Forge FC’s Choiniere named the player of month
The awards haven’t stopped for Forge FC even with the Canadian Premier League season officially coming to a close.
After leading Forge to a championship win over Atletico Ottawa, Bobby Smyrniotis has been named CPL manager of the month for October.
Forge’s David Choiniere was named the league’s player of the month after scoring in both the semifinal and final.
In other CPL news, the league is rejigging its salary structure and increasing its minimum player salary for next season.
The minimum salary in 2023 will be $30,000, up from $22,000 this season. The league is also separating its player and technical staff salary budget.
This year, teams operated under a “compensation cap” of $1.2 million per club. That total covered player wages, bonuses, and housing, as well as coaching and technical staff. The technical cap compensation had to fall between $350,000 and $550,000 for the season, with player compensation between $650,000 and $850,000.
Next season, the total player compensation budget must fall between $750,000 and $1.125 million. To reach the maximum, teams can use the league’s under-21 players incentive program. That provides salary cap relief on the first $200,000 of under-21 player compensation, with only 50 per cent of an under-21 player’s salary counting toward the salary budget cap.
The $100,000 of relief allows clubs to hit the $1.125 million ceiling.
The player maximum this season was in effect $950,000, if $200,000 was spent on U-21 players (providing $100,000 in relief) and only $350,000 was spent on the technical cap.
League rosters must have a minimum of 20 players and a maximum of 23 players, including three under-21 players.
The CPL is not releasing the 2023 minimum and maximum budget amounts for technical staff.
The Professional Footballers Association Canada (PFA Canada), which represents players, said it welcomed the move to increase the CPL salary cap.
“PFA Canada views the league’s decision to increase the salary cap and minimum salary as progress towards the further professionalization of players’ CPL experience,” it said in a statement. “However, we remain mindful such arrangements require players’ agreement through collective bargaining in order to maximize mutual benefit, transparency and enforcement.”