Jump to content

2013 CSL Season

CDNFootballer

Recommended Posts

BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

Posted
Posted

The Astros definitely appear to be an ethnic Hungarian team now:

http://www.torontovasas.com/en

[h=3]Breaking News

[/h][TABLE=class: contentpaneopen-tabella]

[TR]

[TD=class: contentheading-tabella, width: 100%] Hajrá Magyarok, Hajrá Toronto Vasas FC! [/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

There are no translations available.

Messze az Óhazától, de együtt, vállvetve "harcolunk" mi itt Magyarok, hogy megmutassuk Mindenkinek, hogy a Magyar focitudás nem kopott el,a tehetség és a munka sokra hivatott Kanadában is!

Hajrá Magyarok, Hajrá Toronto Vasas FC!

Örommel közölhetjük Mindenkivel, hogy a megállapodás megtörtént, a fúziót jóváhagyta a szövetség és így, 1970 óta, ismét magyar csapat szerepelhet a North York Astrossal közösen ASTROS VASAS FC néven a kanadai profi bajnokságban!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

Posted
Posted
Yah, I'd heard that the Astros merged with another squad, as a number of their players from last year are playing on their OSL team this year.

I don't think the Astros have an OSL team:

http://ontariosl.com/ViewArticle.aspx?NewsID=132

I'm not from Toronto so not an expert on this stuff by any stretch of the imagination but I think the Mississauga Eagles were originally a Hungarian community oriented team. There was a short-lived CPSL/CSL entry back under that name when the league launched in 1998:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Canadian_Professional_Soccer_League_season

I think the Hungarian leadership of Erin Mills (who ran the Mississauga Eagles) that were most keen on having the Eagles CSL team got ousted over the winter by the more mainstream youth soccer types and the "merger" with the Astros:

http://offthepitch.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7498

may be their way of staying involved within the sport at a reasonably high level, given Erin Mills had regained control of an OSL entry that had recently been used by Toronto Vasas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CDNFootballer Rising Star

CDNFootballer

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Article on London City's Press Conference :

"Pre season proves entertaining"

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/04/29/preseason-proves-entertaining

The important news . . . after playing for most of its 40 year existence at Cove Road Field, City will play its opening game Friday and the CSL’s opening game, at the BMO Centre.

After that game, if the fields are in good enough shape. City will play at the Hellenic Community Centre on Southdale Rd. Game 1 on Friday will be free admission.

City has brought Marin Vucemilovic-Grgic on board. He was CSL’s most valuable player last year with Toronto Croatia scoring 16 goals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rocket Robin Proficient

Rocket Robin

Posted
Posted

Details of the Canadian Soccer League press conference of

Thursday May 2nd, 2013 at 12:00pm held at the Homewood Suites

and Hampton Inn by Hilton in Etobicoke.

There were about 50 people in attendance, most with some

link to the league or one of the teams. The meeting was

called to order at about 12:15pm.

The head table was made up of Pino Jazbec (league administrator),

Phil Ionadi (head of player development), Willy Jung (Rogers TV),

Vincent Ursini (chairman of the league), Eric Barber (Days Inn),

and Stan Adamson (director of media and PR).

Stan Adamson opened up with the joke "This press conference is

sanctioned". He went into some detail of what it felt like

over the last few months waiting for court decisions--like not

being able to drive. The league is a full member of the CSA in good

standing under FIFA and CONCACAF. (for now I'll say).

Vince Ursini said he's been through the system and has seen a lot.

One thing that holds us back is the self serving interests that

come ahead of the game. It starts with coaches holding back

the kids. In the CSA he saw a massive conflict of interest until

about a year and a half ago when some changes were initiated.

This league has had 10-14 teams apply from Quebec over the years.

There's also been interest from BC. He's ashamed to see the system work

like it does. The league has survived for 87 years although he can

only comment on the last 15. He said it's survived because of the

total commitment of the owners of the CSL and (Toronto) Lynx...they

all lose money but have a conviction of the owners for their love

of the game. He was around when the OSA desanctioned the CNSL.

