Steven Sandor's Blog, page 26

Tabla’s move to Barcelona is met with a collective Canadian “meh”

So, a Canadian player makes the move from an MLS team to Barcelona, and the collective response from this country is…

Meh.

On Thursday, the Montreal Impact announced that the transfer of Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla to Barcelona for an undisclosed fee. Now, of course, the cynic will point out that Tabla, like any young player, will start at Barcelona B. But, in terms of optics, it won’t matter if he starts with Barcelona X or Y or Z. He’s wearing that blue and red strip, and that means there’s a chance, for La Liga glory, right?

But, judging by the lukewarm reaction this has received in Canadian soccer circles so far, it’s fair to say that the football followers in this country — the people who have dispatched the likes of Owen Hargreaves and Asmir Begovic into their own emotional black holes — have already given up on Tabla ever wearing Canada red again. It feels like Barcelona just signed some phenom from some other country.

Eleven months ago, Tabla — who was Canada’s U-20 player of the year in 2016 and was previously part of Canada’s national U-17 squad — refused coach Rob Gale’s invite to join the Canadian squad for the CONCACAF U-20 Championships. Of course, that began a firestorm of message-board discussions that the player wasn’t going to play for Canada ever again. The Canadian U-20s were already terribly shorthanded due to a rash of injuries, and Tabla was sorely missed as the team failed to qualify for the U-20 World Cup. Since then, Tabla has yet to appear for Canada at any age level — though, to be fair, Canada hadn’t had a lot of camps over the past several months.

Canada Soccer has updated Tabla’s profile on its website; it now states that his club is “Barcelona B.” But there hasn’t been press release or even a tweet from the Canada Soccer account; though time was taken to tweet out that CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani had met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss the united U.S./Canada/Mexico World Cup bid, and to wish women’s national teamer Allysha Chapman a happy birthday.

Now, Tabla has yet to put on a of Cote d’Ivoire jersey, but it’s clear that we as Canadians have decided we’re not going to make the emotional investment in the kid. We’re not going to hope that he rises through the Barca ranks. We’re not going to pray that some of the Barca influence, along with the kid’s unmistakable natural talent, comes back in some way to the Canadian national team.

So, on a day when Tabla goes to Barca, we’re all, at best, lukewarm. We’ve already said our goodbyes to the kid — 11 months ago. It’s not fair, because, well, he still is a Canada-eligible player for the moment, but it’s clear we’re not emotionally ready to put much hope in this kid playing for our program again. So, if, somehow, new men’s national-team coach John Herdman can convince this kid to come to a Canadian camp, we’ll all be shocked and awed.

But, for now, what could be one of the biggest soccer deals to ever involve a Canadian player is, at best, shrug-worthy news in this country.

Edmonton to go forward as World Cup host-city candidate; but there is concern over conflict with Calgary’s potential Olympic bid

It is not a healthy discussion, but it could become a factor in Canada Soccer’s push to be a co-host for the 2026 World Cup.

Calgary vs. the Rest of Canada. Olympics vs. World Cup. Skiing, curling, skating and hockey vs. soccer.

On Tuesday, Edmonton’s city council was presented a report that outlined the pros and cons of being a potential World Cup host. City council gave the proposal the green light, committing to sign all the necessary documents to keep it in the running to host World Cup games in 2026.

Edmonton is one of four Canadian cities left that are being considered as hosts for World Cup matches in 2026, if the joint bid between the United States, Canada and Mexico is successful. If the joint bid from CONCACAF beats Morocco in the FIFA vote, Canada will get 10 games, likely split between two to three of the four finalist cities.

It’s estimated that Edmonton would need to spend between $35 and $55 million to upgrade facilities, including laying down natural grass surfaces at Commonwealth Stadium and the approved training grounds.

Toronto Mayor John Tory has openly stated that he backs spending $30 – $45 million to prepare Canada’s largest city to be a World Cup host; some of that money would go to expand BMO Field’s capacity. Montreal and Vancouver round out the field of Canadian potential host cities.

“Being part of one of the world’s biggest sporting events is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Edmonton and we now need the provincial and federal governments to commit to the bid,” said Mayor Don Iveson in a release issued by the city. “A bid that unites three countries has never been tried at this level of international sport and it’s exciting for Edmonton to be part of that effort.”

Ah, so this is going to be the rub going forward: Commitments from provincial and federal levels of government.

