mcguffin Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Until very recently the Australian Soccer association was in as big a mess as the CSA is now... but in 2003, after the Socceroos again failed to make the World Cup Final, the government said enough, called a commission of enquiry which produced the Crawford Report. Sweeping changes followed to Australian football, a voluntary organisation, divided by provincial concerns, was replaced by a Football Association run by professionals... here is a link to the Crawford Report and an Aussie news report on how it came about. link link#2 So there is hope! But we all need to put pressure on people who can make the changes. We need to barrage our MP's, the Federal Sports minister and the CSA with mail to make them realise that the status quo isn't enough anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elias Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_Report Look at section titled "Precursor" on that wiki page. Scary... Or maybe there is hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarrek Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 This is exactly the sort of thing we need to administer to the CSA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSamurai Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 Ok, so we have a blueprint, but how do we get something going? Start by calling our MPs and MPPs? Start our own CSA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squid2 Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 You start by inviting Holger Osiek, Frank Yallop, Dick Bate and Colin Linford to participate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trillium Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 quote:Originally posted by squid2 You start by inviting Holger Osiek, Frank Yallop, Dick Bate and Colin Linford to participate. squid that is horribly bad joke... you start and end with political pressure on Helena Guergis the Minister of State for Sport guergh@parl.gc.ca email her on your own ask for the CSA to be put into guardianship by Sport Canada. Copy Fry.H@parl.gc.ca the liberal critic for sport .... Copy malol@parl.gc.ca the Bloc critic for sport ( and he has masters in business adminstration ...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gold_football Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 quote:Originally posted by mcguffin Until very recently the Australian Soccer association was in as big a mess as the CSA is now... but in 2003, after the Socceroos again failed to make the World Cup Final, the government said enough, called a commission of enquiry which produced the Crawford Report. Sweeping changes followed to Australian football, a voluntary organisation, divided by provincial concerns, was replaced by a Football Association run by professionals... here is a link to the Crawford Report and an Aussie news report on how it came about. link link#2 So there is hope! But we all need to put pressure on people who can make the changes. We need to barrage our MP's, the Federal Sports minister and the CSA with mail to make them realise that the status quo isn't enough anymore. The Crawford Report worked well in Australia because is was helped a lot by getting rid of the ethnic-based clubs that were competing in the old National Soccer League and replacing them with clubs of more an Australian background. Sydney Olympic, Marconi Farfield, Sydney Croatia, South Melbourne Hellas and Melbroune Croatia Knights were the ethnic clubs in the old NSL where Anglo-Saxon Australians didn't support, so the Crawford report recommended in replacing these clubs with ethnic backgrounds to clubs based on location such as Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC. Adelaide City Juventus was another ethnic club where they were getting low crowds but in the last couple of seasons in the now dufunct NSL they rebranded their club as Adelaide United with no specific ethnic affiliations and they had packed out stadiums at their home games. Also the move into the Asian Football Confederation helped as well because what we used to have in Oceania was pretty much very weak opposition in Tonga, Fiji and even New Zealand. Now Australian Clubs compete in the Asian Champions League which has made our national league more meaningful and Australian National Teams now qualify for their world cups through Asia. The Crawford report will probably work in Canada, but I'm not sure to if it will work to the same extent as what it did in Australia because of the circumstances that I mentioned, but a reform like that one is definately worth putting in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 Good god man, don't mention Australia on this board! You don't know what you are in for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squid2 Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 Trillium, same chapter different page.... I won’t waste my time with Helena. She’s not my MP; I’m nothing to her. As a soccer supporter, I e-mailed my MP and told him if he and his party continue to ignore the CSA, and their continued lack of accountability in the allocation of public funds, not only does he not get my vote next election, but he risks many other votes to. All I needed to do was remind him that less than 13,000 votes put him in ‘the house” and with a margin of less than 2,200 votes separating him from 2nd place – I asked him how difficult would it be for me to convince parents that one of the reasons our soccer registration fees keep going up is because the CSA keeps asking for more $$$. Then I slapped him with the fact that our riding has over 28,000+ soccer parents in our riding. I’m confident that I have my MP’s attention now. Here’s something else to munch on Trillium. If I want to “topple” Trillium Enterprises, I want the inside info. If I’m aware of an Ex Mrs. Trillium, I want to talk with the ex. I want to know where Trillium Enterprises is vulnerable so that I can attack that aspect. Back in the day they called it industrial espionage, today they call it many different things but my point is obtain the data that enhances your positioning before you execute a plan that is not fully even drafted. Much is to be learned from those who have left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcguffin Posted August 30, 2007 Author Share Posted August 30, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Trillium squid that is horribly bad joke... you start and end with political pressure on Helena Guergis the Minister of State for Sport guergh@parl.gc.ca email her on your own ask for the CSA to be put into guardianship by Sport Canada. Copy Fry.H@parl.gc.ca the liberal critic for sport .... Copy malol@parl.gc.ca the Bloc critic for sport ( and he has masters in business adminstration ...) Thanks for these email addresses Trillium. This is exactly the kind of thing we need to do, inundate our elected politicians with mail so they know this isn't something they can ignore. And be sure to remind the Minister and Federal Tories that they were elected on a mandate to end corruption