Inside two weeks now from the CSA AGM, the demolition of the old, impractical board of directors, and the first cut at post-reform governance.
There’s still one more huge river to cross – the Ontario Soccer Association AGM this coming weekend. The OSA board will interview all three CSA presidential candidates this week (as CSN did last week), pick their choice – and announce it publically.
That means one of Victor Montagliani, Rob Newman or Dominique Maestracci will be halfway home, banking Ontario’s 25% support in the opening round of voting. Since Maestracci is already believed to have Quebec’s 25% in the bank in the first round, Ontario’s decision will be huge.
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Everyone’s looking at OSA president Ron Smale right now, for backroom deals and clues as to what Ontario is up to. But Smale himself may not even make it that far. His abrupt, backroom style is known to have tweaked some significant snouts – in Ontario, and across Canada. He stands for his own re-election this weekend.
The other main imminent issue is the nationwide election of the CSA’s six new regional directors, who will replace the twelve seats formerly set aside for provincial and territorial soccer association presidents.
This process was thrown open to anyone in the country, so it’s perhaps a bit discouraging that five of the eleven candidates are already sitting presidents. A sixth – Clive Wilkinson from Ontario – is currently on the CSA board as a director.
Going east to west:
Atlantic Canada:
Nova Scotia Soccer Association president Michael Maddalena takes on Gerald MacDonald of Prince Edward Island. Neither holds a particularly high profile, but one will ultimately represent both provinces – and New Brunswick and Newfoundland/Labrador as well.
Quebec:
Long-serving QSF president Dino Madonis stood down, and his successor – Martial Prud’homme – will now be the sole candidate for Quebec’s regional seat. He still has to go through a CSA election process (explained below), but he will win. An ugly rumour has walked the night that Madonis was somehow denied his fair chance to retain a seat on the CSA board. In fact – as confirmed by Madonis and other sources – he never filed nomination papers, and was never officially a candidate.
Ontario:
The OSA held an exhaustive, 12-candidate run-off, before deciding to throw its 25% vote share behind motivational speaker and business consultant Nick Bontis. Praised all over everywhere for his fire, charisma, soccer background and deep corporate connections, Bontis is about as far from an “old guard” candidate as one can get. He has declined an invitation to speak to Canadian Soccer News, saying there are other candidates in the race, and he shouldn’t be the main focus. For now, I’m going to assume his business instincts are better than his journalism ones. (Wink.) He’s up against CSA director Clive Wilkinson, the man who ran the OSA before Ron Smale took over. Unless Smale is defeated this weekend – although it’s quite possibly that wouldn’t even make a difference – Wilkinson faces a significant uphill fight.
Manitoba / Saskatchewan:
Don Story of Saskatchewan one of the fathers and key movers in the CSA reform movement. Sean Drain from Manitoba is most certainly not. You’ll get a clear sense of how the reform winds truly blow once this one is settled. Side note: Manitoba Soccer Association president Christine O’Connor is not running, clinching that two of the three new appointed CSA directors will have to be women. More on this in the B.C./Yukon note below.
Alberta / NWT:
A low-profile race between Albertan Darryn Donaghey and NWTSA president Ryan Fequet. Have you noticed how utterly quiet everything has been on the Wild Rose soccer scene since the brutal fight for control of the Alberta Soccer Association ended a year ago?
British Columbia / Yukon:
Another fascinating old-new race. Charlie Cuzzetto is the long-time head of the BCSA, well-respected and a good, effective board member. He’s opposed by Derral Moriyama, a hard-core business type with almost three decades of experience at Bank of Montreal. As hinted above, business connection could be vital in the new CSA – especially given that the Nominations Committee will have to choose a minimum of two women for the three appointed CSA board seats available this year. This is not in any way to suggest these women won’t have excellent business connections. But they certainly don't have to.
Now:
The election process:
- All eleven candidates enter a single, multi-round election.
- Everyone votes, and whoever has 50% + 1 vote wins the seat for his home region.
- This process is repeated, as long as it takes to fill all six seats.
- The first two directors chosen get three-year terms. The next two get two years. The final two get one year.
- As there can only be three provincial or territorial presidents on the board in 2012, some will have to resign if more than that are chosen. CSN has been assured privately there are at least two presidents who intend to do exactly that.
- Once the six regional seats are elected, the Nominations Committee will take a few days, before nominating three and only three names to the board for rubber-stamp approval as appointed members.
And there we will stand for 2012. Each subsequent annual AGM election will turn over approximately one-third of the board, with the number of sitting provincial presidents cut by one each year, until they are gone completely hallelujah.
Any questions?
Onward!