Edmonton’s administrators performed a risk assessment for the city’s World Cup-host bid, and the leading worry was…

The Calgary Olympic bid. The assessors suggested that it was “likely” that the joint bid to host the World Cup would clash with Calgary’s continuing pursuit of the 2026 Winter Olympics. The success of the Calgary Olympic bid was the only potential risk on the report deemed as a potential “worst-case” outcome.

The assessors reported that “Calgary’s potential bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics may make it financially unviable for other orders of government to support to mega events in the same year.”

Basically, Edmonton is worried that, eventually, Canadian legislators and purseholders will have to choose if they want to pursue the united World Cup bid, or go for the Winter Olympics.

What could also complicate matters is that the IOC has stated that a Calgary Olympics could see some events held in Whistler, B.C. and Edmonton, in order to make it more cost effective.

Other risks identified by the assessors are the unknown security costs and requirements, that the limited number of games means limited revenue, poor exchange rate with the United States, and that no capital investment has been outlined in the preliminary joint World Cup bid.

But none of those were seen as big as a potential issue as a clash between World Cup and Olympic bids.

 

Flynn’s rapid-fire hat trick paces Canada to win over Haiti

If there was one criticism of Canada’s first two games at the CONCACAF U20 Championships in Trinidad and Tobago, it’s that the Canadians didn’t start well in either game.

The Canadians beat Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago comprehensively; but, in both matches, they conceded the opening goals.

So, if there was one thing Canada would have wanted out of its final group-stage match, it was a better start. And they got it. Shana Flynn got a hat trick in the the first 18 minutes of the match, as the Canadians went on to trounce Haiti by a 4-0 score. With the win, Canada secures top spot in its group.

Flynn needed a couple of whacks to get the ball across the line after a pass from Jordyn Huitema in the sixth minute. She found the net with a well placed shot inside the far post for her second. On the third, she slotted the ball low after beating a Haitian defender to a through ball.

After that, the Canadians (and Haitians, too) went into cruise-control mode.

Of the four semifinalists in the Championships, three will qualify for the U-20 Women’s World Cup in France; the two finalists and the third-place team. If Canada wins its semifinal match, the reservations will be made for the World Cup.

Tanya Boychuk got the fourth goal late in the game, after Haitian keeper Naphtaline Clermeus fumbled a cross, allowing the Canadian to get her head to the ball.

Clermeus is Haiti’s back-up. Haiti, like Canada, had already booked its spot in the semifinals. Instead of risking the starters, Haitian coach Marc Collat made nine changes to his lineup, including his keeper.

Canada beats T&T in the most CONCACAF of games

The hottest new club in the Caribbean is the Ato Boldon Stadium. Located in hot, humid Trinidad and Tobago, this place has everything. Bad calls, dubious goalkeeping and a Canadian team that’s advancing to the semifinal round of the U-20 CONCACAF Women’s Championship!

Despite going down 1-0 early to the home team, a bizarre hat trick from Jordyn Huitema and a penalty kick goal from Gabrielle Carle gave Canada a 4-1 comeback win over the home side. The win lifted Canada’s record to 2-0-0 in group-stage play.

Canada is off to the semis with one game to spare in the group stage. Three of the four teams that make the semis will go on to the U-20 Women’s World Cup.

But, wow, what a bizarre game. Wait, this is CONCACAF, a world where nothing is bizarre, a Twilight Zone of soccer unpredictability. So, maybe a “bizarre” game in CONCACAF would be a match played on a perfectly manicured pitch, where the ref got everything spot-on and players got up as soon as they could manage.

T&T grabbed the lead just a couple of minutes in on a corner-kick set play; the ball was hit low to the top of the box, where Aaliyah Price was left unmarked and placed the ball perfectly into the top corner of the Canadian net.

But, then it was Huitema time. Or, more accurately, T&T keeper Klil Keshwar’s chance to grab the spotlight for the wrong reason. First, she made a hash of a floating Canadian corner kick. A ball that looked to be a fairly easy claim for the keeper went right through her, and basically bounced off Huitema and into the net.

Keshwar wasn’t done; Canada took the lead in the second half when a shot from Huitema, which came off a scrambled corner, went right through her hands. Sure, Huitema did a great job wrapping her foot around the ball, but the keeper has to make that save.

In the tournament opener, Canada had what looked to be a perfectly good goal disallowed because the linesman’s flag went off for offside on a play that couldn’t have possibly been offside. But CONCACAF karma — if there is such a thing — led to a bizarre third goal.

