On Wednesday, the Canadian Premier League announced a pair of updates to its roster rules for the 2024 season.

The league revealed it will no longer require a minimum of 50 per cent of each club’s international players to be below the age of 23 — with all age restrictions removed.

Meanwhile, players signed to CPL-U SPORTS deals are now considered part of a club’s developmental roster, outside of the 23-player primary squad. Teams can sign up to three players to CPL-U SPORTS contracts, who maintain their Canadian collegiate eligibility while playing in the league.

“Putting [CPL-U SPORTS players] within the development category, it better matches the profile of the players, the duration that they’re normally with our clubs as well, and provides a little bit more incentive to our clubs to be able to utilize this mechanism,” said Costa Smyrniotis, Executive Vice President, Soccer at the Canadian Premier League.

Prior to this rule change, CPL sides might have been less inclined to sign U SPORTS players because of the possibility they could return to their schools in August, leaving them short a player late in the season. The hope is that this will encourage more teams to keep U SPORTS players around to develop in a professional environment.

The U SPORTS pathway, particularly through the annual CPL-U SPORTS Draft, has been one of the great success stories of the league in its short history. Canadian men’s national team players Joel Waterman and Victor Loturi came through the draft, as did standout CPL players like Forge’s Garven Metusala, Cavalry’s Eryk Kobza and Vancouver FC’s Anthony White.

“We are still a very big country and you can’t fill in all the holes in the country and be in all the places at once,” said Smyrniotis. “U SPORTS gives us this opportunity for players we have maybe missed, players that are in parts of the country that we aren’t in with our clubs, but also players that we know maybe need a little bit more time [to develop].” 

Also allowing teams a bit more flexibility in building their squads is the aforementioned removal of age-based restrictions on the seven international players each side is allowed to carry. Introduced for this upcoming season, this will give teams more clarity when building their squads for the short and long term.

“The important part there was just trying to make [the rule] a little bit less complex,” said Smyrniotis. “We had gotten to the point where we had maybe narrowed the field of available players, and it’s in the club’s best interest to be able to build a roster that best suits the mix that they have currently in place, to ensure the availability of players is as wide as possible.” 

Requiring clubs to bring in younger international players could, at times, put them in direct competition with young domestic talent, said Smyrniotis. Now, more experienced international players will be able to join the league who can provide mentorship to those young Canadian players, while continuing to raise the standards of play on the pitch.

Finding better ways to incentivize teams to sign and develop young Canadian players has been a key initiative for the league. Last July, the CPL introduced the Exceptional Young Player category, which allows teams to sign up to two U-18 domestic players whose base salaries do not count toward the cap. Two of the inaugural players signed under this initiative have gone on to represent Canada in recent months: Vancouver FC’s TJ Tahid at the U-17 World Cup, and teammate James Cameron with the U-20 squad.

“That will happen more and more over time, especially as all our clubs commit to adding these type of players to their roster, whether it’s mostly coming within their own youth setups, [or] the local game within their communities,” said Smyrniotis. “These designations ensure that [clubs are] out there, they are scouting and they are in the communities as well.”

With just a month to go until the 2024 CPL season kicks off on April 13, the league’s eight clubs are putting the finishing touches on their respective rosters for what is shaping up to be another immensely competitive campaign.

“From a league perspective, we’ve seen a little bit of change, we’ve seen some players change addresses, and we’ve seen some new intriguing international players come in as well,” said Smyrniotis. “I think we are going to see some teams add final touches now, look into the U SPORTS piece, look into the development piece, to bring in that next generation of young talent. We are pretty excited to see how that all shapes up on day one, and ultimately on CPL Final day to see how it all measures up.”

To read more about the Canadian Premier League’s 2024 roster rules, click here.