G&M online discussion Monday - Soccer in Canada

[Rujulus]

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070622.wsptbruntchat/GSStory/GlobeSportsSoccer/home

Stephen Brunt is doing an online chat Monday 25-Jun-07 at the Globe & Mail on Soccer in Canada.

This might be a good opportunity to, among other things, publicly ask the question: "What can we do to improve the fairness of soccer, in light of the recent Canada - USA Gold Cup match and a history of dishearteningly suspect officiating in CONCACAF Gold Cup and World Cup Qualifier matches?"

[Guest Dave]

"Given the endemic incompetetence, corruption, and anti-Canadian bias of many CONCACAF Officials, why doesn't the CSA demand referees and linesmen from outside our confederation at WCQ, at least for home games?"

[marktci]

Brunt has an incredible talent of cutting through the BS and just putting it like it is. This is my favourite bit of the entire chat:

quote:Stephen Brunt writes: Hope you don't mind if I answer your questions together, because I think you're really saying the same thing - that the traditional sports media have been slow to get on the soccer bandwagon, especially one rather well known talk radio host based in Toronto. Well, you're right, to a point. There is an old guard in the sports press (since I've been writing a column for almost twenty years now, I guess I'm part of it, at least generationally) that have been through a whole series of "soccer will be the sport of the 70's/80's/90's..." stories, only to see them end in failure. Generally, you're also talking about people who grew up here in an era when the big four, hockey/North American Football/baseball/basketball were completely dominant, at least when it came to spectator sport. So their cynicism at this newest soccer renaissance is understandable. What they've missed, I think, is the growth of a true North American soccer audience, that has learned about the game through its increased availability on television. I was part of the first wave of recreational kids soccer 40 years ago, but in those days, you certainly couldn't watch the international game on tv. Once your playing days was over, it was tough to continue as a fan. And the Old World allegiances in immigrant communities weren't enough to carry the game here - especially because they tended to break along ethnic lines, at the exclusion of everyone else. What I've sensed covering the last four World Cups, a European championship, a women's World Cup, and a bunch of Premier League and Champions League matches, is the growing audience for the game among those who weren't born in the shadow of some great European or South American soccer temple. And I think that's what the old guard missed. They thought that Toronto FC, etc, was just more of the same old same old, the NASL revisited, destined to die a quick, painful death.

As for my pal McCown, he is a master of the talk radio artform, and he knows exactly what buttons to push. On a slow day, just go on the air and say soccer is boring and watch the phones light up. He uses the passion of the soccer audience (and the fact that it tends to take itself just a teeny bit seriously, and can be awfully defensive) to his own advantage. Works every time.