A Canadian shot was saved by Keshwar, looking to atone for her earlier errors. The rebound rocketed off of her and, from close range, caromed into the arm of T&T captain Natisha John. Now, the defender couldn’t have known anything about that shot being deflected at such close range, and her arm wasn’t in an unnatural position. But Honduran referee Melissa Borjas Pastrana pointed to the spot and produced a red card for John.

Even if you could make the argument for the hand ball, to suggest John was deliberately stopping a goal scoring chance — when the keeper has made the save and the ball has ricocheted away from the net — well it was ridiculous.

Sure, we love to be high and mighty when CONCACAF taketh away from Canada, but we also need to be fully aware that even the host team of a tournament can fall victim to officiating standards that continue to be infuriatingly subpar in this region.

The comedy of errors came to a close when Huitema got her hat trick. She stormed onto a long ball played up the middle of the park by Julia Grosso and stuck it in the back of the net.

That doesn’t tell the whole story, though. Truth is, the keeper could have read the play as it happened, come off her line and dealt with Grosso’s ball. But she waited way too long. There were the two T&T defenders that were ball side and goal side of Huitema, but allowed the Canadian to storm past.

Canada is 2-0-0, but the truth is, based on the standard of play we’ve seen so far from the two opponents so far, it’s absolutely impossible to get a real read of where this Canadian team is in terms of their progress. We may have to wait till the semis to find out — when it’s do-or-die.

Canadians survive defensive howler, bizarre offside call

A first-half howler from Canadian defender Hannah Taylor put her team behind the eight ball in their opening match of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.

Taylor swung and missed on what was supposed to be a back pass to her keeper, Rylee Foster. Costa Rican attacker Catalina Estrada took advantage of the gift, and hammered the ball into the roof of the Canadian net.

But the Canadians responded with a shock-and-awe second half, winning their tournament opener in Trinidad and Tobago Thursday by a 3-1 score.

The eight-team tournament serves as the qualifier for the U-20 Women’s World Cup. The two finalists and the third-place team will punch their tickets to France.

Canada had plenty of the ball in the first half, and pressed into the final third with regularity. But, over and over, Canadian players passed up shots to try and make the perfect passing play. On one occasion, they had the ball in the Costa Rican penalty area, had a couple of chances to shoot, played the ball outside the box, just so they could cross the ball back into it. The Costa Rican defenders took advantage of the time afforded to them by resetting and reorganizing. It was too much.

But the Canadians upped the pace of their play after the halftime break, to great benefit Early in the second half, Canada’s Shana Flynn had a good chance from just outside the box, but, under pressure from a Costa Rican defender, she sprayed her shot wide.

But, five minutes into the half, Canada got the equalizer. A through ball from Sarah Stratigakis bounced behind the Costa Rican backline. Huitema lunged, got her toe on the ball and lifted it over the keeper.

In the 53rd minute, Stratigakis went to the spot after Emma Regan was brought down in the box by Costa Rican defender Stephannie Blanco. What unfolded was, sigh, vintage CONCACAF. Stratigakis’s initial penalty was parried by Costa Rican keeper Fabiana Solano Vargas, but the Canadian got to the rebound and, after taking a touch, was able to poke the ball through three Costa Rican defenders who had scrambled back to the goal line after the initial save.

But the linesman’s flag was up, despite the fact it was impossible for Stratigakis to be offside because she followed her shot — which was then touched by the keeper.

To their credit, the Canadians kept pressing, and got their deserved lead in the 57th minute, as  Gabrielle Carle hammered home a great pass from Huitema.

In the 65th, Huitema sacrificed her body, sliding into the Costa Rican keeper to get to the ball. The result? The ball went into the net and gave Canada a two-goal margin.

Ledgerwood makes the move south to Calgary Foothills

Nik Ledgerwood has committed his future to Calgary Foothills.

Ledgerwood will join Foothills and participate in the upcoming PDL season as a player/coach. Ledgerwood, who has a young family and hails from Lethbridge, spent the previous two seasons with FC Edmonton. The Canadian national-team veteran served as FCE’s captain in the team’s final season in NASL. Now, he’ll move three hours south on the QEII highway.

With FC Edmonton not running a professional program in 2018, Ledgerwood had a conundrum. He needed to find work, he had a possibility of returning to Europe to play, but with a wife and young son, his family circumstances had changed since he last played across the Atlantic.

“I could have gone back to Germany, but I wanted to be close to home,” he said.  “And this is an opportunity that I can look forward to carrying over to the Canadian Premier League.”

