A STRONGER PROFESSIONAL SOCCER STRUCTURE FOR CANADA

Canada, perhaps more than most countries in membership with FIFA, has often experienced difficulty defining its professional soccer structure and this is due in part to Canadian teams playing in leagues based in the United States, while at the same time a number of North American leagues have come and gone during the second half of the last century.

 

Today, there are three Canadian teams – Montreal Impact, the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC – in membership with the U.S.-based Major League Soccer, while Edmonton FC is the lone Canadian team in a new North American Soccer League which was launched in the United States and Canada on April 9, 2011. (The old NASL ran from 1968 to 1984).

 

 The other component of Canada’s professional soccer structure and designated  semi-professional soccer by the CSA, is a growing Canadian Soccer League, a continuation of forerunner leagues NSL, CNSL and CPSL, going back to 1926.

 

It’s been hard to define the three Canadian MLS teams as a Canadian division in Canada and it’s even more difficult to see one team – Edmonton FC – defined as another division in the context of the Canadian soccer community. What can be said is that these teams now form the upper level Canadian professional soccer structure in which the teams play under U.S. league rules.

 

The CSL is the only league in direct membership with Canada’s national soccer governance CSA.  It’s also 100 per cent Canadian, having resisted approaches over the years from teams in New York State and Michigan wanting to play the CSL level of soccer unavailable in their respective regions.  The CSL occupies the upper level semi-professional structure as designated by the CSA, while semi-professional leagues launched within the jurisdiction of the provincial governing bodies form a next level, usually more accessible to a greater number of players wanting to step up from the vast amateur soccer population that is today the largest of all Canadian team sports.

 

 The CSA has commissioned James Easton, a former Canadian youth and national team player with his company, the Rethink Management Group, to examine the viability of a Canadian professional league to be played as the highest level in a Canadian league structure.

 

The feasibility study will include similar work done in other countries and is expected to be concluded by the spring of 2012.

 

The CSL, which has an opportunity to fill that role under the guidance and rules of the CSA, has already planned for eventual expansion on a regional basis. This  means except when required for special once-in-a-while championship games involving teams from each region, there will not be extensive travel with the attendant costs that caused the demise of numerous teams and leagues and which plagued North American soccer through to the end of the last century.

 

It now appears the day is not too far off when this country’s professional soccer  will be clearer for everyone and stronger, a favourable development that should help Canada be more competitive on the world stage.