Canada’s partnership with the NASL could decide the future of soccer in the country

No one will ever fault the North American Soccer League for failing to think big. And their most audacious plan -- at least since the days of Pele, Beckenbauer and Chingalia -- may just be their latest: To bring a real national soccer league to Canada for the first time ever.

As it stands today, Canada might be the only industrialized country without a real soccer league. Never in the CSL’s 16 years of existence under various iterations has it ever moved beyond semi-professional, nor has it ever been deemed worthy of a spot in the CONCACAF championships.

That could soon change if a report from Canadian Soccer News proves accurate. The plan, according to CSN, is for the NASL to effectively create a second league that would consist of all Canadian teams that were mostly partnered with Canadian Football League teams and play in their stadiums. The three existing Canadian MLS teams would not be part of this league structure, but there are plans to have as many as seven teams in this new league. The three Canadian teams already playing or scheduled to begin play in the NASL would likely remain independent of CFL teams.

These teams would likely compete in a self-contained league and then face the winner of the U.S.-based NASL teams in the annual Soccer Bowl to determine an eventual champion, similar to how the American and National leagues operate in baseball.

Those teams would also likely compete in some way with the three MLS sides for a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League and could potentially even earn Canada a second spot in the continental competition.

While this league may not immediately rival MLS, it would certainly create some new rivalries between the Canadian teams in the two leagues. It could also apply some new pressures to MLS sides, who are restrained by salary caps and other artificial limits that the NASL proudly boasts of lacking.

Apparently, part of the impetus of this decision is because of Canada’s potential bid for the 2026 World Cup. A similar promise is what eventually led to U.S. Soccer helping get MLS started shortly after the 1994 World Cup.

Could it work? There’s at least some reason to think it could. Canadians have generally warmed to soccer and these teams could probably draw in the 3,000-5,000 range without too much trouble. But, at least based on the attendance numbers at FC Edmonton and the Ottawa Fury, this league is hardly poised to overtake MLS anytime soon. A bunch of teams playing in 30,000-seat CFL stadiums would also look a lot like MLS 1.0.

But it is a move in the right direction. That Canada has managed to go this long without its own soccer league is kinda remarkable. Up until now, the Canada Soccer Association has begrudgingly hitched its wagon to various U.S.-based leagues -- the original NASL, MLS and now the new NASL. On some level it was natural, just as Canadian teams have managed to peacefully co-exist in the NHL and to a lesser degree in Major League Baseball and the NBA.

In soccer, though, the co-existence hasn’t quite worked out. Canadians love to blame the inability of their men’s national soccer team to qualify for a World Cup -- or even get to the final stage of qualifying -- on the fact that there’s no league whose primary concern is helping reach that goal. While the Canadian NASL might not single-handedly fix that, there’s no denying that it will immediately provide a ton of extra opportunities and, more importantly, energy. And if it pushes MLS to improve along the way, all the better.