The Montreal Impact otherwise known as the Impact de Montréal) is a soccer team in the North American USL First Division. Founded in 1993 by the Saputo family following the demise of the Montreal Supra and the Canadian Soccer League, the Impact became a dominant club in the American Professional Soccer League (1993-1996) and the A-League (1997-2003), now called the United Soccer Leagues Division 1 (2004). It did not compete during the 1999 outdoor season. Its main rivals are the Rochester Raging Rhinos and the Toronto Lynx. It plays its home games at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, which has a capacity recently increased to 9,500 to reflect increasing ticket demand. The team is building a new soccer-specific stadium, Saputo Stadium, which was completed in July 2007.

After resurfacing in 2000, the club went bankrupt during the 2001 season when the then-owners were Ionian. Administered until the end of the season by one of the original pillars, Joey Saputo, the club rose from its ashes in 2002, set up as a non-profit organisation owned by the Quebec government, Hydro-Quebec and Saputo. It also attracted many big-time sponsors such as the National Bank of Canada, Bell Canada and Coca-Cola, among others. The team's mandate is to develop local talent and to serve as a representative of Montreal for tourism. Since the Impact's renaissance in 2002, Québec-born players have played a much more central role in the Canadian national team, after many years of non-selection. For the 2005 Gold Cup, players Greg Sutton (from Ontario), Gabriel Gervais, Sandro Grande Patrick Leduc, Adam Braz and Ali Gerba, as well as former player Patrice Bernier and Quebec-born Olivier Occéan were all called to the national team and did well by most accounts.