Our system is mostly run by volunteers. There are probelms getting

pro soccer across the country. He thanked the owners.

Ursini addressed the issue of match fixing. Should we be ashamed

of it? Is it the owners/victims fault if their car is stolen? The

investigation of the 2009 (match fixing) incident is still being

investigated. He hasn't heard of anyone who's been able to solve match

fixing. He wants to make sure we punish them to be a deterrent.

There wasn't an investigation of US College basketball although FBI

wiretaps revealed they're fixing games.

We have twelve teams this year (in the first division). TFC Academy

and Montreal Impact Academy will not be back. The other three

have taken a year's leave of absence.

Ursini said the CSL is the best player development league in the

country. He's heard testimonials from ex Canadian National team

coaches and TFC and Montreal Impact.

1st Question: from John Horvath "We should have a CSL/PDL/amature

team tournament across the country! TFC, Impact, Whitecaps are not

supporting that". [i think he was holding a petition].

Ursini answered the CSL had an open cup years ago but it got curtailed

by different provincial associations. The CSL ran a Women's league

as amatures because of provincial resistance. He says "Let the

players play". He's trying to have a second tier/entry level division

for financial reasons and level competition. We are a semi-professional

league. He criticised the Easton report--it's not likely that owners

will start out cold in some regions. Run a second tier league regionally

and wnen it climbs to 15 teams maybe five teams will make the jump to

the next highest level. He is in favour of other provinces starting their

own semi-pro leagues.

He said the CSA had antiquated rules from 1987 that are slowly being changed.

They established standards that in the first year the players salaries per

team would be $75,000 and the second year they'd be $150,000. The CSL

was in good standing with the CSA unti the last few months.

Stan Adamson said the CSL was accepted as a conditional member in the CSA

in 2009 and a full member since 2010. Over the years the league has had

team applications from Michigan and New York states but turned them down

as they were advised by Sepp Blatter to "keep soccer in your own country"

so they will not lose control of decision making. He pointed out how the

USL is American controlled.

Adamson said the CSL had met 90% of the 'new' CSA standards and most of the

10% they didn't agree on were financial in nature.

Adamson addressed match fixing from Europe saying the CSL is still waiting

for a CSA reply. The CSL was subject to undeserved sanctioning. The CSL

will make sure match fixing doesn't happen again.

He said there are 43 players who have played for junior national teams (not

all Canadian nat teams--he meant Jamaica etc). The referee development

in the league has been a success as many have moved on to higher leagues.

The CSL second division has become a development league for young players.

Phil Ionadi was introduced to talk about the development of youth players.

He started with personal stories like at age 15 when he went over

to Italy for the AC Milan Academy where'd they'd practice themselves then go

five fields over and watch the first teams superstars. Then at age

17 he played for the North York Rockets which was also an eye-opener to

play against older players. Look at the 1 Billion dollar investment in youth

development soccer in Germany and now they will have both teams in the UEFA

Championship League final. He was working with Armando Costa until he died

earlier this year and Ionadi will continue and make him proud.

Pino Jazbec spoke next and asked us to look at our press kits.

There are twelve teams in the First Division. As Windsor Stars was squeezed

in at the last minute so they were off to a slow start (first game for them

at beginning of June). The playoffs will take place and be over by the

end of October (last league game regular season on October 6th). There will

be nine teams in the second division. Jazbec said about 90% of the time,

teams will only play once a week. 22 games per team. Single table.

Jazbec said that television this year has Cogego cable covering the Niagara and

Kingston teams. Brampton will have all their home games covered (Rogers

territory). The GTA will be covered by Rogers. The league web site will

be showing two games per week in their entirety.

Adamson spoke and again came back to betting. He said Ursini had gone to

a symposium in New York and heard that betting had reached $1 million

per game in this league. He said it is easier to manipulate a smaller league.

