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To provide leadership Highlight Line in the pursuit of excellence Highlight Line in soccer, nationally and internationally, in cooperation with its members and stakeholders.

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Leading Canada to victory and Canadians to a life-long Highlight Line passion for soccer. Highlight Line

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We lead Highlight Line with unwavering integrity. Highlight Line Honesty Highlight Line guides our actions. Our decisions are fair Highlight Line and ethical. Highlight Line We thrive with excellence. Highlight Line Our passion Highlight Line fuels our performance on and off the field of play. We are accountable Highlight Line to our stakeholders. Transparency Highlight Line directs our communication. We respect Highlight Line and include Highlight Line all.

Land Acknowledgement:

As we gather on soccer pitches across the country to play, meet and grow our sport, we recognize that we are connected with one another through the winds that blow air into our lungs and through the waters that rain from the sky to deep into the earth.

We acknowledge that the ground beneath our feet is historically the home of Indigenous Peoples. Circle Highlight Circle Highlight

We at Canada Soccer do this to reaffirm our commitment to and responsibility for improving relationships between nations and to improving our collaboration with each other.

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Message from Dr. Nick Bontis, Highlight Line Canada Soccer President

Canada Soccer has been granted an opportunity of a lifetime.

The co-hosting of FIFA World Cup 2026 provides all of us with a bold target. The visionary milestones contained in this Canada Soccer Achieving 2022-26 Strategic Plan/Canada Soccer Global Gameplan/ are a pathway to achieve heights unseen in our sport. This plan is an evolution of the Canada Soccer Nation 2019-21 Strategic Plan. It sets forth a series of ambitious actions that we will embrace over the coming five years to ensure that the investment, achievements, and aspirations of the Canadian football community come to fruition.


Dots Nick Bontis

Highlight Line Canada Soccer must continue to do all it can to ensure equal access and opportunity for all Canadians prioritizing the experiences of marginalized communities that not only deserve a quality sporting experience from the game, but who have had a love for the game throughout their lives.

This is true whether they were born in Canada or came to this country in search of something better for their family. We must continue to encourage the development of female, black, Indigenous, LGBTQ2S+ players, leaders, coaches, referees, and administrators.

We must diversify the sources of revenue that drive the operations of our soccer federation while still connecting it more directly with our constituents from coast-to-coast-to-coast for whom the game means so much. We must work to ensure a safe, and welcoming sport so that voices are provided to the voiceless through the Canada Soccer Safe Sport Roster. We must continue to invest in development initiatives for our players, coaches, referees, administrators, and volunteers so that they can all raise their level of performance across the system.

Soccer players warming up for a game

In addition to the goals for the next quadrennial, and as we set to work on fulfilling the priorities contained within the Canada Soccer Achieving 2022-26 Strategic Plan, we must keep one eye focused on a future idealized vision for the game. Ambitious targets for the future demand that all stakeholders continuously challenge themselves to strive to achieve greater successes together.

To achieve these ambitions, we must all imagine a future where Canadian professionals regularly ply their trade in the top leagues across the globe, and where domestic leagues and competition structures place a focus on developmentally appropriate, safe, and welcoming environments for all participants.

Soccer team celebrating medal win

We must continue our focus on women’s football strategies to cement our position as leaders, not only at the senior levels with our Women’s National Team, but throughout the entire system as we work toward gender parity. Circle Highlight Circle Highlight

Sharing of the processes, practices, and standards by which our club development initiatives under the Canada Soccer Club Licensing Program are aligned must be a priority for all involved in sanctioned soccer.

Meanwhile, we must ensure that the increased attention on the game in our country during the lead up and through the FIFA World Cup 2026 is leveraged to attract, engage, and retain an ever-growing audience of fans of Canada Soccer’s National Teams and Competitions.

Soccer player kicking ball

Achieving the strategic initiatives outlined in this plan will not be enough. Each of us has a role in dreaming bigger, aspiring for higher levels of success, and contributing to a system of development-focused organizations. Our commitment to these strategic objectives will result in Canada’s evolution as a football nation that is respected as a leader on, and off the field.

Highlight Line Each of us has a role in dreaming bigger, aspiring for higher levels of success, and contributing to a system of development-focused organizations. Dots

Canada Soccer has been provided the opportunity of a lifetime as co-host of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Capitalizing on the tremendous success of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007, the FIFA Women’s Under-20 World Cup 2014, and FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015, Canada Soccer has solidified our place as a top-tier event hosting nation and organization. When the world arrives on our doorstep in 2026, we will be a different organization than we are today.

Over the past two decades, the growth of Canada Soccer has been second to none. Our Women’s National Team Program has gone from a Top 10 nation with back-to-back Olympic Bronze Medals to become the World Champions as Gold Medalists at the Tokyo 2020 games. The growth of interest in a domestic women’s professional footprint has placed it within reach.

Soccer team singing national anthem

Our Men’s National Team program has turned a corner with qualification to the FIFA World Cup a reality for Qatar 2022 and a new identity that has positioned many of its players as globally-recognizable stars putting in world-class performances for both club and country. Qualification to the FIFA World Cup is now expected of the Men’s National Team.

Domestically, we have much to celebrate. A growing domestic professional footprint for our Canadian Championship and a professional men’s league to call our own. A renewed focus on developing the next generation of players, coaches, referees, and administrators is within reach with the expansion of our Academy Online Learning platform and the Canada Soccer Club Licensing Program.

Soccer players holding Canada flag

But, we cannot rest on the successes of the present. We must aspire to take advantage of the increasingly urgent opportunities that lie in front of us. We must continue to set audacious goals and achieve them. The 2022-26 Strategic Plan does just that. It not only sets a course for the next five years, but, it provides an aspirational blueprint for the kind of thinking required to move the game, and the organization forward during the greatest period of opportunity Canada Soccer has seen.

