Canadian Soccer's $50 Million Question

[terpfan68]

I didn't really know which forum to place the following article that I discovered on CANADAKICKS. I picked Men's National Team and Players since it gets the most viewers. If the editor wishes to move it please feel free to do it.

This article written by Bill Ault appeared on December 12, 2006 and I will copy it here so that you will not need to open the website. I will provide the link at the end of the article.

I would appreciate a frank and honest discussion about the issues raised by the article with a goal to actually improving soccer at all levels in Canada.

Canadian Soccer's $50 Million Question

Written by Bill Ault

Tuesday, 12 December 2006

There has been a lot of talk recently about budgets, in particular the budget of the Canadian Soccer Association, which is estimated at about $13 million with about five of that going to our national team programs. The figures are estimated because in this country trying to pry the true budgets out of clubs, districts, provincial associations and not just the national governing body is akin to stealing the crown jewels – not easily done.

Even estimating based on what is published makes the waters murky – the Ontario Soccer Association last published budget (kudos to the OSA for doing so) puts their annual budget at about $9 million or about $25 for every registered player in the province. Manitoba’s published budget meanwhile comes in at just over a million or, wait for it, $65 per registered player.

The discrepancy, a topic for a whole other discussion, makes it difficult to extrapolate numbers for the provinces which do not publish their figures – but making an educated guess the budget totals for the national and provincial associations would probably in total come in at around $40 million.

Next up come the district associations and clubs. Again hard to estimate given so few allow open access to their budgets but a number do and so a conservative estimate based on the district numbers known or are published and the clubs that have a $500,000 plus annual budget (again known or published) a good round number would be $10 million.

So to sum up, that’s $50 million budgeted for the game in Canada – annually for let’s say the last decade – or a half BILLION dollars.

Obviously that is a lot of money. What have we gotten for our half billion? Well let’s start small and work our way up…

A world class coaching education system for our grassroot coaches where all things begin and the greatest influence on the development of a player is to be found? Um, no.

Top class coaches working diligently with clubs across the country to improve standards of play and development? Er, no.

Okay then hundreds of great facilities scattered about so at least our players can play on a decent surface, use a “facility” other than a bush when nature calls and have a post game shower? Nope.

A charter or standard published by our national governing body that point out to the clubs best practices, coaching and playing standards and the expectations from our national team coaches? Nada.

Five or six soccer specific showcase stadiums with seating for 12 to 20,000 fans? Zip.

A national team program that is the envy of the western world? Okay the western hemisphere? How about our FIFA region? North America? North of the 401 and west of Jane but east of Windsor? No, not likely, surely you jest, not in this lifetime, in that order….

We have though gotten one world class entity for our money something that seems so natural to this country that we often overlook it and don’t often recognize it until it is way too late – a world class bureaucratic FC up.

At times it seems we have almost as many administrators in this country as we do players and the further up stream you travel the worse it gets.

The vast majority of clubs, thanks to the thousands of man hours put in by volunteers survive with one or even no paid help with even the largest clubs usually only having two full time positions. The districts two to three people. Then it gets crazy. Check online sometime to see how many staff are listed with your provincial association – I found one with 30 – if you can do better (or worse as it were) let me know.

Absolute lunacy. The provincial associations are basically in place to govern the districts, run coaching education and the provincial teams programs. The district associations meanwhile basically govern the clubs and handle registration for the provincial body and by extension the national association. Can you say redundant? I knew you could.

Although it will likely never happen the process in this country needs to be streamlined.

The middlemen – the provincial associations – need to be eliminated. But who would do all the work they do now you ask? The national and regional associations – who should be doing it in the first place…

The grand plan:

Amalgamate the districts into regions based on population of 50,000. This would mean, give or take, two districts in BC, two in Alberta, two serving Saskatchewan and Manitoba, seven in Ontario, three in Quebec and one in the Maritimes. There are currently districts that handle the registration and governance of clubs with 50,000 members and they do it well – in this day and age there is no administrative need for more than this.

