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The CEO question


Ben Knight

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"If Canada's top amateur soccer clubs decided – informally – that they all wanted to raise the certification standards for their top coaches, it could easily be done – unofficially – in time for next season. If they wanted an annual national club championship at the highest level, they would certainly need CSA approval, but they could do all the planning and negotiating informally, and present it to the CSA board as a finished deal."

Good one Ben, I had a nice laugh over that thought.... Gerry I'm sure has mentioned to you that this is currently being attempted with some Ontario clubs. Any idea how it's going ;)?!?

This attempt is no doubt in direct response to the competition provided by SAAC - Soccer Academy Alliance Canada, which is currently staking a foothold in Ontario (jeez, they even copied the name, they call themselves Canadian Club Academy Alliance or some derivation thereof).

By the way, just to give you a heads up as to how the 'saviours' of soccer at the youth level reacted to SAAC - an organization that is doing pretty much exactly what you mention (and more), well this about somes it up.

3 Years of refusal to vote on the application request

4 (at least) different committees to study the situation

2 failed attempts to produce an inferior copy

1 blatantly unconstitutional denial of membership

Ben, the failures at the top of our structure are brought about by people that have been promoted through the system from the base, so to expect that same base to produce their own, better system outside the existing structure is a pipe dream...

Cheers

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quote:Originally posted by L.T.

"If Canada's top amateur soccer clubs decided – informally – that they all wanted to raise the certification standards for their top coaches, it could easily be done – unofficially – in time for next season. If they wanted an annual national club championship at the highest level, they would certainly need CSA approval, but they could do all the planning and negotiating informally, and present it to the CSA board as a finished deal."

Good one Ben, I had a nice laugh over that thought.... Gerry I'm sure has mentioned to you that this is currently being attempted with some Ontario clubs. Any idea how it's going ;)?!?

This attempt is no doubt in direct response to the competition provided by SAAC - Soccer Academy Alliance Canada, which is currently staking a foothold in Ontario (jeez, they even copied the name, they call themselves Canadian Club Academy Alliance or some derivation thereof).

By the way, just to give you a heads up as to how the 'saviours' of soccer at the youth level reacted to SAAC - an organization that is doing pretty much exactly what you mention (and more), well this about somes it up.

3 Years of refusal to vote on the application request

4 (at least) different committees to study the situation

2 failed attempts to produce an inferior copy

1 blatantly unconstitutional denial of membership

Ben, the failures at the top of our structure are brought about by people that have been promoted through the system from the base, so to expect that same base to produce their own, better system outside the existing structure is a pipe dream...

Cheers

Hey L.T. Sorry to hear that they turned you down again.

Has the OSA even bothered to give you a breakdown of what standards SAAC must fulfill (this time) to win approval in future years (assuming you want to continue to go down this road...you know my opinon on that topic).

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We applied for Associate Membership, which provides virtually no rights (except for the right to request more rights). It also has virtually no requirements other than "Soccer organizations operating in more than one district may apply for Associate Membership in accordance with published rules.."

They denied us without cause (because they have none, we meet all the appropriate rules), so I'm not holding my breath that they'll come back with any further guidelines for them to not follow...

(for the record, this is their first denial, they've just been effectively ignoring our application for the past 3 years)

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I probably should not go into it too much here as it is still unfolding - I just needed to vent a bit of my frustration. I'd be happy to discuss it further offline. I know you keep in touch with Alfons, he has also been involved from the beginning and can fill you in or pass along my contact info...

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"It's obvious to most that the next necessary step is the hiring of a solid, business-savvy CEO."

Those who have read my posts here will know I have been advocating this for the CSA for a long time. The CEO should have full executive authority and be accountable to the BoD who serve as just that, directors setting policy and direction, not getting involved in day-to-day operations and management.

Ben's suggestion of a parallel board of advisors drawn from the private and public sectors and representing a wide range of skills, knowledge and expertise is also a grand idea. These can be people whose abilities can greatly benefit the administration of the game but who do not have the time or inclination to go through the tortuous and undemocratic process of becoming a member of the CSA BoD under the existing unwieldy, cumbersome and ineffective structure.

