Voyageur's Cup Loophole

[masster]

Please do not misunderstand my point as I am fully aware that Nick Garcia's presence had no effect on the outcome of the final game and did not comprimise the integrity of the tournament. I just don't want to see this potential 'loophole' abused in the future.

I know that I am late on the topic but I think this should be changed for future editions of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship.

I was very surprised to see that Nick Garcia was eligable to play in the final game of this year's championship. I believe that the 3 teams should have to register their eligable players at the beginning of the tournament similar to what is required for the UEFA Champions League. We are talking about a tournament that lasts 2 months total!! There is no transfer window that falls between the tournament dates. What is to stop a 'lower' league from getting a bunch of players on short term loans to improve their chances of making the Champions League?

Again, please do not misunderstand my point above. There were no problems this year but there may be in the future.

[Grizzly]

I was thinking this myself and fully agree teams should have to register players. Not only would it avoid situations like the Garcia one (which in an of itself was not unfair but the potential to abuse this is there) but would also prevent teams like the Impact playing reserve players if they are out of the competition. Possibly there could be a process whereby a team could get additional players approved in the case of injuries or a trade. One would not want teams to be discouraged from trading to improve their team because the players can't play in the competition, ie. a legitimate trade like the Garcia one would allow the player to play but a team would not be allowed to make wholesale roster changes halfway through the tournament.

[Free kick]

I thought about this as well when TFC first signed Garcia and the topic came up in discussions over pre game beers. Someone said, that because Garcia was already in MLS he is and should be eligible because he is deemed to be required by TFC for MLS play and MLS is part of the CCL and hence Garcia would be registered for CCL. Dont know if that is true but it still doesn't make much sense to me.

But I agree, it is a loophole. I believe that when this competition was conceived, these kind of things would have never come up and you only need to look at how quickly this thing came ( the Canadian championship competition) together. To be honest, I cant imagine that the CSA really has a template for these kind of things to the detail that you really need to have.

Yes, in Europe, you have to register your players for Champions league, otherwise team would be allowed to bring in ringers for key matches. Hypothetically, if the situation arises whereby the club ( or the Impact and Caps) felt that it really needed to win the V-cup for financial reasons, they could go out sign a DP for to play in the final game. It would make a mockery of the competition.

Though to be fair to TFC and Garcia, ringer doesn't come to mind when I think of a guy like Garcia and it pretty clear that the V-cup final was not the driving factor behind the Garcia acquisition.

But I have said it before, has anybody ever seen the rules document for this competition? when you write up this kind of document, you have to consider much more than just rules for things like tie-breakers. What about the number yellow cards, how many cumulative yellows earns you a one match suspension? do cards earned in league play carry over to V-cup? Anecdotally I am told that the two are separate? What what about other disciplinary indiscretions? I have never seen written word on anything regarding rules in this competition.

[Free kick]

I checked the CSA website again, and for the national championships there is an 18 page rules document. But you wont find anything pertaining to the V-cup and/or Nutrilite Canadian Championship.

[Free kick]

Speaking of which, i'd be curious to know about a lot of other things about the competition such as how the revenue and costs are split up. Does the CSA get anything, from the revenues. If so how much? I cant imagine it being nothing otherwise why would they bother being there to hand out the trophy and putting (promoting) it all on their website. The CSA/Concacaf is afterall sanctioning the event.

When you consider the overall budget of the CSA, Revenues for this tournament are not insignificant when you consider that most of the games sold out or were close to sell outs. That's potentially 70-80K tickets sold. That can conservatively be estimated at 1.5 -3.0 mill in revenues and since the players are already under contract to the club and/or league, the biggest potential cost is eliminated. That's pretty darn good for a sports event in Canada. I would imagine that 65-70K in attendance compares favorably to the national tennis and golf events not to mention the auto races. And dont forget, in those events you have to pay for appearances.

Whose getting that money? and or how is split up. Are the players getting bonuses for playing in it? Do bonus have to jive with the salary cap?.

Then what about the 50K who showed up for CCL match in Montreal. Who gets that money? the club? Concacaf (Jack Warner)? the CSA? if all, then how is it split up? How much of CCL competition overall revenues accrue to the CSA from Concacaf and or the Impact? Think about that for a second, there was 50K in Montreal to see that game. That revenue is in Canadian dollars ( when the Loonie was at par with the USD), and not in Mexican pesos. Think of what the represents for CONCACAF. Cant imagine that that all goes to Saputo.

Media for soccer in Canada has come a long way, but there is still a lot interesting questions that are not being asked? why is it that when it comes to other sports, you have no trouble finding the answer.

[KAS]

Registering players for UEFA is now very much about the new quota on non-domestic players. For example, Sami Hyypia was left off of Liverpool's squad for CL as their Spanish players are supposedly quite good (), and Benetiz went with Agger for a foreign CB.

I don't think this is necessary for V-Cup. If there are rules forbidding loan players from playing against their parent club, and players can be cup-tied if they played for another team in V-Cup that year, then that is probably good enough.

As for the "DP for one game" idea, I wouldn't worry about that. Transfer windows and FIFA's rules about repeated switches in the same year should be enough to stop that. All three Canadian teams have budget restrictions of some type and who would pay big money to only slightly increase the chances of gaining a few CCL games with a good V-Cup run. If you are still worried, then I would suggest a rule that any new acquisition must play atleast one league game before any V-Cup games, and must have a contract that lasts until the end of the year so that they would still be around for the CCL and really would be helping to send Canada's best team to the CCL.

Like Free Kick, I think the really interesting thing to find out would be all the financial details. Whose is getting what would be fascinating. It may also offer clues in how the clubs, the CSA and CONCACAF may view this tournament in the future and make decesions if they have a financial interest at stake.

[team.bates]

I think that registering a squad would be a good idea for a few reasons; preventing the signing of ringers (especially come 2011 when the top teams have a lot of MLS squad restrictions but no V's Cup restrictions), and sort of ensuring a bare-minimum of your players that can be fielded. It's no strongest-team rule (although I disagree with implementing one), but it does put some thought forward to that topic.

[Richard]

Bob Lennarduzzi has stated publicly that there are several issues pertaining to the tournament that he will be tabling for discussion when the clubs and the CSA meet to review this year's competition. You can be sure that many of the points raised here will be included.