Players would register directly with the CSA through their region since there would no longer be a provincial body. It’s the same paperwork but instead of sending to your provincial headquarters you send it to Ottawa. That was easy.

Player development belongs with the clubs – leave it there. Turn existing district programs into regional identification programs leading directly to national training centers. Establish a national training center in each of the regions so players across the country are identified directly by national team personnel on the recommendation of regional and more importantly club coaches.

The club coaches would be able to perform this task better because as part their mandate regional coaches hired and trained (and answering directly to) by our national technical director would convey to club coaches on a regular basis just what the expectations and standards for the development of competitive players at each stage would be.

One final change allow every member of the CSA to vote directly for the people running the ship – one less thing for the middlemen.

I’m willing to bet that this and a lot more can be accomplished on $50 million a year.

http://www.canadakicks.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=547&Itemid=9

[villus]

Some good insight here I think. I think getting regions and then the CSA would be a good idea, making it more tight nit and leaving players less distance to travel for a provincial team. This would especially help the bigger provinces like BC and Ontario, as a major issue is distance for player development. I mean how many players from the corners of the provinces are lost due to the difficulty in travel restrictions. To much bickering within specific leagues and associations hinders developments in certain areas of players.

Identify talented kids and bring them up to higher levels, overall all the clubs need to improve, there are too many clubs that have horrible coaching yet field strong players, so teams can look successful but players are not progressing and improving as they could under better coaching. There are many coaches out there that volunteer and do their best, I am not knocking them, but if we had smaller regions have region head coaches visit as many team games, practices as possible and try to bring the level up as well as scout for specially talented kids and coaches, yes coaches promote them too!

Promote a junior system like the CHL, obviously CHL has people paying money to watch games but im sure we can improve on the bush league stuff that is happening in certain areas. Have the money centralized and plan to use those dollars to their full potential wherever needed most. In Windsor which has a lot of soccer players we did'nt get a proper indoor facility until about 4 years ago? I mean that is crazy that is a lot of soccer being missed in the winter months.

[villus]

Also the emphasis needs to be taken off winning right now at the young ages and put on developing overall soccer skills. Going out and teaching young kids the most optimal strategy to win is not making them better players always, coaches should be willing to sacrifice a little to make sure players are learning to dribble, pass, defend, play different positions to get well rounded etc. At the young age a player should always be working with the ball in practice (not conditioning without the ball) learning to play in triangles, putting the players in drills that are hard and will extend their skills.

I remember when I was younger and my brothers team a few of the players including my bro were able to train with the CPSL team through a connection, these players development was leaps and bounds ahead of the other players on the team and they became good players in the long run were others dropped off. We need to implement this within clubs, bringin the younger talented kids to go and train with an older or semi pro team and let them be challenged, to much is just wanting YOUR players with YOUR team and what is not best for the players. A system from the top down run by people who know how to organize will increase Canadian soccer for decades and beyond.

[L.T.]

www.academysoccer.ca

The philosophy is there and it's working. I dropped by one of the academy sessions yesterday - beautiful. Two gyms going - 30 U9,10,11 boys in one, 25 U12,13,14 boys in the other. Futsal based, with at least 3 coaches in each gym (all will Provincial pre-B or better qualifications)... UEFA A License Technical Director and qualified physio travelling between gyms.

Ok, so I am the President of SAAC (the governing body for these academies), so I'm a bit biased. But I was so encouraged. The last 10 minutes or so was a spirited scrimmage, coaches barely saying a word except for a few ole's when a player pulled of a nutmeg or some other Ronaldhino-esqe move.

Creativity and ball control are encouraged because scores do not matter (they are not even published until age 15).

The establishment is coming around. The Ontario Soccer Association will (I believe) soon recognize the private academy model and local clubs are 'pulling up their socks' to try and match what we are preaching. All in all, the players (and the game) are benefiting.

