2024 Challenge Trophy

The 2024 Canada Soccer National Championships (officially the Toyota National Championships for sponsorship reasons) was the 100th staging of Canada Soccer's amateur football club competition. Gloucester Celtic FC won the Challenge Trophy after they beat Suburban FC in the Canadian Final at Newton Athletic Field in Surrey on 14 October 2024.

Ontario's Gloucester Celtic FC won 1-0 in the Canadian Final to lift the Challenge Trophy for the third time in 12 years (also the second time in three years). Joey Kewin scored the lone goal.

Ten teams qualified to the final week of the 2024 National Championships in Surrey. Each team played four group matches before the medal and ranking matches on the last day. An Ontario team reached the Canadian Final for the fifth consecutive year, the longest such streak by any member association since British Columbia teams made six straight appearances between 1982 and 1987.

On the road to the 2024 National Championships, Gloucester Celtic FC beat Scarborough GS United in the 2024 Ontario Cup Final.

Host selection

The bidding procedure to host the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Challenge and Jubilee Trophy competitions was officially opened by Canada Soccer via request for proposal submissions on 12 August 2020. Bidding for the 2024 tournament was appended to a previously existing procedure for the 2022 and 2023 competitions, which had been originally issued on 7 February 2020 but suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 18 March 2021, the city of Surrey — who had submitted a bid as part of their sports tourism strategy in partnership with the local Surrey Football Club — were officially awarded hosting rights by Canada Soccer.

Format and entrants

Each of Canada Soccer's thirteen member associations were invited to nominate a provincial or territorial representation team for the tournament, with teams generally earning the nomination by qualifying through a preliminary series such as a league competition, open cup, playoff, or single elimination tournament. Based on the number of provincial and territorial entries received, Canada Soccer's Competition Committee determined the competition format — which in this case, also meant awarding a host and additional team entry to ensure an even number of participants and ensuring that participants play in an equal number of matches.[citation needed]

On 13 May, Canada Soccer confirmed a total of ten member associations (nine provincial, one territorial) had indicated their participation for the 2024 tournament. Following two withdrawals from the competition in August 2024, the final number of provincial and territorial associations who participated in the competition was reduced to eight – with several revisions to the seeding and groups required.

Seeding and groups

Member associations were seeded according to the final classification of their representation teams in the previous year's championship, then assigned to two groups of five using a serpentine distribution method. Associations without representation in the previous year's tournament, host entries, and additional entries were then added to seeding in the order their participation in the competition was confirmed.[citation needed]

Within their groups, the teams played each other once in a single round-robin over the course of five days, with the teams receiving a bye day corresponding with their seed number (seeds 1–2 received a bye on day 5 of competition, seeds 3–4 on day 4, seeds 5–6 on day 3, and so on). The final round was held on day six of the competition, with match pairings determined by group standings.

Preliminary groups

Revised groups (as of 2 August)

Final groups (as of 31 August)

◊ denotes new entry† and (H) denote a host entry‡ and (A) denote an additional entry

Entrants

Of the 10 teams qualified to play at the 2024 Challenge Trophy, only 2 participated at the previous tournament in 2023 in Halifax. Nova Scotia's representatives, Suburban FC of Bedford, made their 3rd appearance overall in the tournament, on the heels of a 4th-place finish in 2023. Meanwhile, Edmonton Scottish returned as Alberta's representative for an impressive 8th time in the last 11 competitions, which also marked their 13th appearance overall.[citation needed]

Newfoundland's Holy Cross FC continued their historic run of Challenge Trophy entries, attending their 11th tournament in 14 years and 22nd overall. Elsewhere, British Columbia's representative team Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC returned for its first appearance in a quarter of a century (since 1999), and their host team Vancouver United Hibernian made their debut in Challenge Trophy competition.[citation needed]

Overall, the field boasted 5 previous champions, including 2022 winners Gloucester Celtic FC. Notably, 2023 champions West Ottawa Warriors did not enter Ontario's qualifying tournament, the Ontario Cup in 2024 – meaning they could not defend their title at this competition.[citation needed]

Qualified teams

Denotes additional entryDenotes host entryDenotes withdrawn entries

Notes

Withdrawals

New Brunswick

In early August, following the release of the preliminary schedule and groups, New Brunswick informed Canada Soccer that they would be withdrawing their entry into the competition. As a result, Yukon were elevated a position within the seeding table and placed in group A, and British Columbia were awarded an additional berth into the tournament for a host team and automatically placed in the remaining group B slot.[citation needed]

This also marked the second time New Brunswick had withdrawn from the tournament in three years, following their abandonment of the 2022 competition.

Prince Edward Island

As the tournament drew closer, Prince Edward Island informed Canada Soccer on 31 August that they too would be withdrawing their team nomination. With a second berth already awarded to British Columbia via a host team, the Competitions Committee held a draw to determine which province would be awarded an entry for an additional team into the tournament – a process which last occurred ahead of the 2016 competition. This process resulted in Ontario being allotted an entry for an additional, unseeded team into the competition.

Following this withdrawal, the two finalists of the 2024 MilkUP Ontario Cup were informed of their qualification to the tournament. This meant that the Ontario representatives were determined on 31 August, as opposed to the date of their provincial final, which was scheduled for 8 September. These developments further triggered another change in seeding, with Yukon now elevated again by a position within the seeding table (remaining in group A). This also moved British Columbia's host team entry to group A, ultimately placing Ontario's additional team into group B.[citation needed]

Venue and fields

All 25 group stage and classification matches took place across four artificial turf fields at Newton Athletic Park, within the host city of Surrey, British Columbia.

Competition

The preliminary schedule was released by Canada Soccer on 19 August without locations or kick-off times, which were later confirmed on 6 September.

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Group A

Matchday 1

Matchday 2

Matchday 3

Matchday 4

Matchday 5

Group B

Matchday 1

Matchday 2

Matchday 3

Matchday 4

Matchday 5

Final round

Placement matches

Ninth place match

Seventh place match

Fifth place match

Bronze medal match

Challenge Trophy final

Standings

Final classification

Per statistical convention in football, matches decided by penalty kicks are denoted as draws.

Seeding for 2025 Challenge Trophy

The table below indicates the seed position earned and allocated to each member association for 2025, provided that those associations send an entry to that competition. It is based on the performance of their seeded representation teams at this tournament (teams denoted with an (S) in the classification table), and may not reflect the preliminary seeding upon its release.

External links

• at CanadaSoccer.com