The B.C. derby will be on in the Canadian Premier League, beginning next year.
A franchise based in Langley will battle Island-based Pacific FC in the professional soccer CPL starting in 2023.
The new team will play out of a proposed 8,000-seat stadium at Willoughby Community Park, which is located hard by the Langley Events Centre arena and gym complex. A new turf field has already been laid with the surrounding grandstands to be erected. The team is currently generically named Vancouver CPL 2023 for placeholder reference until the official name is unveiled with likely more of a Fraser Valley theme as the CPL club will have to geo-fence itself in the metro region from the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer.
It will bring to nine the number of CPL franchises, with Saskatoon and Windsor, Ont., in the pipeline for future expansion as Canadian soccer rides the cresting wave created by the qualification of the men’s national team for the 2022 World Cup Qatar and the women’s gold medal from last summer in the Tokyo Olympics.
The CPL, in its fourth season, is the long-awaited Canadian pro domestic soccer league. Canada had been the only advanced national without one until the CPL was formed in anticipation of Canada co-hosting the 2026 World Cup with the U.S. and Mexico.
The same group that owns defending CPL-champion PFC, which plays out of Starlight Stadium in Langford, is bringing the Lower Mainland CPL franchise to south of the Fraser River. The owners of SixFive Sports & Entertainment LP include 43-time Canada-capped Josh Simpson of Victoria, 32-time Canada-capped Rob Friend of Kelowna, both former European pros, and Knightsbridge Capital Group investment businessman Dean Shillington of Vancouver.
Both Simpson and Friend have said they wish they had a Canadian stepping stone like the CPL instead of having to leave home early to begin their pro careers as teens in Europe.
Their company’s mission statement reads: “To establish a diversified global portfolio of professional football teams with the focus around the international player pathway. We seek to … be part of the journey toward increasing Canada’s relevance among the football world.”
It is expected Friend, currently CEO of Pacific FC, will become president of the Langley club and Simpson, now president of PFC, will become CEO of the company’s Island club.
“It’s not just the soccer community. It’s about inspiring the entire community,” Friend said during the announcement media conference held Wednesday in Langley.
“I’m an athlete. It’s in my DNA. It’s about inspiring the younger generation and being proud and representing your local club. We’re excited. This game is growing in this country.”
Adding the Fraser Valley team with PFC will allow CPL clubs from across the Rockies to do the back-to-back B.C. road-games double.
