Soccer In Crisis - Open Forum (Oct. 23)

[VPjr]

Some of you may or may not be aware that North York Hears SC is hosting what should be an interesting Open Forum to discuss the state of the game.

Below is a copy of the agenda and a list of discussion topics that has been prepared by the organizers of what is being called the "Soccer in Crisis" Forum.

This event is being held on Oct. 23, 2007 in Toronto. The location for this event is:

Julius Roman Empire Banquet Hall

2201 Finch Avenue West, Unit 32 (Finch & Highway 400 area)

416-746-9500

If Interested in Attending, please contact FLYNN BEHARRY (info@heartssoccer.com)

**************************************************************

AGENDA - SOCCER IN CRISIS

Welcome to all soccer enthusiasts, to the first of what we hope will be a series of forums to collate ideas & opinions into a consensus of a "New Beginning" for soccer in Canada.

REGISTRATION STARTS AT 6:30 P:M.

THE FORUM DISCUSSION STARTS AT 7:30 P:M.

COME EARLY AND CHAT WITH YOUR OTHER SOCCER ENTHUSIASTS.

===========================================

1. Opening Statement and introduction of panel 7:15 - 7:30

2. New structure for governance 7:30 - 8:00

3. What constitutes a Club? National Standards 8:00 - 9:00

4. National Registry 9:00 - 9:30

5. Funding 9:30 - 9:45

6. Technical 9:45 - 10:00

7. Adjourn 10:00

===========================================

Topics for Discussion

1. Ideas for New Structure

• National Body - Canadian Soccer Federation

• A number of Satellite centres spread across the country

• The satellite centres will have little administrative responsibility. Their purpose will be mainly to house technical staff

• A series of National Training Centres

• Board of Regents (1) Soccer Entity to be occupied by Club representatives according to an established criteria for such positions (2) Business Entity to be occupied by people from the business world according to an established criteria for such positions

• Clubs with newly established National Standards

• Lobby for Federal & Provincial assistance for the establishing of National Training Centres

• Clubs to be either Full Service or Recreational. Criteria to be established to allow Recreational Clubs the opportunity to grow into Full Service Clubs

2. Clubs -- continuity to be determined according to adherence to established National Standards

Ideas:

• House League for all age groups

• Select Programme from 8 - 13 years of age

• Elite Programme from 14 - 18 years of age

• Men & Women Programmes

• Can be run as a business or a registered "not for profit organization"

• All select, elite and men & women programmes to be coached by coaches with nationally approved standards, but with a minimum starting level to be established

• Youth Competition to be maintained through week-end games between the select and elite teams of territorial Clubs. Men & women teams will continue to compete in established Senior Leagues, but to be streamlined at a later date

• Mom & pop coaches will still administer to the house league players

• Recognition and compensation packages for Clubs producing National and/or Professional players

• Levels of Clubs to be established, in order to accommodate both organizations which want to become Full Service Clubs, and those which want to stay Recreational, but want to retain the option of growing into a Full Service Club.

• Establishing an environment for players to enjoy the game and not have undue pressure exerted on them. Emphasis is to be on "Player Development" and not on winning at all costs

• Clubs should be given the freedom to consider contractual inplementations with players

3. National Registry

• All select, elite, men and women players to be registered with the National Registry

• Clubs be allowed to use their own local data base to operate their house leagues. Technical mechanism to be developed to allow the Clubs to upload their house league data bases to the National Registry

4. Funding

• All funding goes directly to the National Body

•Through consensus, a separate rate be established for select, elite and men players and a separate rate for House League players. The numbers in each Club will already be on the National Registry

•Maintenance of any government funding, sponsorships and retention of funds from organized events

5. Technical

• The technical staff from the satellite centres will be assigned territories

• Their job will be to visit Club grounds and week-end games to evaluate players for consideration to National Teams

• Technical staff to conduct training at the various satellite centres under the auspices and established programme of a National Head Coach

• Accountability - a process to be established to conduct periodic evaluations, assessments or audits of the performance of Technical Staff. This is to be overseen by the National Head Coach in collaboration with the Soccer Entity of the Board of Regents.

