An open letter to the CSA

[Massive Attack]

Regs thanks for making that last post. That information is quite intriguing and really should shut up all the whiners. But I know it won't.

It appears that Vic is trying to attack you for stuff that I posted, I'm sorry about that.

[to_soccer]

I often read these boards and never participate. The biggest question I have is why do we all post stuff as fact when it rarely is backed up in any way. Well, here I go doing exactly that...

It has been posted that the womens and mens program over the past 5 years have roughly been equally budgeted for. How much was spent from CSA budgets? I think it is important to understand that in those five years, the women have actually been to and/or prepared for 2 World Cups, an expensive proposition. The budget for the women, therefore, should actually be significantly more, as the men have not had to prepare for or attend a World Cup, unfortunately. It would be interesting to see how the budgets would look if the men had qualified for two in the past 5 years.

Do any of you guys with those great contacts have actual numbers? Can you confirm how much funding is actually coming from the CSA membership into these two programs?

By the way, it is laughable to think that the mens players would accept any kind of residency program, let alone one that puts them at or near the poverty line. I am sure it was tough enough getting the women to leave their club teams (who were not paying them) and move to Vancouver, ask these guys to leave pro clubs in Europe to come and train full time with the CSA- Very funny! Not for 200,000 a year- never mind 20,000 a year.

It has been posted that the CSA approached Mr Kerfoot re the funding. I am quite certain that in fact, Mr Kerfoot actaully offered to support a men's/boys program first, and when turned down by the csa, offered to help the women in some way. The current program likely evolved from those early discussions. It is funny that now we are giving credit to the CSA for asking for help from Mr Kerfoot, when for the last year, he has been slagged publicly by the CSA,many posters, and Colin Linford for his motives behind stepping up.

I am certain that most, much, or all of the Women's funding comes from Sport Canada (as opposed to the CSA directly), who would see the women as a medal hopeful in an Olympic games. The men would not receive this funding as they are not considered a hopeful. The SPort Canada funding sees sport as sport,on a performance basis, not as a gender issue. If you took the Sport Canada funding out of the equation, the inequity would be laughable, even if it is true that the two programs had received equal BUDGETING.

In the end, the women are relatively better and have received interest from the business community. And for that, the CSA does not fund them at all. The success from a business and result perspective has led to lack of support from the CSA- how ironic.

Finally, I actually believe that if we checked the numbers at the CSA, the womens program has generated as much or more revenue than the mens in the past 5 years through sponsorship and other sources. What revenue have the men generated? The women get money for qualifying for the World Cup, they won prize money at the tournament last year in Asia, there is revenue at each game (even if there are significant expenses to go with it), and I am sure there are many sponsors who would be attracted to the women first, before a mens program with no exposure. And then there is the generous sponsorship from Mr Kerfoot.

Can somebody ask their contact for those numbers on what has actually been generated. After all the talk of what the men can do and what the women cant do in the corporate community, I would actually like to see what each has done.

Go Canada vs Haiti

[Regs]

I post as fact because I personally take the time to ask people who I know have the answers.

At the risk of now being called an apologist for the CSA, I am going to pass on further calling to appease people I do not know. All I can say is cultivate your own network of contacts (if you don't already have them) and ask the questions yourselves. It's a much, much more rewarding experience.

Cheers,

~Regs.

[CoachRich]

Regs "Now, you don't know me, but I will tell you flat out that it was the CSA, through Evan Pellerud that approached Mr. Kerfoot regarding the residency program. I will also post here that in 2006 the women's program had a larger budget than the men. Over the last 5 years, roughly the same amount of money has been budgeted for the men and women.

Odd that I found no cloak of silence when I called my contact in the CSA and asked him specifically about this."

Pls post the budget then? It would be good news to see the WNT get more but then they are doing better.

Pls ask your friend to provide us w/ the CSA Financials? ie Annual Report w/ Financials like balance, cashflow & etc like any reporting business that is funded by taxpayers monies will.

If he can procduce anything later than the 2003 financials I will fall off my seat along w/ the rest of the Canadian soccer community!!! There are hundreds of posts out there on the CSA not disclosing. Do they? Has anyone here seen the CSA Financials after 2003?

The CSA removed the link to the 2003 Annual Report the other day from their web site but they are there for those that bookmarked them at

http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/docs/AnnualReport2003.pdf

Those that want to see FIFA's Financial Report for 2006 they are here -

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/2006_fifa_ar_en_1766.pdf

Let me see, my club, youth district, senior district, provincial assoc & FIFA produce Annual Reports / Financials to the public but the CSA does not.

Btw thanks to the person on the OSA thread on the CSA but no up to date finanical info there other than 2003 but lots of other juicy stuff.

http://www.ontariosoccerweb.com/ost/viewtopic.php?t=4264&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Btw does anyone remember the year & event the WNT asked for a share of the event & TV revenues? Now why would they do that?

Btw this thread isn't about whinning. It's about equality. It'a about 43% of the membership wanting 43% of the program or better if they produce the results. This is no different than why there is gender equity on field alocation or why youth gets primetime.

Bottomline is we can battle like heck here until the sky fails but it all comes down to one thing. That is the CSA Finanicals. Until we can see them we have no idea what the CSA is doing..........

[CoachRich]

quote:Originally posted by Regs

I post as fact because I personally take the time to ask people who I know have the answers.

At the risk of now being called an apologist for the CSA, I am going to pass on further calling to appease people I do not know. All I can say is cultivate your own network of contacts (if you don't already have them) and ask the questions yourselves. It's a much, much more rewarding experience.

Cheers,

~Regs.

I have done as you say years ago & that is why I'm engaging in friendly discussion.

