Montreal Impact could be changing its name to Montréal FC

The Montreal Impact soccer team will be changing its name to Montréal FC, Radio-Canada has learned.

A team official told Radio-Canada Sports they would not be "commenting on rumours."

The new name is reminiscent of the club's ephemeral reserve team, FC Montréal, which played the 2015 and 2016 seasons in the United Soccer League before being dissolved.

In January 2019, Kevin Gilmore took over as president of the team, succeeding owner Joey Saputo, who announced he was taking a step back from the club's daily activities, having chaired it for most of its existence.

Upon his arrival, Gilmore declared the Impact should behave like a big market club, and establish itself as one of the best clubs in Major League Soccer.

At the start of the 2020 MLS season, the club launched a marketing campaign, with the goal of reinforcing its attachment to the city.

The pandemic, however, forced the club to play only three games in front of spectators. The first on Feb. 29, and two more in front of 250 people, at the end of August. Next year will be the Impact's 10th season in the MLS.

The team has been known as the Impact since 1993. A year earlier, its predecessor, Supra, was dissolved at the same as the Canadian Soccer League.

Impact Montréal was founded by the Saputo company and joined the American Soccer League, winning its first title the following year.

It then became a nonprofit after nearly dissolving itself and was taken over by Ionian Financial Group.

The soccer team joined the MLS in 2012.