THESE ARE ONLY SOME OF OUR IDEAS. LET US HEAR YOURS, SO WE CAN START TO BUILD A NATIONAL CONSENSUS.

ANNOUNCEMENT: WE WILL BE WORKING TO COMPILE AN AD HOC COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS PLANS FOR THE ASSEMBLY OF AN OPERATING ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE. PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.

[VPjr]

Hey Guys...just a reminder. If you are in the GTA area and want to spend an evening talking about soccer and listening to ideas for making positive change, join us at the Soccer in Crisis forum tonight in North York.

[Gian-Luca]

I can't make it tonight, but if anyone is going perhaps they can ask/find out about these proposed National Training Centres to be established.....how are they going to be different from the ones that are already established?

With the advent of the pro club academies, I actually think there is less of a need for these, but the suggestion here seems to be to lobby the various governments to set up NTC's, even though there already a few in existence. Do you mean lobby the government to better fund the existing ones?

[VPjr]

G-L, the organizers of last nights meeting will be preparing some sort of minutes. I am sure it will result in a lot of discussion.

I can tell you that you would have enjoyed the discussion. It was lively. There was some good debate. I was particularily impressed with what a couple of A License coaches in attendance had to say about what they perceive are the problems with the current player development mentality.

The only discussion I recall regarding NTC's came about when a group of us were speaking to Vince Ursini after the Open Forum ended. I told him that, in my opinion, the NTC's are a joke and I told him why. He did not disagree or argue against my comment.

I think that if there is a need for national training centers, it would be in regards to coaching development rather than player development. Player development should reside at the club level, IMO and community soccer clubs need to take this responsibility more seriously. It is not enough to just provide access to the game. House League is great (its the only level of soccer I ever plan to be involved in as a coach) and I know it makes up 99% of all registrations in Canada but I firmly believe that if the elite side of the sport is better managed and properly prioritized, the popularity of recreational soccer will grow even stronger that it is today. If we develop more and better elite players, capable of playing professional or even semi-professional soccer, there will be even more kids who come to the game but, more importantly, stick with the game.

Private Academies, especially those affiliated with SAAC, have already created a model for Canadian soccer player development that is inline with globally established best pracitices. The model adopted by these academies are proven to work and these academies are attracting a growing number of players each year who are not satisfied with the type of programs available at their community clubs. This model can and should be adopted by full service community soccer clubs (again, my opinion).

[VPjr]

G-L, the organizers of last nights meeting will be preparing some sort of minutes. I am sure it will result in a lot of discussion.

I can tell you that you would have enjoyed the discussion. It was lively. There was some good debate. I was particularily impressed with what a couple of A License coaches in attendance had to say about what they perceive are the problems with the current player development mentality.

The only discussion I recall regarding NTC's came about when a group of us were speaking to Vince Ursini after the Open Forum ended. I told him that, in my opinion, the NTC's are a joke and I told him why. He did not disagree or argue against my comment.

I think that if there is a need for national training centers, it would be in regards to coaching development rather than player development. Player development should reside at the club level, IMO and community soccer clubs need to take this responsibility more seriously. It is not enough to just provide access to the game. House League is great (its the only level of soccer I ever plan to be involved in as a coach) and I know it makes up 99% of all registrations in Canada but I firmly believe that if the elite side of the sport is better managed and properly prioritized, the popularity of recreational soccer will grow even stronger that it is today. If we develop more and better elite players, capable of playing professional or even semi-professional soccer, there will be even more kids who come to the game but, more importantly, stick with the game.

Private Academies, especially those affiliated with SAAC, have already created a model for Canadian soccer player development that is inline with globally established best pracitices. The model adopted by these academies are proven to work and these academies are attracting a growing number of players each year who are not satisfied with the type of programs available at their community clubs. This model can and should be adopted by full service community soccer clubs (again, my opinion).

[Metro]

I also attended the open forum for the first 90 minutes or so, before I had to slip out.

