Ligue1 Québec

Première ligue de soccer du Québec
Founded	2012
Country	Canada
Confederation	CONCACAF
Number of teams	12 (men's); 12 (women's)
Level on pyramid	3
Domestic cup(s)	Canadian Championship
League cup(s)	Coupe PLSQ
Current champions	FC Laval (men’s); A.S. Blainville (women's) ; (2022)
TV partners	RDS.ca (streaming)
Website	www.plsq.ca
	Current: ; 2022 season (men); 2022 season (women)

The Première ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) is a semi-professional soccer league created in 2012. The Quebec Soccer Federation operates both men's and women's divisions at the pro-am tier of the Canadian soccer league system.^[1] The league is part of League1 Canada, the national third tier divided into regional divisions, with the PLSQ equivalent to League1 Ontario and League1 British Columbia. The men's league winner qualifies for the Canadian Championship, the national cup championship, for the following season.

History

The history of soccer in Quebec dates back to 1884, with the first league established in 1886. In 1911, the Province of Quebec Football Association, now known as the Quebec Soccer Federation was founded.^[2] In 1986, a semi-professional league called the Ligue nationale de soccer du Québec (LNSQ) was created, but it merged with different rival leagues to form the Ligue de soccer élite du Québec in 1992.^[3]^[4] In 1993, five of the former LNSQ clubs Corfinium St-Leonard, Cosmos de LaSalle, Luso Stars Mont-Royal, Montreal Croatia, and Montreal Ramblers joined the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL) to form the league's Eastern Division.^[5]^[6] Following this, the amateur Ligue de soccer élite du Québec served as the top level of soccer in the province, although Quebec clubs did play in the United Soccer League (Montreal Impact) and the semi-professional Canadian Soccer League (Laval Dynamites/Trois-Rivières Attak and Montreal Impact Academy).^[7]

In 2011, the PLSQ was established, marking the return of a semi-professional soccer league to the province for the first time in 20 years.^[3] The league was sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association as a level 3 league, below Major League Soccer (level 1) and the North American Soccer League and United Soccer League (level 2), which were American-based fully professional leagues featuring some Canadian teams,^[3] including the Montreal Impact of the MLS.

The PLSQ had its debut season in 2012 with a male division featuring 5 teams – A.S. Blainville, FC Brossard, FC Boisbriand, FC L'Assomption, and FC Saint-Léonard.^[8] FC Saint-Léonard won the inaugural season.^[9] The following season, the league added a League Cup to its schedule, the Coupe PLSQ, which would take place annually at the conclusion of the season, unrelated to the results of the regular season.^[10] In 2014, the province of Ontario created its own semi-professional level 3 league, League1 Ontario,^[11] and the Inter-Provincial Cup was established which would be contested between the champions of each league and ran for three years until 2016.^[12] In 2015, the league added its first club from outside of the province of Quebec, with the Ottawa Fury FC Academy joining the league.^[13] Beginning in 2018, the league champion qualified to participate in the Canadian Championship for the following season.^[14] In 2018, a women's division was added, starting with five teams.^[15] The start of the 2020 season was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,^[16] but it ultimately resumed with a shortened season, although some teams did opt out of playing for the season.^[17] However, the remainder of the male season was cancelled about three-quarters of the way through the season, due to a resurgence of the pandemic (the female season had already concluded).^[18]

Over the course of its history, various clubs have joined and departed the league. A.S. Blainville is the only club to have participated in every season since the league's inception.^[19] Blainville has been the most successful club, winning the league championship four times and the league cup twice and CS Mont-Royal Outremont has been second-most successful with four league championships and one league cup title.

