Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; French: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a city in Canada. They are divided into two divisions: four teams in the East Division and five teams in the West Division. As of 2024, it features a 21-week regular season in which each team plays 18 games with three bye weeks. This season traditionally runs from mid-June to early November. Following the regular season, six teams compete in the league's three-week playoffs, which culminate in the Grey Cup championship game in late November. The Grey Cup is one of Canada's largest annual sports and television events.[3] The CFL was officially named on January 19, 1958,[4] upon the merger between the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union or "Big Four" (founded in 1907) and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (founded in March 1936).[5]
"CFL" redirects here. For the lamp type, see Compact fluorescent lamp. For other uses, see CFL (disambiguation).Sport
9
Canada
50 Wellington Street East, Toronto, Ontario
Montreal Alouettes
(7th CFL title)
Edmonton Elks
(11 CFL titles)
Players and compensation[edit]
Salary Cap in 2024[edit]
According to the new collective bargaining agreement, the 2024 salary cap will at least $5,585,000 CAD (or $124,111 CAD per active roster spot). [156][157] This will be the first season that players will begin to receive revenue sharing, which will be set at 25% this season (or cap increase of 2.78% for every dollar increase). [156] The salary cap is officially announced in late April every year as well as fines from previous year. As was the case in 2023, the minimum player salary will be set at $70,000 CAD.[156][157]
CFL Operations Cap in 2024[edit]
As of the 2024 season, CFL teams have a $2,500,000 CAD operations caps which limits the number of people per team drawing salaries for football operations to 11 coaches and 25 total people in total. That includes the general manager as well as scouts, video personnel, and equipment staff.[158]
Historical Player Compensation and Revenue[edit]
The CFLPA agreed to include a provision allowing the CFL to enforce a salary cap in the 2002 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA),[159] but the league began enforcing it only from the 2007 season ($4.05 million per team) onward. The cap was raised to $4.2 million in the 2008 season and remained at that level for 2009.[160] Financial penalties for teams that breach the cap are set at $1 to $1 for the first $100,000 over, $2 to $1 for $100,000 to $300,000 over, and $3 to $1 for $300,000 and above. Penalties could also include forfeited draft picks.[161] On June 29, 2010, a new collective bargaining agreement was ratified that raised the salary cap to $4.25 million for the 2010 CFL season and continued to increase by $50,000 each season until 2013.[162] In 2014, a new CBA was ratified and the salary cap was raised to $5 million per team, with that amount increasing again by $50,000 each year until 2018.[163] As per the 2019 collective bargaining agreement, the 2021 salary expenditure cap is scheduled to be $5,350,000 and with the minimum team salary set at $4,750,000.[164][165][166] The salary cap number was subject to increase as players now have revenue sharing of 20% from broadcast deals (outside of TSN and ESPN), but since the league did not play in 2020, the cap number will likely be static.[165][166]
For 2010, the minimum team salary was set at $3.9 million while the minimum player salary was set at $42,000.[162] With the new CBA in 2014, the salary floor was raised to $4.4 million per team with increases of $50,000 per year, and the minimum salary was raised to $50,000 per year.[163] The average salary per player in 2014 was CA$96,000.[167] A new collective bargaining agreement was signed in 2019 that set the minimum annual player salary at $54,000, with that number increasing to $65,000 for National and American players in 2020.[168] In 2019, Mike Reilly and Bo Levi Mitchell were the highest paid players in the CFL after signing contracts in February 2019 for average yearly salaries of over $700,000.[169] Players designated as global players (see player designations) are paid the league minimum by rule and may have a portion of their salary sent back to their original home league as part of a partnership with the CFL.[170]
Player compensation is not tied to league revenue, which remains a trade secret. Only the four publicly held teams in the league reveal their financial information, as those companies are required to do so under Canadian law. As of 2013, prior to Ottawa's rejoining the league (at which time Toronto, which is partially owned by a public company, was still fully private), estimates of the CFL's revenue varied between $150 million[171] and CA$200 million.[172] As of 2019, five of the CFL's nine teams (including all three community-owned franchises) are profitable, and four operate at a loss; those four teams lose more than the five profitable teams, resulting in a net loss of approximately CA$20 million overall.[173]
Player designations[edit]
Players in the CFL carry nationality designations referring to their country of origin: Nationals ("a Canadian citizen at the time of signing his first contract, was classified as a non-import prior to May 21, 2019, was physically resident in Canada for an aggregate period of five years prior to reaching the age of 18, or played football for a minimum of three years at a U Sports institution, was draft eligible in 2021 at a minimum, and has graduated with a degree at that institution"), Americans (non-National and non-Global players, almost exclusively used for United States citizens), and Globals (any player who does not hold Canadian or American citizenship and does not qualify as a National in any other way).[174] In prior versions of the CFL CBA and league rules, National players were known as non-import players and American players were known as international (2014–2018) and import (before 2014) players, with the criteria to qualify as a non-import player being more restrictive.[175] Global players were introduced in 2019.[174]
National players enter the CFL through the CFL Draft or free agency. Global players enter the CFL in a similar method as national players, with exclusive drafts held only for eligible players. American players are typically inducted by way of the negotiation list: any team can lay unilateral claim to up to 45 players that have never played in the CFL at any given time (each team must make at least ten of those names public as of 2018), with no limit on how long a player can be held on the list and no limit on how old the player must be (thus CFL teams can claim players not yet eligible for the NFL Draft). Once a player on a negotiation list expresses formal interest in joining the CFL, that team has up to ten days to offer a contract (usually a league-minimum, two-year contract) to retain the player's rights.[176] Other than the names that are made public, the full list of names league-wide are a secret held from the general public and even from the other teams, with teams only finding out if a player is on another team's negotiating list if the league office tells them.
Roster limits[edit]
In 2006, the active roster limit was increased from 40 to 42, in 2014 it was again increased to 44, and in 2016 was increased to 46.[163][177][178] An unlimited number of players may be put on a team's disabled, injured and suspended lists.
As of 2021, each team must abide by the National/American/Global ratio rule, which requires teams to have two quarterbacks, two Global players, and a maximum of 20 American players (excluding quarterbacks) with a minimum of 44 total Active Roster players and a maximum of 45.[177][179] Each team will also have one player of any nationality on the Reserve Roster who receives the benefits of being on the Active Roster, but may not play in a game.[179]
Through the 2018 season, quarterbacks, of which a team was required to carry three on a roster, were not allowed to be counted toward the national player requirement nor the starter requirement, which put Canadian quarterbacks at a disadvantage compared to other positions in being hired by a CFL franchise.[177][180] This rule was changed in 2019 whereby teams had two roster spots for quarterbacks and a third quarterback counted in the ratio.[181][182][183] Additionally, a National quarterback would be considered one of the club's National Starting Players as long as he remains on the field at the quarterback position.[184]
Teams are additionally allowed up to 10 national or international players (with a minimum of one national if there are less than seven players or two nationals if there are at least seven players total) on their practice squad roster and may expand it to 12 if the team carries the maximum allowed two global practice squad players, though they are not required to do so.[161][177][178] Every year, the practice squad roster is temporarily increased in size to 15 following the start of the National Football League's season to accommodate for the influx of cut NFL players.[178] Unlike players on the active roster, players on the practice squad may be signed at any time to another team's active roster without compensation to the player's original team.[178]
Labour representation[edit]
CFL players are represented by the Canadian Football League Players' Association (CFLPA). Each team elects two players to the CFLPA Board of Player Representatives, which meets once per year. Every two years, it elects an executive Board of Directors.[185]
