Canadian Football Act

The Canadian Football Act (1974), also known in its long title as An Act respecting Canadian Professional Football, was a proposed Act by the Parliament of Canada in April 1974 designed to give a government-protected monopoly over professional football in Canada to the Canadian Football League (CFL). Although it was never signed into law, the move by the government eventually compelled the World Football League's Toronto Northmen to move to the United States as the Memphis Southmen. The spectre of the Act was again raised when John F. Bassett, the owner of the Northmen/Southmen franchise, proposed a United States Football League franchise for Hamilton, Ontario, in 1983.

Canadian Football Act
Parliament of Canada
Long title An Act respecting Canadian Professional Football
Legislative history
Bill	C-22
Introduced by	Marc Lalonde
Status: Not passed

In 2007, there was speculation that a similar act would develop if the National Football League attempted to expand to Toronto and thus threaten the Canadian league's existence.[1] Such an act would likely still allow for an NFL team to play in Canada in an NFL preseason game and the CFL's off-season; thus allowing for a Canadian city to host the Super Bowl if the NFL decided to host their premier event in a stadium far from an NFL city.

It is also unlikely that any future Act will be passed to affect American college football, such as the NCAA and NAIA, who have or have had teams based in Canada (Simon Fraser University being the lone NCAA member in Canada) and bowl games hosted in Canadian cities, with no opposition, in part because the CFL draws some of its players from American college teams (and, in the case of bowl games, because their December and January scheduling is well after Canadian university football ends its season).