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^ That is EXACTLY the problem, the directors were unwilling to relinquish any of the undue executive power they wield and assume the proper role of a BoD. This is one of the major flaws in the structure and organisation of the CSA and was at the core of the rejected D&T recommendations that we all paid dearly for.

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Hence Gentile's "parallel board" suggestion.

Here's "the plan."

The 5 Step Strategic Plan

1. Hire a world class CEO with a brilliant resume of corporate success and a rich knowledge of soccer Sounds like I’m dreaming, however, during my 20 year involvement in youth soccer I have met many top notch executives and CEO’s passionate about the game and with children participating at elite levels. I would look for a CEO thinking of a career change, which is already financially independent and would take the job not for the money but for the challenge.

2. Allow the CEO to assemble his or her own non elected business board to function parallel to the executive board Another committee, another white paper, another resolution, another strategic plan or another $10 million will not change the results we’ve been achieving in Canada until we find a way to attract the business knowledge and resources the CSA requires, without needing them to spend 10 to 20 years getting elected from the club board to the district board and then to the provincial board and eventually the CSA’s board. These highly successful people who want and could help the CSA cannot afford the time required to become elected members of the CSA board, nor

will they have the patience to deal with all the nuances of volunteer boards and the bureaucratic way they get things done. We need to recruit experts in marketing, sales, finance, merchandising, facility development, and government lobbying; people with networks of influential

contacts which could be leveraged to assist the CSA’s business objectives.

3. Establish a network of 20 low cost national training centers over a five year period. 10 in Western Canada and 10 in Eastern Canada. By building new facilities, by leveraging existing facilities or by a combination of the two, the CSA needs to build a national infrastructure of linked training centers designed to expose our brightest talent at the youngest possible age to best in class coaching and training techniques in best in class facilities and tested with against

best in class competition. These centers can be built for $2 million or less and I recommend building them in partnership with high schools across Canada, who can use the facilities by day. This would allow for the eventual coordination of day time training for national youth players encouraged to attend those schools.

4. Hire 20 UEFA “A” licensed international coaches to administer the national player development curriculum at each of the 20 national training centers Replacing Dale Mitchell, one man, with another person, and to expect results to change simply makes no sense and has been proven to be just a short term solution and a long term failure. We need a team of professional international coaches across Canada, not one, to train our brightest young talent 5 days a week. Bonuses should

be paid to the staff of training centers when their players sign professional contracts. Each facility’s international technical director would be required to train 20 of the best Canadian apprentice coaches from clubs or academies surrounding the national training center. These apprentices would also be required to scout the areas they serve for new young talent and insure those players are identified and exposed to the national training curriculum. The apprentice coaches would also be required to conduct regular coaching sessions for club and academy youth coaches across each province. With this plan Canada would develop an additional 400 world class

coaches in less than 10 years.

5. Establish a fully funded National Amateur Soccer League. Borrowing from the French Association’s example, this league would be restricted to national training center teams, reserve teams from professional clubs or elite leagues (CSL) and youth club and academy programs who meet a high standard of imposed and audited requirements. American teams in close proximity to national training centers who meet the league’s high standards should be admitted as well.

Following Houllier’s theory of developing world class youth players so they can play in professional leagues in North America and around the world should be the main goal of the training centers, the international coaches and the National Amateur Soccer League.

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I hate to say this Ben but this part of the article:

"Let's look at some significant changes in the Canadian game, which all occurred recently:

- MLS expansion into Canada. I'm not saying the CSA had no role in the creation of Toronto FC, but the team would still be here even if there were no CSA.

- BMO Field. The CSA certainly worked hard to keep the stadium project alive, but it was a handshake between Toronto Mayor David Miller and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment – and FIFA's awarding of the under-20 World Cup – that sealed the deal.