Ledgerwood will get the chance to work with Foothills’ young players, and is even closer to Lethbridge than he was in Edmonton. Early in his pro career, Ledgerwood played for the old Calgary Storm of the USL’s A-League.

Ledgerwood said that it was important to get his future sorted out as quickly as possible. With so many players looking for work because of FC Edmonton’s halting of pro operations — and the general uncertainty around NASL — the market is tough. He said that if a player waits till February or March to make a decision on a playing opportunity, it may be too late as other North American clubs fill out their rosters.

And, if Foothills does carry over some kind of program to the Canadian Premier League, we can then call Ledgerwood the league’s first player announcement. A Canadian national-teamer. Not too bad.

Organic team identities, team contract options, single table: What CanPL can learn from MLS

It’s one of the most obvious questions out there. When Canadian Premier League president Paul Beirne was in Regina last summer, it came up when he spoke with supporters in the Saskatchewan capital. It was one of the first questions I had for the league’s commissioner, David Clanachan.

“How will the Canadian Premier League differ from MLS?”

Considering that, a year ago, all of the whispers and rumours around the soon-to-be-launched league suggested that we were going to a see a close-knit franchise system that was going to take lot of its cues from MLS, where there is central control over contracts and how teams can build their rosters (allocation orders, anyone?).

But, the CanPL reality looks to be very different.

Clanachan has told us that when the league kicks off in 2019, it will look very different than MLS. One table. Clubs will be independent. And, most importantly, CanPL will embrace the two words that are poison to MLS; promotion and relegation. There is a strong mandate to launch a second and even a third division, and have teams come up and down.

There may be a future where not only the Greater Toronto Area has more than one team; we could be talking about Vancouver derbies and even Edmonton derbies. This is a league that looks to have no use for the regional restrictions that govern most leagues in North America, where territories are ceded to owners as their exclusive domains for marketing and, most importantly, local broadcasts.

But, despite these key differences, there will no doubt be things CanPL borrows from MLS. Beirne, after all, is a former Toronto FC executive. He has said that this is a league that will learn from MLS, and take some of the best practices. Clanachan said last week that he admires how MLS has engaged soccer fans in various cities across North America, and he admires the “grassroots” feel of the teams’ supporters.

As CanPL moves toward its 2019 launch as this country’s division one, despite the presence of three Canadian sides in MLS, it will be interesting to see what the league takes away from MLS — and what it stays away from.

The Ugly, Ugly Team Option Year(s)

The reality of modern soccer is that some leagues are bigger than others. With a mandate to develop Canadian talent, teams have to understand that the practise of selling players on needs to be a key part of the revenue strategy. Fans will understand — and even be damn proud — if a Canadian prospect is sold by the hometown team.

The Cyle Larin impasse is a reminder of how CanPL cannot operate. Larin wants to move to Turkish giant, Besiktas, from MLS side, Orlando City. Besiktas claims to have signed the player as a free agent, as they feel the option in his contract isn’t valid. Orlando City says the option was renewed fairly as per the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement and the player is still the property of the Lions. Similar cases have gone to FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the past.

But, in the end, no matter if it gets resolved out of court, in court, or with Besiktas and OCSC/MLS making a deal, this whole process has gotten unnecessarily ugly. You have a player who doesn’t want to return to Orlando, you have bad blood between clubs, you have a lot of negative emotions.

The Camilo case, where the players and his agent said that the team option on his Whitecaps contract was invalid, forced a move to Mexican side Queretaro at the conclusion of the 2013 season.

At the root of these disputes is the team-option year or years on player contracts. Team options are recognized as part of the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. What happens is, at the end of the term of the contract, a +1 option allows the team to wait and decide if they want to keep the player for another year or not. A player signs the deal because, well, that’s what’s on the table. And in MLS, team options are standard practices. But if player A becomes a star, and the team has an option (or multiple options, I’ve heard of +1 +1 +1 +1 contract offers), the team holds the cards on renewals or transfers. Or, for up-and-comers or fringe players, the team options always have them sitting on fences, without guaranteed money down the road. They wait and sweat and wait and sweat.

But soccer is an international business, and many nations and federations don’t recognize team options. In some European nations, employer options on contracts aren’t legal.

It’s led to an international mess. The CAS has heard a number of cases where players have claimed their team options aren’t valid, because teams didn’t a) notify them in time that their options would be renewed b) the options took away their bargaining powers c) the options didn’t provide for raises d) players want to move from a federation that allows team options to one that doesn’t.

