The Canadian Premier League Shield or CPL Shield is a trophy awarded annually to the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

(CPL) club with the best regular season finish. Although this award does not signify a league championship, as that is decided during the

Canadian Premier League Finals The Canadian Premier League final is the annual championship game of the Canadian Premier League (CPL), the top level of Canadian soccer. It is played as a single match hosted by the winner of the first semifinal against the winner of the sec ...

, the winning team is awarded an equal monetary prize to the eventual playoff champions, and a berth in the next season's

CONCACAF Champions Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

History

At the end of the 2022 Canadian Premier League season, the league announced that they would begin to recognize the regular season accomplishments of its member clubs to have more similarity with soccer competitions around the world, which put less emphasis on post-season results. At the time, the Canadian Premier League did not recognize a regular season winner. The CPL Shield was first unveiled near the end of the

2023 Canadian Premier League The 2023 Canadian Premier League season was the fifth season of the Canadian Premier League, the top level of Soccer in Canada, Canadian soccer. The CPL Shield was won by Cavalry FC who finished first in the regular season by a 13 point margin. ...

regular season.

Cavalry FC Cavalry Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in the Calgary metropolitan region of Alberta. The club competes at the top of the Canadian soccer league system in the Canadian Premier League, and plays their home matches ...

were the first team to hoist the trophy following their 2023 regular season championship. The CPL Shield was also awarded retroactively to the clubs with the best regular season records from all previous seasons, meaning that Cavalry FC were also the first de-facto winners of the trophy for their first place finish in the inaugural 2019 season. Due to the unconventional format used for a shortened season in 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the league did not retroactively award the trophy to any team for that year.

Design

The trophy is a silver shield measuring about in diameter and weighing . The CPL Shield has 13 edges to represent each of the

provinces and territories of Canada Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

and features a gold CPL logo (which is a stylized maple leaf) in the centre. The trophy sits on a removable wooden base.

Winners

– Trophy awarded retroactively

Records

Shield wins by club

Shield wins by province

Winner's records in the CONCACAF Champions Cup

Starting in 2023, the CPL Shield winner earned Canada's berth in the following year's

References

; Notes ; Sources {{navboxes, list1= {{CPL Shield winners, state=collapsed {{CPL Shield winning seasons, state=collapsed Canadian Premier League Canadian Premier League trophies and awards Canadian Premier League Shield Awards established in 2023 2023 establishments in Canada