Many people have been trying to get the Canadian Premier League up and running for a while, but it looks like they are now targeting a 2018 kickoff.

The Canadian Premier League has been in planning for a few years now but just hit its stride with an expected kickoff date in 2018. This idea of Canada’s own professional soccer league was started in 2013. The intention of this new league is to foster Canadian talent and develop their own coaches.

Since the whole idea of the Canadian Premier League is to foster Canadian players, there is a rumor going around that there would be a quota of 75% Canadian players on every team. That would give Canadian professional players much more time on the field in a competitive mindset than they are getting now.

Current teams in the MLS (Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact and Toronto FC) and in the NASL (FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury FC) will not be required join the new league but the new Canadian Premier League officials are hopping that the NASL teams will join to help strengthen the league.

Though the Canadian Premier League is pushing to be a tier 1 league along side the MLS, it might take a while for this league to have the experience to play at such a high level. This league could be great, though, for the Canadian National Team as they try to take more of a foothold in the international side of the sport.