soccer would be welcome on two fronts.

After visiting Winnipeg, Johnson believes the Manitoba capital can sustain a soccer team in the right conditions.

“There’s a lot of soccer-hungry people in the community that want to get behind a team that they believe in. So with the right ownership group in the future and with a stadium solution … I think that Winnipeg is a good market.

“It’s just not there at the moment. It’s going to take some time to get a stadium in place and to also get a new ownership group.”

Having said that, Johnson believes the team would still be in Winnipeg if the ongoing battle with Rogers and the CRTC over OneSoccer, the subscription streaming service that carries CPL and Canada games as well as the Telus Canadian Championship, had been resolved.

In March 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled in favour of OneSoccer, saying that Rogers, by refusing to carry OneSoccer, “has given an undue preference to itself and to other services comparable to OneSoccer, and has subjected OneSoccer to a disadvantage.”

But that ruling has yet to bear fruit.

“There are no updates,” Johnson said of the long-running dispute. “What I could say is that had there been an update, we wouldn’t be making this (Valour) announcement today.”

Rogers has argued that there are “valid commercial reasons” for refusing to distribute OneSoccer, saying the channel has “limited appeal to Canadian consumers.”

OneSoccer’s parent company Timeless Inc., is owned by Scott Mitchell, chairman of both the CPL and Canadian Soccer Business

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2025.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press