Soccer players warming up for a game sSoccer team celebrating medal win Soccer player kicking ball

Highlight Line Each of us has a role in dreaming bigger, aspiring for higher levels of success, and contributing to a system of development-focused organizations. Dots

Soccer team singing national anthem Soccer players holding Canada flag
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1

Ensure a safe, fun, welcoming, and developmentally appropriate environment for every participant.

2

Continue to clarify the Canada Soccer Player Pathway for all streams.

3

Evolve the Canada Soccer Safe Sport Roster in support of all participants.

4

Maximize the volume and diversity of participants in the Canada Soccer Coach Education Program.

5

Achieve wholesale adoption of the Canada Soccer Club Licensing Program across all levels of play in the country.

6

Launch standards-based, high-performance competitions structures leading to pinnacle domestic events.

7

Evolve the Club Development publication and program offering to guide development of stakeholders across the club environment.

8

Ensure barrier-free access to minimum standards of coach education training and certification.

9

Build a diverse and culturally representative cohort of coach educators aligned to the principles of the transformational coaching methodology.

10

Expand awareness and access to the Academy Online Learning platform.

11

Provide development mentorship opportunities for under-represented populations.

1

Align governing principles across Member Associations and Club Licence holders.

2

Engage in discussions of National Sporting Federation governance reforms in support of Canada Soccer’s leading position as an event-driven NSF.

3

Strengthen EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) policies and procedures that reflect the unique fingerprint of Canadian society.

4

Develop a Women’s Football Strategy in support of reducing barriers to advancement across the system for players, coaches, referees, and administrators.

5

Cultivate a culture of collaboration via a forum for ongoing sharing of policy and program development in order to support Member Associations and Club Licence Holders.

6

Establish an expanded resource base in support of club and organizational development initiatives under the Canada Soccer Club Licensing Program.

7

Ensure transparency and accountability regarding the roles and mandate of Canada Soccer Committees.

8

Collaborate with national partners including the Federal Government, National Multi-sport organizations, and other stakeholders on governance modernization trends, best practices, and implementation.

9

Maximize opportunities for domestic stakeholders to achieve appointments and standing positions on relevant committees and councils at Concacaf and FIFA.

10

Ensure development, training, and succession planning for Board Membership across the soccer system from grassroots through Canada Soccer.

11

Align strategies and priorities to facilitate governance leadership on the pathway to hosting the FIFA World Cup 2026 with all membership partners and Club Licensing Program participants.

1

Maximize investment in facilities in support of hosting the FIFA World Cup 2026 to ensure regional legacy programming and opportunity flow through the expanded infrastructure created through the development of domestic Base Camps.

2

Attract matching investments from corporate sponsors into the women’s game to support the launch a professional footprint for domestic women’s football.

3

Attract promising young referee development initiative candidates from remote geographic regions.

4

Launch a foundation and donations program in support of diversifying revenues.

5

Expand the online learning platform to address gaps in entry-level training across a range of stakeholders including referees.

6

Increase collaboration with Member Associations to create opportunities to capitalize on the domestic attention of the game brought by the FIFA World Cup 2026.

7

Explore extending associate membership opportunities to non-member organizations to provide membership benefits and ensure adherence to the Safe Sport Roster.

8

Leverage investments digital platforms to raise awareness in the National Teams and National Competitions.

9

Leverage investment in IT infrastructure in support of coach education, club development, and referee training programming.

10

Celebrate the international club competition pathways for Professional Club Members including the Canadian Championship and competition entry and participation to Concacaf League and Concacaf Champions League on the pathway to the FIFA Club World Cup.

11

Develop programming and acknowledgement for volunteers of the sport from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

1

Canada Soccer will seek to have gender parity and diversity representation at all levels with a 50-50 gender split and a 30% representation of equity seeking racialized groups for all football administrators.

2

Canada Soccer will achieve gender equity, embracing the country’s diversity to achieve historic and equitable levels across its development programming for players, coaches, referees, and administrators.

3

Canada Soccer will be recognized globally as a football association that embraces its diversity of gender, age, race, sexual orientation, creed, geography, language, and culture to become recognized globally.

4

Canada Soccer will have 50 female players playing regularly in the top five professional leagues in the world.

5

Canada Soccer will have 10 male footballers and playing regularly in the top five professional leagues in the world.

6

Canada Soccer will aspire to improve on historic performances at International competition including all FIFA World Cups and Olympic Games.

7

Canada Soccer will launch a women’s domestic professional league and grow its men’s professional footprint to support the Elite Player Pathway so that its Men’s and Women’s National Teams are recognized among the top three in Concacaf.

8

Canada Soccer will continue to work with leaders in Indigenous sports programs within the framework of the Truth and Reconciliation process to enable a more direct relationship with Indigenous football development communities.

9

Canada Soccer will ensure development pathways and high-performance competition models for professional and amateur soccer, futsal, beach, and para competitions that link to international playing opportunities.

10

Canada Soccer will grow its engaged fan base to by taking advantage of new technological tools, digital and social media platforms.

11

Canada Soccer will become the most recognizable sports property in the country.

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Canada Soccer will continue to link the grassroots of the game with the aspirational levels of its National Teams’ programming in support of the development of Canadian players, coaches, referees, and administrators, and to expand and clarify its programs in support of best practices in soccer development.

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Canada Soccer will work toward providing transparent, accountable, and steady leadership of the game through its stewardship as the governing body of soccer in Canada to ensure an open, welcoming, and supportive soccer environment for all backed by its Safe Sport Roster.

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Canada Soccer will work to ensure the growth of the game by maximizing the impact of hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and providing opportunities to those that have previously encountered barriers to access or advancement.

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Aspirational XI for 2030

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