As VPJr suggested, lively debate indeed; to me, it was more of your typical "first" meeting with people brain storming as to what's wrong with Canadian soccer. None of the suggestions would be considered new to the members of this board.

For those who sat through the whole thing: was there ever any suggestion of perhaps approaching the three professional clubs since they've gone public with the intentions of working together in terms of player development in this country? I think approaching the Whitecaps, Impact & TFC is key. If I was one of the gentlemen at the forum who run a soccer club, I would greatly consider contacting the pro clubs to see if my soccer club could get involved. If local soccer clubs across country can provide a foundation to what the pro clubs are trying to create, we may have the beginning of a proper player development network in this country.

[dbailey62]

quote:Originally posted by Metro

I also attended the open forum for the first 90 minutes or so, before I had to slip out.

As VPJr suggested, lively debate indeed; to me, it was more of your typical "first" meeting with people brain storming as to what's wrong with Canadian soccer. None of the suggestions would be considered new to the members of this board.

For those who sat through the whole thing: was there ever any suggestion of perhaps approaching the three professional clubs since they've gone public with the intentions of working together in terms of player development in this country? I think approaching the Whitecaps, Impact & TFC is key. If I was one of the gentlemen at the forum who run a soccer club, I would greatly consider contacting the pro clubs to see if my soccer club could get involved. If local soccer clubs across country can provide a foundation to what the pro clubs are trying to create, we may have the beginning of a proper player development network in this country.

It was touched on later in the evening. I think Ben brought it up!

[Cheeta]

quote:Originally posted by VPjr

I think that if there is a need for national training centers, it would be in regards to coaching development rather than player development. Player development should reside at the club level, IMO and community soccer clubs need to take this responsibility more seriously. It is not enough to just provide access to the game. House League is great (its the only level of soccer I ever plan to be involved in as a coach) and I know it makes up 99% of all registrations in Canada but I firmly believe that if the elite side of the sport is better managed and properly prioritized, the popularity of recreational soccer will grow even stronger that it is today. If we develop more and better elite players, capable of playing professional or even semi-professional soccer, there will be even more kids who come to the game but, more importantly, stick with the game.

Hear, hear.

To mine ears more truer words could not be spoken. I think the game has matured enough at this point (within Canada) even at the grassroots level that administratively we simply aren't keeping up.

But maybe that's normal. A mirroring of what we see with the higher levels in the CSA. The administrative side of the game being somewhat behind the times.

P.S. I'd also add I think were a more "flexible" competitive structure in place for football we'd see an impressive increase in the numbers of lads and lasses participating in elite club football.

[Duane Rollins1555362254]

VPjr summarized well, and we can post the full minutes once they have been e-mailed to us.

A few comments from the rabble-rouser who was hiding at the back of the room observing and taking notes.

It was a room of about 30 men, average age 50ish. Most had spent their lifetime in the sport and all appeared passionate about its growth. Many seemed to know each other. Dick Howard was there. It was chaired, entertainingly, by a genuine New York Cosmo! (who, intriguingly, some in the room were trying to convince to take a run at the CSA presidency).

As stated above, there wasn't much said that hasn't been debated (and debated and debated and...) on here for years. As an observation, some of the best ideas seemed to come from the minority in the room that were too young to really remember the '70s. I got the feeling that some of the old guard were repeating the same speech they have been giving for 20 years.

The meting ended without a commitment to do anything other than to meet again. Some of the best conversations happened in the lobby after, where the janitor eventually had to kick us out.

That said, once it was pointed out that Ursini was in the room things got a little interesting. To his credit, he stood there and took questions for a long time and answered most in a more direct manner than most people in his position would.

He didn't say much, but what was more interesting was what he didn't say. Specifically, he didn't defend the CSA's actions on several fronts, specifically its inability to promote its product (witness the BMO friendly), its failure to develop a effective player development model, and its over-reliance on player fees (the CSA is one of only four federations in FIFA that gets its funding from levies, he said--more on that later).