It’s an ugly business. I know players who have decided not to come to MLS because of the team options in contracts. And that’s why, maybe, the CanPL, to show that it can be a “players’ league,” shouldn’t have them. Or, if it does, outline specific rules — and be transparent — on how teams have to exercise the options; they need to provide for salary bumps, and they need to be exercised (or not) well before the current regular season ends, so non-renewed players have time to start arranging for trials, etc. Basically, CanPL needs to look at the international standards, the CAS rulings in the past, and come up with a system that’s player-friendly.

As a new league, with salary constraints, you need to offer players an environment where they won’t feel they are at the mercy of team options. Learn from MLS in this case; learn from the ugliness of the Larin and Camilo cases.

Stressing the differences

For the soccer fan, a one-table league, with major cities having multiple teams, and promotion/relegation are old hat.

For the mainstream North American sports fan, it’s revolutionary. And this needs to be celebrated.

And, When CanPL launches, we know that every American reformer will be latching onto this league. It’s inevitable that the CanPL will be used as a “see, Canadians are doing it!” argument in the not-so-great American soccer debate. We just need to see that as “any PR is good PR,” because that will only help spread the word about Canadian soccer.

We also should apologize to everyone who covers soccer south of the border, as Canada’s move to embrace an open, pro-rel system will no doubt make their lives more difficult. As if they didn’t need more Twitter fights.

No cookie-cutter

The single-table, independent-club model only works if the teams themselves don’t feel like they were all conceived and branded by a Toronto ad firm. These teams need to be recognizable to fans from coast-to-coast, but reflect the communities they call home. They can’t have jerseys that look like someone slapped a crest onto one of the big manufacturers’ patterns. If the jersey or badge needs a curator to interpret the symbolism for the layperson, it doesn’t work (I’m looking at you, Whitecaps “rain” jersey). If you have to tell the fans the four squares on a logo stands for a famous building and the red swoosh symbolizes the wind, start over.

If the clubs are authentic, if the relationships between team and supporters is  built organically, if we shun groupthink, maybe, just maybe, we’ve finally found a way to make soccer work in Canada.

MDS to MLS: “I’ve really achieved all I can achieve in Division 2”

After the San Francisco Deltas won the 2017 NASL title and then dissolved, Canadian coach Marc Dos Santos was on the job market.

What a résumé. Three years. Three different Division-2 teams. Three trips to championship games. One thing he didn’t want: To be an assistant. He wanted to be the boss.

But, after a phone call with LAFC head coach Bob Bradley, MDS was convinced that maybe he could be an assistant coach. On Friday, it was made official; Dos Santos will join Bradley’s staff with the much-ballyhooed MLS expansion side. He said that Bradley sold him on a vision to build what was going to be a very special club in Los Angeles.

Dos Santos confirmed that he had offers to coach another second-division side in 2018, but, after some soul searching, realized that it wasn’t for him.

“I had opportunities in the second division, but I’ve really achieved all I can achieve in Division 2,” said Dos Santos. “Three years, coach-of-the-year awards. It was time for me to take on a new challenge.”

MDS confirmed that he wasn’t contacted by Canada Soccer about the men’s team coaching position. Octavio Zambrano was replaced by John Herdman, who moved over from the women’s side.

Canadian Championship schedule finally gets itself away from the NHL playoffs

Thank you, Canadian Championship schedule makers.

Even with the addition of League1 Ontario champs Oakville Blue Devils and PLSQ winners AS Blainville (OK, there’s the loss of FC Edmonton, too), the schedule for this year’s edition of our national soccer championship is a lot more fan- and media-friendly than it has been in previous seasons.

This year, the tournament starts in June, not in April like previous editions of the tourney. In previous years, despite some really harrowing matches, the tournament was widely ignored by media and mainstream sports fans because of the insistence to take this tournament head-to-head against the NHL playoffs. There were nights where the soccer teams had to try and find an audience with their local NHL teams playing on the same nights. It was a recipe for back-of-the-sports-section coverage and maybe time for one single highlight at the end of the sportscast.

Even though much of the tournament will conflict with the World Cup, it won’t matter much as that tournament won’t affect many of the rosters of the teams involved. The only issue is that some people may be oversaturated with soccer, but that’s still a better scenario  than going up against the most important part of the NHL schedule.

It’s a new format this year, with the Quebec and Ontario Division-3 champs playing a two-legged qualifier; the winner of that will play the USL’s Ottawa Fury. The winner of that round will be entered into the semifinals along with the three Canadian MLS teams.

