Saputo puts CF Montréal up for sale, won’t rule out a move

MONTREAL – Joey Saputo announced Monday that his family will sell CF Montréal, ending 34 years of ownership, and said the Major League Soccer club could leave the city if no local buyer comes forward.

Saputo said at a news conference at Stade Saputo that he would prefer to keep the team in Montreal but will not make that a condition of a sale, according to The Canadian Press.

“I would love for the club to stay here in Montreal, but if the club doesn’t find a local buyer and I get an offer and the club needs to be relocated, then I have no choice,” Saputo said. He added that he will not discount the club “just for the sake of giving it away.”

The Saputo family has hired BMO Capital Markets as lead financial adviser, TSN reported. The club said it will operate normally during the process and that team management and staff will stay in place. No timeline for a sale has been given.

Saputo, 62, said the decision was not driven by urgency, the club’s finances or one bad season. “I’ve done everything that I could possibly do and it’s time to pass the torch,” he said, in what The Canadian Press described as his first Montreal media appearance since 2022. He said the finances of the family and the club were never in question.

The announcement follows the worst season in the club’s MLS history. Montreal finished last in the Eastern Conference with six wins, 20 losses and eight draws in 34 games, according to CBC News. Supporters boycotted games late in the season. Our earlier coverage followed the 2-0 loss to Nashville at Stade Saputo and the 4-0 defeat in Charlotte in the closing weeks.

The club also lost the Canadian Championship final to Forge FC of the Canadian Premier League. Forge won on penalties on Oct. 22.

Saputo founded the franchise as the Montreal Impact in 1992 and brought it into MLS in 2012. The Canadian Press listed the high points as a run to the 2015 CONCACAF Champions League final, a 2016 playoff semifinal and a record-setting 2022 season. TSN reported that the club has made the playoffs four times in 14 MLS seasons and has had 11 full-time head coaches in that span.

Forbes valued the club at US$440 million in February. Montreal is the second Canadian MLS team to go on the market, after the Vancouver Whitecaps began a sale process in December 2024, The Canadian Press reported.

Saputo also owns Stade Saputo and Italy’s Bologna FC. The club faces a stadium question because MLS moves to a summer-to-spring calendar in 2028, after the 2027 sprint season. Stade Saputo is not winterized, and the Olympic Stadium, still under renovation, is years from hosting events. Saputo said his family will keep working with Olympic Park on a lease and will keep pursuing Canada Soccer’s national training centre for Montreal.

Why people in Canada are searching it: it is one of only three MLS clubs in the country, and the owner has said plainly that the team could be sold to someone who moves it.

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Sources: The Canadian Press, CBC News and TSN reports, Nov. 9, 2026.