Ligue1 Québec

Background

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.^[1] 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.^[2][3] 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.^[4][5] 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).^[6]

Foundation

In 2011, the Première ligue de soccer du Québec was established, marking the return of a semi-professional soccer league to the province for the first time in 20 years.^[2][7] 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,^[2] including the Montreal Impact of the MLS.

The league had its debut season in 2012 with a men's division featuring five 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 opted out of playing for the season.^[17] However, the remainder of the men's 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]

In 2022, the PLSQ joined League1 Canada along with League1 Ontario and League1 British Columbia. On April 19, 2023, the league rebranded to Ligue1 Québec to align with its partner leagues.^[19] In 2024, it was announced that USL League Two club Vermont Green FC would host the reigning L1Q champion each year in a friendly each year, known as the Maple Cup.^[20]

Coupe L1QC

At the end of the year, there is a league cup, called the Coupe L1QC (formerly the Coupe PLSQ), which began in 2013. The format varies each season, depending on the number of teams in the league.^[21] The most recent cup competition featured the top four teams from league play in a single-knockout tournament. In the past, the cup has also used a group stage and knockout format where three groups of three teams were formed, and the winner of each group along with the best second-place finisher advanced to the semi-finals.

Yearly results

Current clubs

Ligue1 Québec

The following twelve teams are members of the league for the 2026 season:

More information Team, City ...

Team	City	Stadium	Joined
Current teams
A.S. Blainville	Blainville, Laurentides	Parc Blainville	2012
Celtix du Haut-Richelieu	Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Montérégie	Parc Pierre-Benoît	2020
AS Laval[note 1]	Laval	Parc de Lausanne	2019
FC Laval[note 2]	Laval	Parc Berthiaume-Du Tremblay	2018
CS Longueuil	Longueuil, Montérégie	Parc Laurier	2014
CS Mont-Royal Outremont	Mount Royal, Montréal	Parc Recreatif de TMR	2013
CS Saint-Laurent	Saint-Laurent, Montreal	Stade Claude-Robillard	2022
CS St-Hubert	Saint-Hubert, Montérégie	Centre Sportif Roseanne-Laflamme	2017
Ottawa South United	Ottawa, Ontario	TAAG Park (Carleton University)	2020
Royal-Sélect de Beauport	Quebec City	Stade Beauport	2021
CS LaSalle	Montréal		2025
AS Gatineau	Gatineau, Outaouais		2025

Close

1. [1]

   AS Laval was known as CS Monteuil until the 2021 season
2. [2]

   FC Laval was known as CS Fabrose until the 2020 season

Blainville

Celtix

FC Laval

AS Laval

Longueuil

Mont-Royal

St-Hubert

Ottawa SU

Gatineau

Beauport

LaSalle

Saint-Laurent

Locations of clubs participating in the 2025 Ligue1 Québec season.

Former clubs

Timeline