- Voyageurs Cup Canadian pro soccer championship. Came together beautifully with the introduction of the CONCACAF Champions League. The three pro teams – Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – could and would have organized this on their own if the CSA didn't exist.

- Sold-out, heavily pro-Canadian crowd watched Canada play Jamaica in World Cup qualifying. Ticket distribution was essentially taken over by the fans.

- Non sell-out, heavily pro-Honduran crowd at Canada-Honduras match in Montreal. The CSA and its agents ran the show.

- Canada fails to qualify for 2010 World Cup. The CSA ran the show. "

reminds me very much of John Cleese's character Reg, the leader of the Judean People's Front in Monty Python's Life of Brian in the scene when he complained that the Romans had done nothing for them - apart from the building the aqueducts, providing irrigation, sanitation, the roads, introducing law & order, public health etc. The only difference is that in addition to downplaying the CSA's positive achievements you have also put the blame entirely on them where it is highly debatable that they deserve it. The prime example of this is the suggestion that the CSA should get no credit at all for the pro Canada crowd in Toronto but at the same time should take all of the blame for the heavy Honduran crowd in Montreal, even though nothing was handled differently between the two venues. The difference in the make-up of the crowd has to do with the respective fan bases in each city, not the CSA.

I also don't share your optimisim that the MLS would have come to Canada without the CSA. It was their idea initially (with so many in this country and on this board opposed to it) and it was the CSA that got MLS to contact MLSE. They also would not have a stadium to play in without the CSA (and therefore no team), which you neglect to mention in that point. You do reference the stadium in the next point, by making it sound like FIFA awarding Canada the U20 World Cup had nothing to do with the CSA, which we know is not the case. As for the Voyageurs Cup (in its new form) & Canadian Championship, I don't think that happens without Canada getting into MLS, which again goes back to the CSA's initiative.

I agree with the main point you are trying to make, I have long argued that we need the CSA to become less and less relevant to the game in Canada and I'm glad to see that this is starting to happen - but I'll still give them credit where credit is due in putting the some of the pieces of the puzzle into place to allow that to happen, even if it is credit given begrudgingly. It may seem like I'm being picky but I remain concerned about the issue of scapegoating which seems to run rampant in Canadian soccer circle. When that happens we tend not to be any better off - a painful case in point the latest World Cup Qualifying campaign.

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quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I also don't share your optimisim that the MLS would have come to Canada without the CSA. It was their idea initially (with so many in this country and on this board opposed to it) and it was the CSA that got MLS to contact MLSE. They also would not have a stadium to play in without the CSA (and therefore no team), which you neglect to mention in that point. You do reference the stadium in the next point, by making it sound like FIFA awarding Canada the U20 World Cup had nothing to do with the CSA, which we know is not the case. As for the Voyageurs Cup (in its new form) & Canadian Championship, I don't think that happens without Canada getting into MLS, which again goes back to the CSA's initiative.

Well said as always G-L. I just wanted to elaborate this one point a little further. I firmly believe that if the National Soccer Stadium was built on the campuses of York University, MLSE would have never gotten involved in an MLS team.

The CSA is an absolute mess. The entire Nycamp/Simoes/Linford affair was damaging as hell. But there is a lot of good that has happened in the last few years that can be directly attributed to the work of the CSA. Its too bad that some people have agendas and try to twist every minute detail into their favour, no matter how illogical it really is.

I think its fairly obvious that without the CSA's work to get the FIFA U-20's there would be no MLS in Canada at the present time. Sure, it may have gotten here eventually, but when is anybodies guess.

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Well said, Gian-Luca. Thanks for the perspective.

What I'm trying to argue is that the CSA has not been decisive in the good things that have happened. And there's plenty of blame that goes their way for things that didn't.

You're right. I over-simplify sometimes, and thanks for flagging it. I would love to hear your comments on Gentile's memo.

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quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I hate to say this Ben but this part of the article:

"Let's look at some significant changes in the Canadian game, which all occurred recently:

- MLS expansion into Canada. I'm not saying the CSA had no role in the creation of Toronto FC, but the team would still be here even if there were no CSA.

