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League 1 Ontario...What's Going On!

mmd

By mmd,
in Canadian Teams & Leagues

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ted Mentor

ted

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Wow, talk about delusional.

 

From the article:

 

A 20-game schedule for League1 Ontario opens at the end of May and runs through September.

 

[snip]

 

“We will not have any professionally paid players on our club,” Stars president Vancho Cirovski said. “This will allow our best players to stick around in Canada and play in this league and not affect their status in the NCAA.”

 

Someone forgot to tell him that most NCAA schools (and most CIS as well) require their players to return to training camp on campus in the first week of August. By Labour Day there will likely not be a single NCAA player available.

 

Edit: Oh and of course the whole thing begs the question if they are not going to be a professional (or at least semi-pro) then they are not really a D3 league as promised by the CSA are they? They are just another regional D4 no better or worse than the PDL for developing Canadian soccer players.

 

Thanks for nothing.

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Blackdude Newbie

Blackdude

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Edit: Oh and of course the whole thing begs the question if they are not going to be a professional (or at least semi-pro) then they are not really a D3 league as promised by the CSA are they? They are just another regional D4 no better or worse than the PDL for developing Canadian soccer players.

 

Thanks for nothing.

 

It depends of the number of semi-pro teams in the league. We don't have the number right now and I'm sure that we'll know by next Tuesday. The OSA wanted absolutely to have a league so they can shut the CSL's mouth. So they did whatever they thought so they could start this league this year.

 

BTW, I see PLSQ teams and most of them have players who will leave for the CIS at the end of the season. The thing that they usually do is to have a bunch of players that aren't playing at that level on the team and get the rest with their youth team players. PLSQ has had troubles has had for the first 3 years 5,7 and 6 teams, all semi-pro. L1O wanted to be sure to start with more than 8. That might be ambitious by doing that, but perhaps it gives them a way to become semi-pro by 2-3 years if it goes well.

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BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

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Not sure why people get so hung up over this amateur vs semi-pro thing. It would be more accurate to use a term like NCAA-compliant, because as is the case in PDL a significant portion of the players will be receiving enough money one way or another to make it worth their while to be in Windsor playing for the Stars for the summer. The main thing is whether this provides a viable pathway for players to launch a pro career in the manner American NCAA players have been able to use PDL as their launchpad to MLS.

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sulfur Newbie

sulfur

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Here's my writeup on the Kingston club involved:

 

http://supportlocalsoccer.blogspot.com/2014/04/league1-ontario-announced-cataraqui.html

 

It also includes the few details that were released at the press conference today. I'm told that the full schedule should be available in a week or so.

 

And here's the OSA's bit on it:

 

http://www.ontariosoccer.ca/OSABlog/index.php/archives/9764

 

(That I somehow managed to post before... go figure!)

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mmd Newbie

mmd

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Here are the 10 clubs.

 

ANB Futbol, Durham Power FC, Kingston Clippers, Masters FA, Sigma FC, TFC Academy, Vaughan Azzurri, Windsor Stars, Woodbridge Strikers and Internacional de Toronto

 

very happy they included Academies.

Hopefully Ottawa Fury, or one of the better run CSL teams jump ship.

Slow steady growth with 20 teams single table , or 30 teams with 15 East Division & 15 West Division to limit costs involved with transportaion and accomodations would be nice to see.

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CDNFootballer Collaborator

CDNFootballer

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very happy they included Academies.

Hopefully Ottawa Fury, or one of the better run CSL teams jump ship.

Slow steady growth with 20 teams single table , or 30 teams with 15 East Division & 15 West Division to limit costs involved with transportaion and accomodations would be nice to see.

Which Ottawa Fury?

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BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

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This a great Idea.

No need for the Ontario Teams to be in USLPDL.

 

Suspect they won't push for that too hard because of the logistical problems that having the Thunder Bay Chill on board would cause. The OSA should (but doesn't always) do what's best for soccer in all of Ontario not just what's best in the GTA. L1O still has to prove that it can provide a playing standard comparable to PDL. The first two years are just a pilot scheme apparently.

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ted Mentor

ted

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Not sure why people get so hung up over this amateur vs semi-pro thing. It would be more accurate to use a term like NCAA-compliant, because as is the case in PDL a significant portion of the players will be receiving enough money one way or another to make it worth their while to be in Windsor playing for the Stars for the summer. The main thing is whether this provides a viable pathway for players to launch a pro career in the manner American NCAA players have been able to use PDL as their launchpad to MLS.

 

I am hung up on amateur vs pro of any type. NCAA is rapidly declining as a useful launchpad for MLS careers as more players realize they do not have to waste their time bouncing between the short season for collegiate soccer and the summer season PDL/NPSL systems in order to have a career. They are realized that finishing college and then heading to Europe at 20-22 years of age is a hard hill to climb when the European, South American and African kids are training professionally in Europe at 16 years of age.