On Fred Nykamp to a small group of us in the parking lot: "That's could be the best money we ever spend," meaning the potential $1.75 million payout for not hiring him (In the interest of disclosure, we have a lot of information about Nykamp that we can't share yet because it would be potentially libelous). Speaking personally, I'm not upset he's not going to be the CEO. Still, I have major issues with the way the CSA handled his hiring and dismissal, as we all should).

He did defend the CSA on a number of fronts--CoachRich, you may want to take note here...

He said there was a lot of "misinformation" out there. He specifically singled out the idea that the women's team was underfunded. He claimed that the women actually received more funding than the men (I don't have my figures in front of me--VPjr, do you have the funding amount in your notes?). He said that the the CSA offered the women an opportunity to host a friendly as part of the World Cup warm-up, but the team did not schedule a game. Then, two weeks before it wanted to have a game, the team approached the CSA asking for a friendly. Ursini said that the CSA tried to find funding for that game in that time, but that "it wasn't enough time."

He continued to suggest that one of the CSA's biggest problems was that it was that incorrect information was being reported--to which I say to any CSA lurkers: hire a better communications director then. His job is to monitor media and ensure that the CSA's message is heard.

At one point, Ursini acknowledged that "the tail was waging the dog" when it comes to many decisions that the CSA makes. To wit, Canada is currently operating against FIFA regulations in that we do not have a one member, one vote system at the board level. As a result, the provinces, specifically the larger provinces, are controlling the agenda and, many feel, are preventing reforms. This is complicated stuff and one of the reasons we are making sure we have all the facts a in place before we go public with the press release.

We learned Monday that FIFA has requested that Canada address this issue, but Ursini said Tuesday that he didn't feel that it could. If the CSA tried to force the voting issue, Ursini said, some provinces could resort to not registering teams, thus denying the CSA its player registration money. Ergo, things stay the same.

Another interesting tidbit came from one of the elite coaches in attendance (I didn't catch his name, did you VPjr?). This gentleman was an A-class coach in four countries, including Canada. He said that when he tried to register for something in Europe that his Canadian qualifications weren't recognized. Basically, it appears,getting your coaching certification in Canada is akin to getting your med degree at the University of St. Lucia. Ursini's response? "Oh...that's useful to hear. I've never heard that before. I was unaware."

I must sleep now. I'll post more thoughts tomorrow.

[VPjr]

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

On Fred Nykamp to a small group of us in the parking lot: "That's could be the best money we ever spend," meaning the potential $1.75 million payout for not hiring him (In the interest of disclosure, we have a lot of information about Nykamp that we can't share yet because it would be potentially libelous). Speaking personally, I'm not upset he's not going to be the CEO. Still, I have major issues with the way the CSA handled his hiring and dismissal, as we all should).

It is becomming abundantly clear to me that Nykamp's hiring/firing has little to do with his unwillingness to relocate to Ottawa or the cost involved with him commuting between Ancaster and Ottawa. I always believed that those "reasons" were BS. They realized that they were handing over total control to a man who was not an insider and it appears that they might have learned some information about him that gave turned their cold feet into bricks of ice. It still upsets me that they let it get to this point and they should simply come clean that they did not do sufficient due diligence before sending him the offer of employment.

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

He said there was a lot of "misinformation" out there. He specifically singled out the idea that the women's team was underfunded. He claimed that the women actually received more funding than the men (I don't have my figures in front of me--VPjr, do you have the funding amount in your notes?).

I did not jot down the exact number he mentioned because it was sort of mumbled but I want to say that he indicated that their budget was in excess of $1million. I might be wrong so dont hold me to it. I will email Vince to ask him to clarify.

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

He continued to suggest that one of the CSA's biggest problems was that it was that incorrect information was being reported--to which I say to any CSA lurkers: hire a better communications director then. His job is to monitor media and ensure that the CSA's message is heard.

Call me crazy but, in the city of Ottawa, there should be no lack of experienced media relations people who might be available for hire. Offer someone decent money and start controlling the message. If misinformation exists, be open and honest. give your side of the story. But...be HONEST because people who are on these boards often have as much info (if not more) than the people working at the CSA.

