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Photo Credit: Canadian Premier League, Adrien Douaire-Duchesne, Montreal Canadiens
FC Supra: On Ultras, Coaches, And Even The Habs
By La Belle Province is finally set for its own slice of Canadian Premier League action next season, with expansion side FC Supra making waves with its Quebec-centric roster ambitions and a fast-tracked launch date.
Club President Rocco Placentino recently sat down with the Calcio Guys to discuss his new adventure, revealing clearer timelines on coaching announcements, a strong stance on ultras, and plenty more about FC Supra itself.
Let’s take a dive in on what was unveiled:
The Coach Will Be Decided This Month
While we’ve heard that CS Saint-Laurent head coach Nicholas Razzaghi is the frontrunner for the position, FC Supra has fielded plenty of interest for the position.
The club will shortly be completing in-person interviews plucked from FC Supra’s shortlist of potential gaffers, with Placentino hoping to have the head coach and assistant coach roles filled by October’s end. We’re told that Nick De Santis is also a subject of serious interest as a member of the coaching staff.
“Look, do we already have a head coach in our minds? We have thoughts of who we would want, that is normal. We can’t go into this process without having any ideas,” says Placentino, who is simultaneously fleshing out the supporting staff to place around club’s future gaffer.
“We want to get the opportunity for anyone to apply for different positions, whether it’s head coach, assistant goal, goalie coach – and we’ve got plenty of requests, to be honest.”
Whoever fills the spot, FC Supra plans to have its inaugural head coach and their assistant locked in by November, so more news on that front should be coming soon.
The Roster Build
It’s difficult for any brand new side to build an entire player roster in time for the subsequent spring, but FC Supra is taking things to another level: with ambitions of fielding 100% Quebecois talent, the player pool is even more limited. That’s by design, with the similar roster creed of Atletico Bilbao being a concept that Placentino has found himself all-in for. In fact, he referenced the Spanish inspiration when he first pitched the club.
With over twenty-five Quebecois players already featuring in the Canadian Premier League, it comes as no surprise that FC Supra will be looking to recruit heavily from the league’s existing talent stockpile.
See Also: Choiniere Touches On ‘Interesting’ FC Supra Project
“The goal is to try to attract some of these local boys and bring them back home, that’s number one,” says Placentino. “Then we have our Ligue1, our semi-pro league in Quebec, which we believe we have a lot of talent that players in Ligue1 that can do the jump to CPL.”
The Canadian Premier League also requires that member clubs hand domestic U-21 players at least 2,000 minutes of gametime in each regular season. Failure to do so makes a club ineligible for playoffs regardless of league position, along with incurring undisclosed financial penalties.
Placentino says the roster will be built on a firm belief in young players, with he himself having turned professional in Italy when he was a teenager. Also helping this number will FC Supra’s hope of a strong partnership with MLS side CF Montreal, which doesn’t have its own reserve team. If they loan young talent to FC Supra, they can closely evaluate player progress in a first team environment, with discussions between the two sides already underway.
“For me, I’m very stubborn about these things. I believe there’s a lot of talent here on the youth level, the Ligue1 level, and the CPL level to put a competitive team together – and not only have a team in the CPL, but to be a big, fierce competitor in the CPL.”
All-In On Ultras
Rocco Placentino is ready – nay, expecting – for the club to get fined ‘all kinds of money’ from the acts of ultra supporters at home. In fact, the FC Supra President is both encouraging and supporting the rowdy tenacity of ultras for his expansion side.
“For myself, playing in Italy for almost a decade and living with ultras day-in and day-out, in good and in bad, and it is definitely something that we’re going to build,” he says, explaining that it’s important for FC Supra players to feel the presence of ultras, for whom the club will dedicate their own section at home matches.
Tryouts – And Merchandise – Are Coming Soon
Quebecois athletes looking to put their name in consideration for the squad won’t have long to wait, with FA Supra set to hold tryouts next month. Placentino says tryouts will kick off in Greater Montreal at first, with FC Supra also doing trials with different amateur clubs around the region.
At press time, FC Supra is set to launch the sign-ups for these trials on Monday.
Another thing coming soon is club merchandise: the club is aiming to release select items later this month, such as a toque, hat, or hoodie.
Fans will have to wait a little longer for the club’s inaugural kits, which won’t be launched until the new year. Right now, the club is still in the design phase, though they obviously have plenty of football heritage to take inspiration from.
The Habs Were An Inspiration
FC Supra’s colours couldn’t scream Montreal any louder, and while that’s a direct nod to the original Supra, Placentino admits that he was first drawn to reviving that brand because the colours spoke to him as a self-described ‘crazy Habs fan’.
Placentino then personally championed the idea of reviving the original FC Supra branding, pitching the idea to club ownership group and getting firm backing for such an idea.
“For us, it made sense. We could have come with a brand new name and started from scratch, and we would have done well, but this is an emotional attachment. When you look at the old videos of Supra, and now you’ll look at the new videos of Supra…I get goosebumps talking about it. I can’t wait to revive it.”
The People’s Club
Community is a word so closely tied to football, the lines are sometimes blurred. When it comes to FC Supra, club ownership wants these two to be forever intertwined – as Placentino puts it, “this is the people’s club.”
“There are a lot of meaningful definitions that come with that saying. The day that we separate ourselves from amateur clubs, that’s the day that this dies – which is never,” he adds, reiterating that FC Supra is a team built for Quebec’s local communities.
Here, he points out to one of the largest differences in the preceding FC Supra that ran from 1988 to 1992: that was FC Supra de Montreal, with the CPL-era team having a much larger ambitions of representation.
“It says du Quebec. It could have been Montreal, it could have Laval for so many different reasons, but it’s because this is going to be a team ‘du Quebec’. When you see those players on the field, you’re going to see that player who played for Lakeshore, Saint-Laurent, who knows – it doesn’t matter, it’s something that was very important to me because it was a need.”
Year One Ambitions
It goes without saying that every brand new club wants to quickly establish itself as a top team and land a playoff spot. When Vancouver FC arrived, that was a declared expectation that still hasn’t come to fruition – but despite the tough results for their expansion predecessor, Rocco isn’t afraid to set a similar ambition for his own club.
“Personally, I’m a fierce competitor. I can speak on behalf of my ownership group: they’re also very fierce competitors. We’re not putting out a team just to put out a team. We want to make playoffs in the first year, and I say that ‘probably’, and we want to do well in the Canadian cup.”
The idea that FC Supra could potentially draw CS Saint-Laurent in the Canadian Championship is something that gives Placentino goosebumps, as is the idea of derby match against CF Montreal at Stade Saputo.
Those are all on the cards for 2026, a chapter fast approaching but still unwritten. If FC Supra is to spark joy on the pitch, however, there’s plenty of work ahead for all involved in Quebec’s new Canadian Premier League team.
Header Image Photo Compilation Credit: Canadian Premier League, Adrien Douaire-Duchesne, Montreal Canadiens
Source: The Calcio Guys Podcast