I asked a question: What do they think of the six or so people at every game

from the betting companies that are in the crowd saying "it's safe, home team

danger, it's safe" throughout the game? (which are instructions to their

home base to not take any bets at that minute because the home team has been

awarded a Penalty kick etc).

Ursini answered me: We don't object to the betting forwarders in the stands.

[actually I thought a good clear answer] but then he rambled on into an

actual example of match fixing in Germany and Switzerland.

Adamson said CSL doesn't have any problems with the betting companies.

Adamson then said Canada will likely never have a top flight league (the biggest

teams will be in MLS). Any cross country league will be at this/our level.

Eric Barber from Days Inn spoke next and told a joke about his company chasing

soccer teams and the luxury hotels are chasing the hockey teams. Also some

personal moments with him and his father back in Holland then about his sons but

he got in a related story about his son quitting soccer after having his team

not being able to play in a tournament in the next district because of that

association's sanctioning. He was the first speaker of the day that drew applause.

Willy Jung from Rogers TV spoke next. He said they were cutting back on their

weekly broadcasts but not because of CSA sanctions. There's been pressure

by community groups to broadcast other sports--more 'grassroots sports' and less

CSL and IBL (baseball?). There will be more soccer youth leagues covered.

Toronto has three area CSL teams.

Jung did say that Rogers was increasing coverage with two channels, digital 368 and

369 High Def with its "Local Sports Plus" channels and so now they will be able to

broadcast games all over Southern Ontario. There will be different times for

local coverage. This will give the CSL bigger 'reach' than they've ever had before.

This information will be confirmed in the next few weeks. Big applause for these

statements.

Adamson then welcomed Burlington FC into the league and introduced their owners.

He said there will be a Hungarian touch in the league with the Toronto Vasas

organization "Astros Vasas FC" with shared ownership with North York Astros

[who the last few years have won usually only one to four games per year].

The meeting ended at 1:17pm (hmm one hour) and there was then an opportunity

to ask one on one questions and have sandwiches at the buffet.

I can tell the league has been hurt by the CSA decision and court action.

The schedule was only made up in the last week. There will be many fans

that won't know what's going on as the teams have been waiting to find

out if they'll be operating. Fortunately only two games are being held

on this first week (Kingston and London) and both have had their own

press conferences this week to draw local coverage to their teams. The web

pages for the league and many of the teams need updating. Many have links

and logos for teams that are out of the league.

I saw Alex B who produced the show "This Week in the CSL" in the last few

years before the meeting say to me that he'd been relegated to only web

broadcasts but after the conference ended was over talking to Willy Jung

and hopefully pitching his show to fill space on those new Rogers channels.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

Posted
Posted
I can tell the league has been hurt by the CSA decision and court action.

Think that's an understatement given the only reason they still have sanctioning for 2013 is that the arbitrator ruled they had been given unreasonably short notice and put the implementation date back by a year.

Hopefully a mod will merge the two threads. Starting the second one was a mistake on my part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sulfur Newbie

sulfur

Posted
Posted

1pm Sundays -- it's actually smarter based on the local populace. The prior games had 7pm Saturday night kickoffs at a field that was tough to access without personal transportation. The new field is within walking distance of the student population and a large number of homes. In addition to this, it's on two bus routes.

As I understand it, the idea with Sundays is to give people something to do with their Sunday afternoons, as it is very tough to compete with Saturday night entertainment typically. The team is aiming for the youth crowd, which is also why they are playing the three Saturday games during local tournaments.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

Posted
Posted

London City's first game was cancelled by the ref who felt that the indoor facility that was being used was unsafe:

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/05/03/pitch-plexiglas-cancels-game

Let’s just hope what was to be London City’s opening game Friday isn’t an omen for the rest of the season.

What was to be their opening game, against SC Waterloo Friday night, was abruptly cancelled when the referees felt the Plexiglas around the pitch at BMO Centre was dangerous for players.

Both teams wanted to play, but the refs would have none of it. They declined to comment on their decision...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...