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

At one point, Ursini acknowledged that "the tail was waging the dog" when it comes to many decisions that the CSA makes. To wit, Canada is currently operating against FIFA regulations in that we do not have a one member, one vote system at the board level. As a result, the provinces, specifically the larger provinces, are controlling the agenda and, many feel, are preventing reforms. This is complicated stuff and one of the reasons we are making sure we have all the facts a in place before we go public with the press release.

We learned Monday that FIFA has requested that Canada address this issue, but Ursini said Tuesday that he didn't feel that it could. If the CSA tried to force the voting issue, Ursini said, some provinces could resort to not registering teams, thus denying the CSA its player registration money. Ergo, things stay the same.

One of the gentlemen who was part of our meeting on Monday and who attended the conference last night pressed Domenic, Victor and Vince very hard on the 1 province, 1 vote issue. His argument, which makes sense to me, is that nothing is going to really change until you bust up the ability of the big provinces (PQ, Ont., BC) to gang up together to protect their interests. None of them believed it would ever pass, at least not anytime soon.

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

Another interesting tidbit came from one of the elite coaches in attendance (I didn't catch his name, did you VPjr?). This gentleman was an A-class coach in four countries, including Canada. He said that when he tried to register for something in Europe that his Canadian qualifications weren't recognized. Basically, it appears,getting your coaching certification in Canada is akin to getting your med degree at the University of St. Lucia. Ursini's response? "Oh...that's useful to hear. I've never heard that before. I was unaware."

I did not jot down his name. I do know that he runs a SAAC affiliated academy so maybe L.T. can give us his name if he wishes.

This coach was clearly upset that his Canada A license is unrecognized because it apparently took him 9 years to get it, at considerable expense. Maybe the CSA/OSA should consider giving him a refund?

I've been told by a few people that if you want to earn coaching licenses, go to the US to get them. Apparently the USSF and NSCAA offer excellent coaching programs that are heads and shoulders better than what is offered in Canada, especially by the OSA. I know that I am investigating this option for myself to see what is involved.

[CoachRich]

"He said there was a lot of "misinformation" out there. He specifically singled out the idea that the women's team was underfunded. He claimed that the women actually received more funding than the men " He probably didn't mention that out of the $750K the CSA only ponyed up $150 of that. The rest came from Sports Canada & the COC. That was what the WNT was speaking out vs as you shouldn't have to rob Pauline to pay for Peter if the CSA was run properly.

Interesting on the friendly as it was the opposite of what Linford said & to my knowledge from the players the WNT never had an offer from the CSA to host a friendly as the CSA said no money to do so. Same for the Olympic Qualifier.

Also, the WNT players have still yet to see any $ from Winners. More smoke & mirrors.

IMO the big question we should be asking the CSA is what is their financial plan to overcome the losses of last year, the U20 loss (FIFA $ are not a give me), Nykamp & etc. We could be almost $5+M in the hole already w/ only 2 months left to earn $ from where. Let's see, 85% of the membership is youth w/ uninformed parents.......heaven forbid that again!!!

[Martyr]

quote:Originally posted by VPjr

This coach was clearly upset that his Canada A license is unrecognized because it apparently took him 9 years to get it, at considerable expense. Maybe the CSA/OSA should consider giving him a refund?

I've been told by a few people that if you want to earn coaching licenses, go to the US to get them. Apparently the USSF and NSCAA offer excellent coaching programs that are heads and shoulders better than what is offered in Canada, especially by the OSA. I know that I am investigating this option for myself to see what is involved.

I moved to London, UK 5 years ago and I have earned my UEFA B License (Level 3) here. So I have first hand knowledge of how this works in the UK. I assume it's similar elsewhere in Europe. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that.

