|
The Canadian Championship—known as the Amway Canadian Championship for sponsorship reasons—is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. As of 2015, it is contested by MLS sides Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and Montreal Impact and NASL sides FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury FC. It is currently sponsored by American retailer Amway and organized by the Canadian Soccer Association.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.whitecapsfc.com/news/2012/01/2012-amway-canadian-championship )〕 == History == The Amway Canadian Championship is a club football competition organized by the Canadian Soccer Association. The championship determines Canada's entry in the annual CONCACAF Champions League. Fully professional Canadian soccer teams play in United States based leagues. Prior to the creation of the official competition in 2007, there was no domestic competition to determine the best Canadian team. An unofficial Canadian Champion determined in the same manner as 2008-2010, a home and away series with the games taken from USL First Division (USL-1) regular season league games, was awarded by the Canadian national teams' supporters group, The Voyageurs. This unofficial Canadian Championship became less legitimate when Toronto was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to start play in 2007 in the USSF Division 1 MLS league above the USSF Division 2 USL-1 league. Toronto's USL-1 team self relegated, while the other two Canadian professional soccer teams did not play meaningful games against the new MLS team in 2007. For the 2008-2009 season, CONCACAF changed their eight team FIFA Club World Cup qualification tournament from a two leg aggregate goals knockout elimination format, named the CONCACAF Champions Cup, to a format mirroring the UEFA Champions League with a play-in round, a group stage, and lastly a two-leg aggregate score knockout format for the final rounds. The format change for the 2008–09 CONCACAF Champions League provided the opportunity to expand the number of qualifying teams from different countries, and Canada was awarded a single entry in the play-in round preceding the group stage. The year 2008 was the first time a Canadian entry had been awarded by CONCACAF since 1992, and the first time a Canadian team participated since 1976. To award the new Canadian entry, the CSA created a new competition consisting of a home-and-away round-robin series between the three fully professional Canadian teams: Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. As the Canadian champions, Montreal qualified for CONCACAF Champions League 2008–09. The 2008 edition was contested between May 2008 and July 2008 and won by the Montreal Impact. The 2009 edition's format and participants were the same, contested by the three clubs in May and June 2009. It was closely contended by Toronto and Vancouver and won by the former via goal differential in the tournament's final game against the defending champions, Montreal, giving the Toronto franchise its first ever trophy and a spot in the qualifying round of the CONCACAF Champions League 2009–10.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url = http://www.canadasoccer.com/tourney/FIFA_Clubs/2009_Nutrilite_Can_Championship.asp ) 〕 Toronto repeated as champions in the 2010 competition, qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League 2010–11. Toronto won it for the fourth consecutive season in the 2012 competition. In 2011 with the start of a fourth fully professional Canadian soccer team, F.C. Edmonton, the competition was changed from the home and away round robin series to a double-leg aggregate score knockout cup format with the two MLS teams seeded first and second, and NASL teams seeded third and fourth based on league standings of the previous year and the USSF tiering of Division 1 and Division 2. This format mitigated competitive concerns regarding already eliminated teams and the number of additional (extra to their regular league) games each team would be required to play during a season. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Canadian Championship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|