Vancouver FC

The final of the 2025 Canadian Championship put Vancouver FC against the club it was never meant to compete with. On 1 October 2025 at BC Place, two divisions apart on paper, the visitors lost 4–2 to Vancouver Whitecaps FC.

The team exists because the Canadian Premier League wanted the Vancouver metropolitan area and could not get into Vancouver itself. SixFive Sports & Entertainment LP, headed by Rob Friend, was awarded the expansion rights in November 2021; the club was founded a year later, in November 2022, and played its first league match in the 2023 season. Home is Willoughby Stadium in Langley, an hour east of the city the badge names.

What the club says it is for is young players, and the record so far reads that way — squads assembled quickly, a leading scorer whose 14 goals were enough to top the list by October 2025. The derby with Pacific FC, the other British Columbia side, was in place before either set of supporters had much history to argue about.

Afshin Ghotbi was appointed in November 2022, before there was a team to coach, and stayed until July 2025 — through the first training sessions, the first goal, scored by Shaan Hundal in April 2023, and most of the cup run that ended at BC Place. Martin Nash has had the job since. But the man who has actually been on the pitch for it all is Callum Irving, the captain, past 90 appearances for a club that has only existed for three seasons.