I had earned up to the B prep level in Canada before emigrating and that was taken as equivilent to their Level 1(basically our Community Coach course). Getting the full UEFA badge was a difficult experience as there was quite a bit of skepticism about someone trying to coach football with an 'American' accent. (Very few people here can pick out a Canadian accent - they think your either American or Irish.) It wasn't so bad at Level 2 - but I believe it was a big factor for me at Level 3, where you are being trained to coach at an Academy Level.

My Level 3 Instructor was also flown to Arizona by Charlton Athletic to train the coaches they were hiring for an Academy the club was opening - because the coach's US qualifications were not deemed to be good enough to produce professional players.

However, the US Coaching courses you are speaking of are probably excellent (and the B License and A License courses in Canada are based on the UK courses anyway) - but you'll get nowhere telling that to anyone in England. Especially with companys like MLS Camps (among many others) practically begging for anyone with a UK coaching badge to work in the USA. Their perspective is that if the coaching courses in the US were any good why would those companys need to recruit so many people from England?

There is also the financial angle. Why accept the badge from another country when you can get £500 out them instead. The FA now run a residential UEFA B course especially for Foreign coaches just to tap into this market. It's one of the ways they can fund themselves without player registration fees.

[VPjr]

Martyr, this is really good information. thank you. I will share it with some people who would find it interesting.

[The Ref]

quote:Originally posted by CoachRich

Interesting on the friendly as it was the opposite of what Linford said & to my knowledge from the players the WNT never had an offer from the CSA to host a friendly as the CSA said no money to do so. Same for the Olympic Qualifier.

Also, the WNT players have still yet to see any $ from Winners. More smoke & mirrors.

Maybe you can clarify two questions I have. First, why would any money from Winners go to the players? isn't a sponsor's money to go to the program? And second about the friendly game being rejected by the team, why wouldn't the coach speak out and deny the CSA's allegation if it was false?

[The Ref]

Thank you Marty for the information and your experience. I congratulate you on achieving your UEFA B License. I can only imaging how hard it must have been.

[squid2]

quote:Originally posted by VPjr

I did not jot down his name. I do know that he runs a SAAC affiliated academy so maybe L.T. can give us his name if he wishes.

This coach was clearly upset that his Canada A license is unrecognized because it apparently took him 9 years to get it, at considerable expense. Maybe the CSA/OSA should consider giving him a refund?

According to Stephen, his name is Bassam Naim.

http://www.academysoccer.ca/index.php?page=profile&pick=001

Mr. Naim was sitting at the same table as Stephen & L.T.

Stephen said he had the same issues a few years back when he went forward with his licenses in the US of A, hence why he stopped attending anything hosted/presented by the CSA/OSA. Since the accreditation is not transportable, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. Never mind the time or $$$.

[CoachRich]

quote:Originally posted by The Ref

Maybe you can clarify two questions I have. First, why would any money from Winners go to the players? isn't a sponsor's money to go to the program? And second about the friendly game being rejected by the team, why wouldn't the coach speak out and deny the CSA's allegation if it was false?

The players have not seen any new money for their program from Winners. Ever wonder why the announcement was done when the WNT was in China & no WNT was present at the announcement.

The WNT players & coaches have spoken out in the WWC lead up & it's well documented on radio & tv. CBC site is the best. After WNT & coaches commments in China on the news about the CSA not being interested in the Olympic qualifier, the coaches have been censored. Even did an interview during the WWC semi's & it was quite clear he was censored. Interesting was that the CBC commentators answered their own questions & slammed the CSA for not hosting the Olympic qualifer. Also, his interveiw w/ the Globe & Mail about hope w/ the CSA was pushing the envelope on no support from the CSA.

[jpg75]

quote:Originally posted by CoachRich

The players have not seen any new money for their program from Winners. Ever wonder why the announcement was done when the WNT was in China & no WNT was present at the announcement.

The WNT players & coaches have spoken out in the WWC lead up & it's well documented on radio & tv. CBC site is the best. After WNT & coaches commments in China on the news about the CSA not being interested in the Olympic qualifier, the coaches have been censored. Even did an interview during the WWC semi's & it was quite clear he was censored. Interesting was that the CBC commentators answered their own questions & slammed the CSA for not hosting the Olympic qualifer. Also, his interveiw w/ the Globe & Mail about hope w/ the CSA was pushing the envelope on no support from the CSA.