This might be the only year we will see this format, as the Canadian Premier League launches next year and eight to 10 new teams (based on the projection of CanPL commissioner David Clanachan) will likely join the fray, finally giving Canada what feels like a real, multi-round Cup competition.

 

First Qualifying Round (1QR)

6 June 2018 AS Blainville v Oakville Blue Devils

13 June 2018 Oakville Blue Devils v AS Blainville

Second Qualifying Round (2QR)

20 June 2018 Winner 1QR v Ottawa Fury FC

27 June 2018 Ottawa Fury FC v Winner 1QR

Semi-Final Round

18 July 2018 Winner 2QR v Toronto FC

18 July 2018 Impact Montreal FC v Vancouver Whitecaps FC

25 July 2018 Toronto FC v Winner 2QR

25 July 2018 Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Impact Montreal FC

Final Round

8 August 2018 Winner Semi-Final v Winner Semi-Final

15 August 2018 Winner Semi-Final v Winner Semi-Final

Promotion-relegation. Independent-club system. The future of CanPL, as seen by its new commissioner

The new commissioner of the Canadian Premier League prefers the independent club system. He dreams of a time when Canada has a Premier League, a second division and a third division — and teams are promoted and relegated through those leagues. He envisions Canadian pro soccer teams from coast-to-coast.

Meet David Clanachan, the former CEO and president of Tim Hortons who will be steering the Canadian Premier League.

In an interview with The 11, the new commissioner addressed some of the burning questions supporters have had since rumours of a Canadian division-one league first surfaced.

On the league launch in 2019:

“Some supporters have been frustrated with what they see as the lack of movement with the league. What I say is that Rome wasn’t built in a day. If it was, we would have hired their contractor.

“But I am very confident in saying we have an incredible quality of interested parties that we are currently vetting. I’d say there are between 12 and 15 who have shown the appropriate levels of interest. And I expect the league to start with between eight to 10 teams in 2019, coast to coast.”

How will clubs be run: Like MLS (central control, franchise model) or the independent-club model?

“I like MLS. I am a fan of what they’ve done. But the way I see our league operating is very different. I think what MLS has done very well is to create grassroots community-based fanbases. At one time, soccer was very ethnic-based. But I think it has turned a corner where we look at it more like we do hockey in Canada.

“But we are looking at a club-based style. We are not looking at a franchise system. We are looking for each of our clubs to build from the ground up, and we know it’s important what we do at the community level.”

With so much interest, will you need to cap the number of teams? Promotion-relegation?

“I would like to imagine where we have a Premier League, a second division and a third division. I’d say, plus or minus, we’d look at about 16 teams in the Premier League. One table.  Then, if other communities want to get involved, you would look at promotion and relegation. I am a fan of the promotion-relegation system. It’s the system that works around the world.”

DAVID CLANACHAN Photo by Darren Goldstein/DSG Photo.

What will be the roster minimums for Canadians?

“We are working through it. But I can say that our ownership groups are all nodding in the same way. This league is about developing a professional soccer industry in Canada. Players. Coaches. Administrators. When it comes to the actual numbers, our soccer operations people are working through it. Our soccer operations people, they’d probably prefer I stay away from that, because I am very passionate about it. But we know that there are a number of federations out there who have had issues with fewer of their players in their domestic leagues, and the impact it has on their programs.”

Will the winner of the CanPL get a CONCACAF Champions League berth?

(Note: Currently, Canada gets one spot, allocated to the winner of the Canadian Championship, which is essentially a national Cup competition).

“We fully expect that the Canadian Premier League champion will get a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League. And, our teams expect to play in the Canadian Championship, and that could lead to another spot.”

(Canada has lobbied to get a second spot in the CCL, and a domestic league would help with that push).

How did you get interested in the job?

“Obviously I’ve had lots of exposure to professional sports at different levels in Canada, through my previous experience with Tim Hortons. I’m very passionate about sport. And, in discussions with (Hamilton Tiger-Cats owner) Bob Young and (Ti-Cats CEO) Scott Mitchell, they asked me would I be interested in getting involved? ‘You’ve been passionate about soccer your whole life.’ I have the mix of passion and business acumen, and the opportunity came at a crossroads, an intersection… then I got to know the prospective owners, and saw the level of passion they have, and the amazing supporters groups across the country, and the level of passion they have.

“The demographics for soccer are very good. The new immigrants; the male-female split. Soccer is very gender-neutral.

“But it’s not going to be an overnight thing. This is still going to take a lot of patience going forward.”