- BMO Field. The CSA certainly worked hard to keep the stadium project alive, but it was a handshake between Toronto Mayor David Miller and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment – and FIFA's awarding of the under-20 World Cup – that sealed the deal.

- Voyageurs Cup Canadian pro soccer championship. Came together beautifully with the introduction of the CONCACAF Champions League. The three pro teams – Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – could and would have organized this on their own if the CSA didn't exist.

- Sold-out, heavily pro-Canadian crowd watched Canada play Jamaica in World Cup qualifying. Ticket distribution was essentially taken over by the fans.

- Non sell-out, heavily pro-Honduran crowd at Canada-Honduras match in Montreal. The CSA and its agents ran the show.

- Canada fails to qualify for 2010 World Cup. The CSA ran the show. "

reminds me very much of John Cleese's character Reg, the leader of the Judean People's Front in Monty Python's Life of Brian in the scene when he complained that the Romans had done nothing for them - apart from the building the aqueducts, providing irrigation, sanitation, the roads, introducing law & order, public health etc.

Here ya go G-L:

Classic! :)

db

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Ok the series of articles have been great (wide ranging debate, lots of different ideas) however, this issue really still boils down to governance and accountability first. You can try and enstill everything else you're talking about there but it won't work unless this does first.

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Ben,

Gentile's plan is great and all, but even if everyone could get on board and support this there is still one problem: Money. Specifically, lack of money. That also explains the inherent problems in the not-for-profit CSA. There isn't one big enough stakeholder with enough money invested in the "organization" to wield any pressure.

So how does the CSA increase their operating budget? I don't know the answer to that, but here is a radical idea. Get the government to cut all funding! Not that the CSA gets a lot of funding, but they do get some. One would expect the CSA would then be forced to act and market the game just a little to raise sponsorship dollars. You know the old saying, "Feed a man a fish ..." The threat to remove funding is what got the Aussie association to move forward (see the Crawford Report).

On that note, why is there not more pressure on the CSA to discuss (or better yet implement) the Deloitte report that they actually quote in the Bibliography of the CSA "Strategic Plan"? One of the first recommendations in there is for a qualified CEO, as you and Gentile stress. The Deloitte report is pretty damning to the current CSA structure.

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The money should be able to be found. There should be serious private sector interest in marketing to the demographic of young soccer players and their families. The money part, in my understanding would be taken care of partially by the CEO with big connections.

Ben, realistically how do you see creating change here? These ideas are exciting, but I don't want them to remain as just ideas. Is the CSA listening? and if not, how do we either get them to listen or get started on making change in spite of them?

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quote:Originally posted by lazlo_80

The money should be able to be found. There should be serious private sector interest in marketing to the demographic of young soccer players and their families. The money part, in my understanding would be taken care of partially by the CEO with big connections.

Ben, realistically how do you see creating change here? These ideas are exciting, but I don't want them to remain as just ideas. Is the CSA listening? and if not, how do we either get them to listen or get started on making change in spite of them?

A CEO with "big connections" is a nice start.

However, Mr. Gentile's idea of a non-elected board of leading business people is an better idea (IMO) and is a proposal that can be implemented immediately by Peter Montopoli if he had the support of the CSA BoD.

One impressive CEO leading the CSA would be great but, at this point, I have serious doubts about the CSA's ability to recruit, compensate and retain such a person and I'm skeptical that they would ever give one person so much power.

On the other hand, a non-elected board, whose members are paid a simple honorarium and who choose to participate out of love for the sport, could accomplish almost as much as a single CEO (so long as the elected, overly politicized BoD had the collective will to accept the recommendations from a non-elected group) Such a group, if properly selected, would bring considerably more real world business experience to the table than exists on the current BoD. I know that there are those at the CSA who would LOVE for this type of advisory board to become a reality but its a thorny issue.