Wait until next year, then you can whine...

http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/media/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=2857

As the title sponsor for Canada's womens senior team, Winners will play an important role in Canada's road to the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008. Canada's senior team, widely considered as one of the top-two teams in the CONCACAF region, are expected to qualify for their first Olympic Women's Football Tournament.

As the title sponsor for Canada's women's youth team, Winners will help Canada in its endeavor to qualify for a fourth-straight FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The 2008 tournament takes place in Chile. The teams best finish - and the country's best-finish ever at a FIFA tournament - was at the initial tournament in 2002 when, as hosts, they finished second behind the United States.

[Duane Rollins1555362254]

The Winners deal is short on specifics, and it does seem to be a little less than what the CSA was letting on.

I've been told that the women, because of CSA interference, may have been prevented from obtaining some of their own sponsorships. many of those potential deals would have been more lucrative. If that is the case, the Winners deal would have seemed like a slap in the face to team, I would think.

quote:

One of the highlights to the partnership is the Little Winners Sharp Shooters program. This program, which will roll out at Winners stores across Canada, will help recognize kids that participate in the sport at the local level. Another highlight is the Soccer Moms and Dads program, recognising local parents and their efforts to keep kids active through soccer.

By 2010, Winners will be sponsoring 225 grassroots soccer teams across Canada (providing them with uniforms). The Canadian Soccer Association, meanwhile, will welcome Little Winners youth escorts to accompany the team captains at home international matches.

To me, it looks like they will be buying jerseys for a bunch of u-5 teams. Makes sense, since moms LOVE Winners.

[CoachRich]

jpg75 there is no money for the Senior Team program otherwise the players would have seen it in their program. There wasn't for the WWC & there won't be for the Olympic qualifier. If it wasn't for Sports Canada, the COC & Kerfoot there would be no team.

MediaGuy has got it right on the U5 jerseys. Maybe some polo shirts in the works too CSA has cost the WNT several sponsors as sponsors want the money to go to the WNT & no where else. No 2% to Soccer Properties/IMG for doing squat, no money going in general revenues & etc. That's why Kerfoot pays the players directly to avoid all the CSA hassles.

I would love to see the CSA breakdown their financials into the various programs as my gut feeling is that it would be very interesting to see how they don't manage effectively what they have & that w/ their track record can't attract big time sponsors or do major events that make money. It's like a little governement that has to keep going back to the taxpayers (players) to make ends meet.

[jpg75]

Now that the WC is over i can't imagine there's any money left over in the budget to play again this year. Unless they can pull out the cash for the mystery friendly that got (allegedly) clusterf*cked, and play one game until year end. Wait and see what 2008 brings...

[Gian-Luca]

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

On Fred Nykamp to a small group of us in the parking lot: "That's could be the best money we ever spend,"

Wow. That is quite the statement of Ursini's part.

[Soju]

A lot to think about in this thread. Thanks a lot to the guys posting your coaching comments/experiences. You've answered several questions I've been meaning to ask here for some time.

[Vic]

quote:

Wow. That is quite the statement of Ursini's part.

Agreed. Something deeply problematic with him has been intimated a few times, but I wonder how bad it can be to rate millions. Sure would be nice if they believed in educating the masses. And I imagine there's a lot of other people out there like me, who would sure like to wake up and believe they did the right thing, which right now is pretty damn hard.

[ANC2]

Let us assume all of these grand schemes are in place.

Who pays for it? Where is the money coming from?

People are talking about the plan put forward by Ireland. Great! What is the cost to the Association in Ireland. Who pays for all this? I just learned from a friend in Quebec that Kevan Pipe lied to the press. The money used for running ALL the National teams is below $3 million and not 12 million as stated by KP. So again I will ask who funds all this? These Academy coaches / owners are charging thousands of dollars to its players.

Not the $6.00 CSA gets presently for every registered player.