The Canadian Premier League Shield or CPL Shield is a trophy awarded annually to the Canadian Premier League (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 winning team is awarded an equal monetary prize to the eventual playoff champions, and a berth in the next season's CONCACAF Champions Cup.[1]
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.[2] 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 regular season.[3][4] Cavalry FC 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 league did not retroactively award the trophy to any team for that year.[5]
The trophy is a silver shield measuring about 46 centimetres (18 in) in diameter and weighing 9 kilograms (20 lb). The CPL Shield has 13 edges to represent each of the provinces and territories of Canada and features a gold CPL logo (which is a stylized maple leaf) in the centre.[3] The trophy sits on a removable wooden base.
† – Trophy awarded retroactively
| Season | Teams | Winner | Record | Playoff result | Coach | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pld | W | D | L | Pts | Δ | PPG | |||||
| 2019 † | 7 | Cavalry FC | 28 | 19 | 5 | 4 | 62 | 6 | 2.21 | Runner-up |  Tommy Wheeldon Jr.
|
| 2020 | 8 | Not awarded | |||||||||
| 2021 † | 8 | Forge FC | 28 | 16 | 2 | 10 | 50 | 0[a] | 1.79 | Runner-up |  Bobby Smyrniotis
|
| 2022 † | 8 | Atlético Ottawa | 28 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 49 | 2 | 1.75 | Runner-up |  Carlos González
|
| 2023 | 8 | Cavalry FC (2) | 28 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 55 | 13 | 1.96 | Runner-up | Tommy Wheeldon Jr. (2)
|
| 2024 | 8 | Forge FC (2) | 28 | 15 | 5 | 8 | 50 | 2 | 1.79 | Runner-up | Bobby Smyrniotis (2)
|
| Team | Winners | Runners-up | Year(s) won | Year(s) runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forge FC | 2 | 3 | 2021, 2024 | 2019, 2022, 2023 |
| Cavalry FC | 2 | 2 | 2019, 2023 | 2021, 2024 |
| Atlético Ottawa | 1 | 0 | 2022 |
| Province | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
 Ontario
|
3 | 3 |
 Alberta
|
2 | 2 |
Starting in 2023, the CPL Shield winner earned Canada's berth in the following year's CONCACAF Champions Cup.[4]
| Year | Club | Starting round | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Forge FC[a] | Round of 16 | Round of 16 |
| 2024 | Cavalry FC | Round one | Round one |
| 2025 | Forge FC | Round one | Round one |
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