[gkhs]

L.T., I think that you're right to be encouraged. I think most people agree that we are doing a better job now than ever before with kids U14 (or at the very least U12). Most of the criticism I've heard is criticism of the system for kids once they pass that stage...I really don't know what we should do. In other countries professional clubs play a huge role from 12,13,14 onwards. In the US, they place such a high value on high school and college sports, and soccer is playing an ever larger role in that...Canada doesn't really fit either model.

[bettermirror]

quote:Originally posted by villus

Also the emphasis needs to be taken off winning right now at the young ages and put on developing overall soccer skills.

It's really interesting you say this. BC Soccer states "it's all about player development." yadi yadi yada. Yet, when provincial cup time comes around they "seed" the top 4 teams against the bottom 4 (not sure what happens with the middle placed teams).

So what they are saying is, "ya we want development - but if you win games you will be rewarded" ... but what I believe is really happening is BC Soccer wants "the best and most successful team possible at nationals so they aren't embarrassed."

A complete contradiction of the "development first" motto.

[Richard]

There is a time for development and there is a time to field the most competitive teams and they seldom coincide. Personally, when it comes time for provincial and national championships at all levels I want to see the best team win.

[terpfan68]

I usually only agree with Richard about 27% of the time. This time though he has it right. At the provincial and national levels you have to play to win. You need to evaluate players in games where winning is important. We have all coached players who excel in practice and then can not produce when the chips are on the line. (There are also those players who don’t perform well in practice, but can get the job done in the game.) When we use individual drills, or small sided games we do need to emphasize performance (winning), but only after the particular soccer skill has been taught and mastered.

[bettermirror]

I get what you are saying - but what I suggest is if they are truly the best team they should be able to win the provincial cup regardless of whom they draw in the first few rounds of the competition.

I would argue, as long as they are deemed "youth" players every match should be regarded as a development process regardless of the stature of that match - however, you must make mention to the kids in your pre-game discussion that winning the game in a cup competition may not necessarily equal playing "the beautiful game" and may require you to do all the dirty, and frustrating things to win...but it's still a learning process for each individual player.

Seeding the top teams only works to counteract the supposed philosophy of "development first" during the league season by placing an emphasis on winning games to receive the reward of playing a "poor" team in the early rounds of the cup.

[Richard]

So you have a fundamental philosophical objection to any form of seeding at the youth competitive level? I suggest when it comes to higher level tournament play, seeding is something the youngsters are going to encounter all their playing lives and they had better get used to it early on. It makes no sense to have a special cocooning system for youth players while they're 'developing', then suddenly drop them into a very different environment when they are no longer 'developing', which begs the question, when does that happen, if ever? Kids who play on teams that enjoy the prospect of making it to provincial championship tournaments and further are most likely pretty motivated and competitive youngsters who want to win and are happy to benefit from any legal advantage they can, including seeding. And don't make the mistake that 11 year olds don't grasp the advantage if there is one.

[bettermirror]

i have no problem with seeding at national or provincial finals. but coastal cup play leading to provincials should be a "draw" process.

"It makes no sense to have a special cocooning system for youth players while they're 'developing', then suddenly drop them into a very different environment when they are no longer 'developing', which begs the question, when does that happen, if ever?"

It makes perfect sense. It is the difference between youth and senior environments. If top youth players are playing together, as they should be, then they will be exposed to all the competitiveness they can or should handle.

[Richard]

So why not seed major tournaments like the Coastal Cup? No kid reaches that level if all he/she is interested in is recreational fun soccer. By the time kids are playing 11-a-side at Coastal Cup level it is the real thing.

[The Ref]

quote:Originally posted by Richard

So why not seed major tournaments like the Coastal Cup? No kid reaches that level if all he/she is interested in is recreational fun soccer. By the time kids are playing 11-a-side at Coastal Cup level it is the real thing.

I think you have been away from youth soccer for too long.

[Richard]

Maybe you're right :-)