CF Montreal

TEAM HISTORY

Club de Foot Montréal, or simply CF Montréal, is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Montreal. The club competes in Major League Soccer as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 2010 as the Montreal Impact, the team began play in 2012 as an expansion team of the league, being the league's third Canadian club, and replaced the North American Soccer League Montreal Impact. The club rebranded to its current name in 2021.

Although Toronto FC held a three-year Canadian exclusivity deal that did not expire until 2009, they stated in March 2008 that they would gladly welcome the Montreal Impact into MLS.

Chairman Joey Saputo held talks with George Gillett (former co-owner of Liverpool F.C. and former owner of the Montreal Canadiens) regarding possible joint ownership of a franchise. On July 24, 2008, MLS announced they were seeking to add two expansion teams for the 2011 season, of which Montreal was listed as a potential candidate.

On November 22, 2008, the group's bid for an MLS franchise was not retained by commissioner Don Garber.  By May 16, 2009, the Montreal Gazette reported Garber and Saputo had resumed talks for an expansion team to begin play in 2011.

On May 7, 2010, Garber and Saputo announced Montreal as the nineteenth club in Major League Soccer, set to begin play for the 2012 season. The MLS franchise is privately owned by the Saputo family.

The official mascot of the club is Tac-Tik the dog.  Ultras Montréal, also known as UM02, was founded in 2002 and is CF Montréal's largest and oldest supporters group.  The group is located directly behind the net, on the south-west side of Stade Saputo, in section 132 with some spillover into section 131.  127 Montréal was formed in 2011 and are located in the south-west corner of Stade Saputo, in section 127. Although not an official supporters section in the stadium, the club removed several rows of seats at the bottom of section 127 to accommodate the group.  Named after the founding year of Montreal, 1642 MTL is a supporters group formed in 2015 and located in section 114 at Saputo Stadium during home matches.