and clean up cronyism. Doing that at the CSA would be a prime way to show voters that they are serious. Also, if you are a member of a soccer team, write up several copies of a generic protest letter and get each member to sign individual copies and mail it in to their MP and Minister Guergis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcguffin Posted August 30, 2007 Author Share Posted August 30, 2007 Cathal Kelly of the Toronto Star is apparently running a column on how Australia and the Crawford Report can teach Canada some lessons in Thursday's paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trillium Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 quote:Originally posted by squid2 Trillium, same chapter different page.... I won’t waste my time with Helena. She’s not my MP; I’m nothing to her. As a soccer supporter, I e-mailed my MP and told him if he and his party continue to ignore the CSA, and their continued lack of accountability in the allocation of public funds, not only does he not get my vote next election, but he risks many other votes to. All I needed to do was remind him that less than 13,000 votes put him in ‘the house” and with a margin of less than 2,200 votes separating him from 2nd place – I asked him how difficult would it be for me to convince parents that one of the reasons our soccer registration fees keep going up is because the CSA keeps asking for more $$$. Then I slapped him with the fact that our riding has over 28,000+ soccer parents in our riding. I’m confident that I have my MP’s attention now. Here’s something else to munch on Trillium. If I want to “topple” Trillium Enterprises, I want the inside info. If I’m aware of an Ex Mrs. Trillium, I want to talk with the ex. I want to know where Trillium Enterprises is vulnerable so that I can attack that aspect. Back in the day they called it industrial espionage, today they call it many different things but my point is obtain the data that enhances your positioning before you execute a plan that is not fully even drafted. Much is to be learned from those who have left. Chuckles well squid...my personal view CSA is vunerable in the pocket book and the feds hold the base money...get some questions going in the house ..get a senate ctte on sport holding hearings... get the bloc asking why the CSA does such a poor job in regards to provding bilingual national level coaches.... just the core things to a politician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcguffin Posted August 30, 2007 Author Share Posted August 30, 2007 Here is Cathal Kelly's column Canada would do well to follow Aussie example Aug 30, 2007 04:30 AM Cathal Kelly It's easy to complain. Better yet, it's fun. Moaning about the state of Canadian soccer is the main consolation in following it. But it does grow tiresome to others. Talking loudly and at great length about the many shortcomings of the Canadian Soccer Association will tend to get you invited to fewer poker nights with the guys. Eventually, only the dog will humour you. We complainers could do something, I suppose. That doesn't sound easy or like much fun, but hey, Australia did it. And now they spend their summers winning instead of whining. Several years ago, the Aussies found themselves where Canada is now. Soccer was moribund, an orphan in a sporting landscape dominated by rugby and Aussie rules. The country's governing body, Soccer Australia, was incompetent and riven by factionalism, much like the CSA. The senior men's team hadn't qualified for a World Cup since 1974, 12 years worse than Canada's record. All this despite 350,000 national participants and fine homegrown professionals. Then a series of cumulative disasters were capped by the 2002 World Cup. It was just too much for most Australians to watch the world's greatest sporting event hosted in nearby Asia and not be part of it. Out of this disappointment, the Crawford Report was born. The Crawford Report was a wide-ranging, government-sponsored inquiry into the state of the national game. Released in April, 2003, the damning document called for renewal through a scorched-earth policy. Money was the stick and the carrot used by the government to ensure compliance. As in, ignore us and we stop all funding. Frank Lowy, a billionaire shipping magnate and passionate fan, was asked to oversee soccer's renewal. His first move was to blow up Soccer Australia. Then he hired John O'Neill, the architect of the 2003 rugby World Cup, to run the newly created Australian Soccer Association. O'Neill countered factionalism and amateurism by hiring proven executives with no ties to the old regime. Rather than fighting for their regional patches, Australian soccer's overseers were suddenly pulling together. Buoyed by fresh optimism and new money, Australia attracted manager Guus Hiddink. Coming off his success with South Korea in the 2002 World Cup, the Dutch gun-for-hire agreed to push Australia back on to the international stage. Hiddink first drove his charges over Uruguay to qualify for the World Cup. Interest in the sport spiked. Then the team was a shock qualifier for the playoff rounds in Germany. Only a dodgy penalty call against eventual champions Italy kept them out of the quarter-finals. The national team's success anchored the new domestic series – the A-League – only a year after its creation. O'Neill's ability to draw sponsors and TV revenues means the thriving national squads are financially self-sustaining. Australia is living our dream while we continue to muddle through their nightmare. Good enough reason to begin pressing for a Canadian Crawford Report. The resignation of CSA president Colin Linford this week should be the last of many back-breaking straws. But don't count on it. The most likely future tipping point is another implosion by the men's team in attempting to qualify for South Africa 2010. It is time to start seeding the ground. There are Lowys in Canada (billionaire soccer fanatic Frank Stronach leaps to mind), as well as O'Neills (how about Calgary Olympic boss Frank King or ex-Blue Jays president Paul Beeston or Canadian skiing honcho Ken Read?). What's needed now is a powerful someone in Ottawa to start rocking the boat. The dog would do it, but she's more of a policy wonk than a crusader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSamurai Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Trillium Chuckles well squid...my personal view CSA is vunerable in the pocket book and the feds hold the base money...get some questions going in the house ..get a senate ctte on sport holding hearings... get the bloc asking why the CSA does such a poor job in regards to provding bilingual national level coaches.... just the core things to a politician. Hell if anyone got on it, it would probably the Bloc. Man I never thought I'd say this, but looks like we need their help! But yes, the CSA should fall under Sport Canada. Or we somehow talk the RIM guys to buy out the CSA. Isn't the one guy after his own team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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