 

We need a fully professional system at the D3 level if we are to progress as a soccer nation. There are no two ways about it. Without paid training time and the most competitive games possible we will never see a return to the World Cup for our National Team. Sure some "amatuers" could play at a D3 level and many would be "semi-pro" in the sense they would not earn enough in a season to support a family year-round just on wages but the system must be based on most people involved earning a living from their club.

 

This is the only way it works in a successful soccer nation. The great success of the US college football (pointy-ball that is) shows how you can pervert the system with false amatuerism and you will note that there is now a public dispute with college players looking to form a union and be paid for the millions of dollars of revenue they produce for the colleges each year.

 

 

No need for the Ontario Teams to be in USLPDL.

 

Right, because abandoning a reasonably stable, North America-wide league with a known level of quality for a provincial start-up amateur gong show that was hastily cobbled together apparently to spite a renagade league makes a lot of sense.

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mmd Newbie

mmd

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I am hung up on amateur vs pro of any type. NCAA is rapidly declining as a useful launchpad for MLS careers as more players realize they do not have to waste their time bouncing between the short season for collegiate soccer and the summer season PDL/NPSL systems in order to have a career. They are realized that finishing college and then heading to Europe at 20-22 years of age is a hard hill to climb when the European, South American and African kids are training professionally in Europe at 16 years of age.

 

We need a fully professional system at the D3 level if we are to progress as a soccer nation. There are no two ways about it. Without paid training time and the most competitive games possible we will never see a return to the World Cup for our National Team. Sure some "amatuers" could play at a D3 level and many would be "semi-pro" in the sense they would not earn enough in a season to support a family year-round just on wages but the system must be based on most people involved earning a living from their club.

 

This is the only way it works in a successful soccer nation. The great success of the US college football (pointy-ball that is) shows how you can pervert the system with false amatuerism and you will note that there is now a public dispute with college players looking to form a union and be paid for the millions of dollars of revenue they produce for the colleges each year.

 

 

 

Right, because abandoning a reasonably stable, North America-wide league with a known level of quality for a provincial start-up amateur gong show that was hastily cobbled together apparently to spite a renagade league makes a lot of sense.

Canadian teams in USLPDL to L1O does not have to occur ASAP.

Once the League becomes more stable we should have our own Canadian teams in our own league.

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ted Mentor

ted

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Canadian teams in USLPDL to L1O does not have to occur ASAP.

Once the League becomes more stable we should have our own Canadian teams in our own league.

 

Creating new D4 leagues is kinda like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic so if that makes you happy then sure, whatever.

 

Lying to the stakeholders and calling L1O and PLSQ D3 gets us nowhere and retards the development of soccer in Canada.

 

I concede that there is the smallest of chances that these two league could grow into legitimate D3 (ie. professional) leagues but the circumstances surrounding the birth of this league and everything I have seen thus far shows no sign that could happen.

 

As it stands today there is no benefit to choosing L1O over PDL.

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SR Newbie

SR

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With Vaughan, Woodbridge, and Sigma already having teams in the Ontario Soccer Leeague Elite (TFC Academy played there last year) not sure why these clubs have decided they need a League One team? Without question the same players who would have played on the OSL team will now compete. This is a pig dressed up with lipstick on.

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mmd Newbie

mmd

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With Vaughan, Woodbridge, and Sigma already having teams in the Ontario Soccer Leeague Elite (TFC Academy played there last year) not sure why these clubs have decided they need a League One team? Without question the same players who would have played on the OSL team will now compete. This is a pig dressed up with lipstick on.

 

And it probably is a pig dressed up. BUT, under the Canadian Soccer Pyramid this new L1O is catergorized as a D3 alongside the Quebec league. The Ontario Elite League is a D5. That may be the reason those 3 clubs switched over. As meantioned before, Hopefully the Ottawa Fury and if Hamilton gets an NASL team,  will both field a team each. Having TFC and MAYBE 1 or 2 NASL teams in L1O can only be a great opportunity for young players to be spotted by one of them. And MAYBE get an opportunity to MAYBE try out for one of the senior spots. Isn't this why we are on this forum, to promote soccer and see it grow. Do I have my doubts, of course, but lets give it a year or two and see where it goes. We might be surprised??!!

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BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

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And it probably is a pig dressed up. BUT, under the Canadian Soccer Pyramid this new L1O is catergorized as a D3 alongside the Quebec league. The Ontario Elite League is a D5.

 

It will be interesting to see where TFC Academy place their U-16 and U-18 teams. I suspect they'll keep using the OSL for their U-18 side unless a stronger semi-pro component emerges in an L1O context. It's also worth noting that the Impact are using PDL for their U-23 team this summer and still don't appear to be interested in the Quebec league. If there is a niche for the D3 tier at the moment it looks like it's in catering to all of the elite clubs in the major metropolitan areas that are left out in the cold when only one PDL franchise can be awarded.

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