Perhaps The Time Has Come

By Bill Ault CanadaKicks

We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us
Well the dust has settled from the surprise announcement last week that Colin Linford was stepping down as president of the Canadian Soccer Association leaving Canada’s soccer governing body with yet another roster spot to fill.

Well perhaps not really dust but more a thin layer of powder quickly removed by the coming winds of fall.

The reality is that seven days later the interest in the latest fiasco known as governance of soccer in Canada has passed with the mainstream media having moved on and the majority of grassroots soccer people mostly unaware and for the most part not caring about the situation.

Certainly the passionate few continue to call for revolution and the rebuilding or replacement of the CSA with messages flying through the ether on soccer discussion boards across the land.

But the cold, hard reality is even within the sport itself the majority of people involved in the day to day operation of the sport in this country just do not care. The true power brokers of the game in this country, the districts and provincial associations, have a vested interest in a powerless CSA and Mom, Dad, little Jimmy and little Jane just do not care how the game is governed or who is running it as long as their game is played and the oranges show up at half time.

Those who do care and are vocal about the need for a sustainable and productive elite club and national teams program are seen as elitists at best and extremists at worst who want everything for the few at the expense of the majority.

The reality is the CSA’s current situation is comparable to Mark Twain’s view on the weather. “Everyone talks about it but no one does anything about it.”

Whitecaps President Bob Lenarduzzi best summed up the challenge in a recent Victoria Times Colonist article regarding the Whitecaps new residency program, “While elite sport is not exactly frowned upon in this country, we tend to focus so much of our attention on the recreational end of sport. It’s almost as if there is reverse discrimination against elite athletes. We are now going to do with this program what every other pro soccer club outside North America does to develop pro players. There’s no other way to do it . . . no other direction to go.”

Therein lies the challenge to the game and the people who run it in Canada where quantity in the game has come to be more important than quality. Associations and clubs both have struggled to serve two masters – the recreational players and their parents looking for another activity to pad their youngsters resume and the elite player who now more than ever has opportunities far and wide to aspire to.

The split is everywhere in the game in this country from the provincial level to the smallest club level where endless hours are spent (wasted?) debating budgets, what monies are going where and where we should be focusing our attention and scarce resources.

The reality is that despite the wants of many, including this author, the provincial and district associations are here to stay since they would have to vote themselves out of existence and while they may be myopic as well as short of vision they are not stupid so that won’t happen. So as long as the provincial bodies continue to exist the CSA and our elite club and national team programs will always be of secondary importance because they do not generate significant amounts of revenue or voting power.

Perhaps the time has come for a complete split in how the game is managed and run in Canada – one group to manage and facilitate the recreational game and another to handle the needs and dreams of the elite player.

It is not a new model the United States has a virtual alphabet soup of organizations some dedicated to recreational play and others to the aspirations of the players who want to go beyond local play. For Canada with a much smaller player pool two organizations would surely suffice.

A simple model really – the status quo for the recreational player, register with your recreational club who pay the provincial associations for insurance and appropriate coaching materials, training and governance. This makes the provinces and districts directly responsible to the majority of their existing “consumers” and therefore accountable to them.

Clubs, to their probable betterment, would be forced to choose their path, specialize in it and make sure they deliver programs that their players want and need. Again accountability – do your job well and your players come back don’t and they won’t.

For the elite player direct registration with the CSA Version 2.0 – in exchange appropriate training, coaching, evaluation and competition through the National Training Centres with fewer interfering middlemen. This would put a heavy funding burden on the clubs who decided to follow this path but for clubs like the Whitecaps, Ottawa Fury and Toronto FC it is just one more step down a path already chosen.

Will this or anything else happen – historically unlikely as soccer in Canada has been in a self imposed 30 year walk in the wilderness because soccer people in this country as Walt Kelly said best, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”