I can assure you that the CSA is "hearing" the criticism that is being heaped on them. Some CSA employees are even "listening" but the question is whether Maestracci, Montagliani, Ursini, et al give a damn or whether they just intend to try to plow forward, trying to push their Strategic Plan down the throats of the membership when its clear that the CSA doesn't have the full trust of the membership in most provinces and the organization lacks the accountability and transparency needed to engender the type of goodwill required to take the type of leap of faith that the CSA is expecting the membership to take.

You ask "how do we get started making change despite the CSA"....I have said for quite a while (and I'm certainly not the first and only person to state it) that the only way to apply real pressure on the governing bodies (because, believe me, the CSA is far from the only guilty party here) is for the membership to start opting out of the system altogether. The truth of the matter is that, in several provinces, the largest clubs DO NOT NEED their Provincial Association nor do they need the CSA to operate effectively. They can buy their own insurance. They can organize their own competitive leagues. When it comes to Rec Soccer, which makes up around 90% of registrations, the provinces and the national association offer virtually zero value.

This is a radical step but its the only manner in which I believe the soccer community at large can make the governing bodies fully understand how dissatisfied they are with the current system. Unless that threat is considered to be real, I don't believe that the system will change.

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quote:Originally posted by dbailey62

Here ya go G-L:

Classic! :)

db

Always loved Eric Idle's "Stan" character as well. But you know, I just realized I got it wrong. Reg was the leader of the People's Front of Judea, as opposed to the Judean People's Front who were in fact "the common enemy!" [8D]

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Sorry to say it Ben your being hoodwinked by Gentille, its the same old crap there is only one issue to be dealt with before you do anything else.

You have to change the CSA board to being directly elected by all Canadian soccer clubs at a National annual convention. You have to make the CSA a democratic organisation where over a period of two years all executives can be voted out and replaced.

Anything else still leaves it to the back room boys to play games.

Do not be sucked in it is systemic change you need at the CSA, they have the power to do it, in fact it would bring them in line with FIFA guidelines.

Once you are democratic the clubs who should be and are the ones creating players, can make structural changes to develop leagues / and revenue streams.

Gentille is selling a set of centres because he does not believe in the clubs, and that my friend Ben is where soccer begins and ends at the clubs.

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quote:Originally posted by Trillium

Gentille is selling a set of centres because he does not believe in the clubs, and that my friend Ben is where soccer begins and ends at the clubs.

what is to say that the "regional soccer centers" that Mr. Gentile is talking about would not be clubs, in the same way the USSF has designated certain clubs in all the regions of the USA to be US Player Development Academies.

The problem in Canada, like the US, is that there are simply too many clubs playing competitive soccer, thereby dilluting the talent pool. Our best players need to play more high quality games and receive lots of high quality traiing...this is fundamental platform of the USSF program, which in 5-10 years will start paying huge dividends.

Gerry most certainly believes that clubs are the heart of soccer development, based on conversations I have had with him. The reality though is that not all clubs are created equal and for soccer to progress, I believe that some clubs need to be identified as development hubs and that is where the best players in each region need to be congregating.

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quote:Originally posted by Trillium

Sorry to say it Ben your being hoodwinked by Gentille, its the same old crap there is only one issue to be dealt with before you do anything else.

You have to change the CSA board to being directly elected by all Canadian soccer clubs at a National annual convention. You have to make the CSA a democratic organisation where over a period of two years all executives can be voted out and replaced.

Anything else still leaves it to the back room boys to play games.

Do not be sucked in it is systemic change you need at the CSA, they have the power to do it, in fact it would bring them in line with FIFA guidelines.

Once you are democratic the clubs who should be and are the ones creating players, can make structural changes to develop leagues / and revenue streams.

Gentille is selling a set of centres because he does not believe in the clubs, and that my friend Ben is where soccer begins and ends at the clubs.

Couldn't the clubs also decide that the CSA does nothing for them and then vote that registration levees be abolished? Thus leaving the CSA as a virtual shell operation that puts us in an even worse position then we are in now?

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