[Vic]

And as opposed to people tossing out completely unsubstantiated rumour, if there is anyone out there who can provide anyone in the CSA willing to put their name and integrity behind this kind of information, great. Because there are thousands of people who would love to know what's going on.

Thanks people for the thoughtful and helpful posts.

[CoachRich]

Try Richard Scott, CSA, Dir of Communications at rscott@soccercan.ca

[Vic]

One last one for the road:

http://charityreports.give.org/Public/Report.aspx?CharityID=236

[CoachRich]

Mine for the road - According to the CSA sched on their web site the MNT program have/are going to play 20 games (not including U20 WC) to the WNT's program of 6

[DoyleG]

quote:Originally posted by Vic

Thanks for the update. You may want to take a look at what we've been doing for the last 25 years and how successful it's been. And while you're at it, you may also want to read up on civil and constitutional rights. But my guess is words that long confuse you.

Constitutional rights have nothing to do with the current state of the Women's National Team.

Economics still run sports today at all levels. The teams that are catching up and passing Canada are countries that don't have the same social progression. Yet they have accepted that the fact that a successful Men's Team will produce far more revenue. Revenue that can be filtered down to support the Women's programs that they run.

Title IX didn't save the WUSA. They weren't drawing the type of fans that a soccer team needs to survive.

Idealism is quite fine if you choose the ignore the harsh reality.

[CoachRich]

Title IX - "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

[terpfan68]

Let's face it women's international competitions produces medals. Look at the medal count at the last olympics and count them by gender. On the world stage Canadian women athletes are in the top 10. Where would the men be ranked? $1.00 spent on the women goes a lot farther than $1.00 spent on the men. U.S. success is more balanced probably because of their size and their college (NCAA) sports program. Australia is just sport crazy. (thank God they don't have winter sports) Europe is only really interested in soccer (football) with some basketball and volleyball. Canada is trying to do it all probably because we are U.S. Lite.

[CoachRich]

If you are willing to bring attention to the items that have been discussed in this thread, Email the Ministers of Sports Canada -

Beverley J. Oda - Oda.B@parl.gc.ca

Helena Guergis - Guergis.H@parl.gc.ca

Key points are -

1. Gender Equity

2. Financial Disclosure so we can see the monies for MNT & WNT programs. Last financials were 2002 issued in 2003. CSA have taken down these financials from their site but you can still see them at

http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/docs/AnnualReport2003.pdf

National News coverage on the above is in the works.

Best thing to do is start asking people who care about the WNT to Email Sports Canada & CSA as word has it WNT WC budget is less than $150K!!!!

Btw I was watching the WNT for 3 hours today & they are looking great but there is this feeling in the air that they have been forgotten even though they are preparing for the WC.

[The Ref]

quote:Originally posted by CoachRich

I will tell you flat out that it was the CSA, through Evan Pellerud that approached Mr. Kerfoot regarding the residency program.

Do you have any proof that the CSA was a participant on this or was it just Pellerud on his own.

[CoachRich]

quote:Originally posted by The Ref

Do you have any proof that the CSA was a participant on this or was it just Pellerud on his own.

That's a quote from Regs at the bottom of Page 2 quoted by me on page 3 asking him a question..........

[The Ref]

quote:Originally posted by CoachRich

That's a quote from Regs at the bottom of Page 2 quoted by me on page 3 asking him a question..........

Sorry CoachRich. So I pose the question then to Regs.

[Regs]

If I'm an employee of any organisation, anything I do is on behalf of the organisation.

But what 'proof' do you want? I asked a prominent member of the CSA a question and he answered what I wrote here. I have no reason to believe he is feeding me bull and to be honest, I'm not about to go grilling him on nitty-gritty details that in the scheme of things means sweet <insert what you will here> all.

[Vic]

Thanks for the tip. And if you're satisified then great. Nothing personal though, but just like anonymous stock tips, I usually don't act on information when there's no proof someone made a call, no idea who they called, no proof the person they talked to knew the information, and no proof the person would give the right information if they did.

[Regs]

Without knowing the person posting personally, you will never get the 'proof' that "you" require on an internet message board. I'm afraid you're wasting your time here.

Here's a tip: I'm from BC, I'm not hard to locate online, figure it out.

Cheers,

~Regs.

[georg]

quote:Originally posted by Regs

Without knowing the person posting personally, you will never get the 'proof' that "you" require on an internet message board. I'm afraid you're wasting your time here.

Here's a tip: I'm from BC, I'm not hard to locate online, figure it out.

Cheers,

~Regs.

Ever hear of "The 7 Why" Theorum? To find the truth 7 questions must be asked.

[The Ref]

Linford now publicly accused of denying funding and sponsors for the WNT as per Global-TV report on the WNT today. I wonder if Linford paid out of his own for his trip and stay in Victoria. The stinking smell coming out of the CSA is getting stronger by the day.

[CoachRich]

Will probably air again at 11pm. Getting the word out. Walsh just rocked & the other were awesome!!!

[Richard]

quote:Originally posted by The Ref

Linford now publicly accused of denying funding and sponsors for the WNT as per Global-TV report on the WNT today. I wonder if Linford paid out of his own for his trip and stay in Victoria. The stinking smell coming out of the CSA is getting stronger by the day.

Why should the president of the CSA pay his own expenses for travel to Victoria on official CSA business related to the U-20 WC? This is a volunteer position, he get's no salary for doing the miserable job of trying to satisfy the demands of people like you and a brazillion others. I sure as hell wouldn't do the job even if all my CSA business related expenses were covered.

[The Ref]

quote:Originally posted by Richard

I sure as hell wouldn't do the job even if all my CSA business related expenses were covered.

Thanks God for that!

[Vic]

> brazillion

Interestingly Freudian.