PLSQ Trophy Winners
Season	Teams	PLSQ Champions League winners	Coupe PLSQ Cup winners
2012	5	FC St-Léonard	—
2013	7	CS Mont-Royal Outremont	CS Mont-Royal Outremont
2014	6	CS Longueuil	FC Gatineau
2015	7	CS Mont-Royal Outremont	Lakeshore SC
2016	7	CS Mont-Royal Outremont	A.S. Blainville
2017	7	A.S. Blainville	A.S. Blainville
2018	8	A.S. Blainville	FC Lanaudière
2019	9	A.S. Blainville	CS Fabrose
2020^{[note 1]}	6^{[note 2]}	A.S. Blainville	—
2021	10^{[note 3]}	CS Mont-Royal Outremont	—
2022	12	FC Laval	A.S. Blainville

Format

Depending on the number of teams in the league, teams will play every other team between 2-4 times per season, for a length of usually between 15 and 20 games. The winner gets the regular season championship. At the end of the year, there is a League Cup, called the Coupe PLSQ, which began in 2013. The format varies each season, depending on the number of teams in the league.^[20] The most recent Cup competition featured nine teams, where three groups of three teams were formed. The winner of each group along with the best second-place finisher advanced to the semi-finals.

Each team has a minimum of nine paid players and is subject to a salary cap.

Men's Division

Current clubs

The following twelve teams are members of the league for the 2022 season:

Team	City	Stadium	Joined	Head coach^[21]
Current teams
A.S. Blainville	Blainville, Laurentides	Parc Blainville	2012	Emmanuel Macagno
Celtix du Haut-Richelieu	Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Montérégie	Stade Alphonse-Desjardins	2020	David Sauvry
CS Lanaudière-Nord^{[note 4]}	Joliette, Lanaudière	André-Courcelles Stadium	2022 (2012)	Aziz Dieng
AS Laval^{[note 5]}	Laval	Centre Sportif Bois-de-Boulogne	2019	Billy Zagakos
FC Laval^{[note 6]}	Laval	Parc Cartier	2018	Boubacar Coulibaly
CS Longueuil	Longueuil, Montérégie	Centre Multi-Sport	2014	François Bourgeais
CF Montréal Réserve	Montréal	CF Montréal training grounds	2022	Nicolas Gagnon
CS Mont-Royal Outremont	Mount Royal, Montréal	Parc Recreatif de TMR	2013	Luc Brutus
CS Saint-Laurent	Saint-Laurent, Montreal	Vanier College Stadium	2022	Nicolas Razzaghi
CS St-Hubert	Saint-Hubert, Montérégie	Centre Sportif Roseanne-Laflamme	2017	Nasson Theosmy
Ottawa South United	Ottawa, Ontario	Quinn's Point	2020	Peter Mapendere
Royal-Sélect de Beauport	Quebec City	Centre Sportif Marc-Simoneau	2021	Samir Ghrib

^ The season was cancelled before its conclusion, with the final standings determined on a points earned per game basis
^ Originally 9 clubs were set to participate, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three clubs withdrew from the season
^ Ottawa South United withdrew midway through the season due to provincial government and cross-border restrictions, with 9 teams finishing the season
^ CS Lanaudière-Nord was known as FC L'Assomption-Lanaudière from 2012 to 2015. Departed league after 2015, returned in 2022
^ AS Laval was known as CS Monteuil until the 2021 season
^ FC Laval was known as CS Fabrose until the 2020 season

Ligue1 Québec is located in Southern Quebec

Blainville

Celtix

FC Laval

AS Laval

Lanaudière-Nord

Longueuil

CF Montréal

Mont-Royal

St-Hubert

Ottawa SU

Beauport

Saint-Laurent

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Locations of current (red) and future (green) clubs.

Former clubs

Club	City	Stadium	Joined	Left
Former teams
FC Boisbriand	Boisbriand, Laurentides	Parc Régional 640	2012	2013
FC Brossard	Brossard, Montérégie	Parc Illinois	2012	2013
FC St-Léonard	St Leonard, Montreal	Stade Hébert	2012	2013
ACP Montréal-Nord	Montréal-Nord, Montreal	Parc Saint-Laurent	2014	2014
FC Lanaudière	Terrebonne, Lanaudière	Centre de Soccer Multifonctionnel de Terrebonne	2016	2021
Lakeshore SC	Kirkland, Montréal	John Abbott College	2015	2016
Ottawa Fury FC Academy	Ottawa, Ontario	Algonquin College	2015	2016
FC Gatineau	Gatineau, Outaouais	Terrain Mont-Bleu	2013	2019
Dynamo de Quebec	Quebec City, Capitale-Nationale	Polyvalente L'Ancienne-Lorette	2017	2019

Timeline