2015

Young players may have an opportunity to take part in a few training sessions with professional clubs following a decision taken at the annual meeting of team owners of the Canadian Soccer League over the weekend.

Vincent Ursini

Players 15 and over will be given an opportunity to apply to take part in pre-season training and coaching sessions during a two-week period leading to the CSL’s regular season kickoff and a number will be accepted on a first come first served basis.

The invitation came out of all-day discussions covering a wide range of topics relating to the competition, as well as business and legal issues requiring decisions before the CSL season gets underway.

The league lifted its restriction on the number of players a team can import, a measure introduced by North America’s soccer governance some years ago to ensure there were sufficient spots available in professional soccer for home grown players.

While the game gets tougher, it’s getting cleaner. That’s the opinion of CSL discipline chair Henry Helou who reported that there was a significant reduction in the number of yellow and red cards shown by the referees in 2014. The reduction in the number of discipline hearings and penalties handed down by the discipline panel was also considered to reflect an improvement in the amount of dissent being shown by players and coaches toward match officials.

Club president Ihor Prokipchuk and technical man Stas Honcharuk of Toronto Atomic FC, and SC Scarborough with Angel Belcev and Kiril Dimitrov attended their first CSL owners meeting. Tomo Dancetovic , GM of Brantford Galaxy, was also in attendance following the club’s return after a three-year absence.

“It’s going to be a busy and exciting season with four clubs entering an expanded 12-team First Division that were not there last year,” said Vincent Ursini, president of the CSL who will head the league for a further two years following a decision by the member clubs to extend his term of office.

The season will get underway the weekend of May 9 for both the First Division and the CSL’s reserve team following a pre-season press conference earlier in the week.

 Ihor Prokipchuk has plenty on his mind these days.

The Ukrainian-born Toronto businessman running a successful company in the heating and cooling industry and pre-occupied with a busy soccer academy, is about to launch Atomic FC, a team in the competitive Canadian Soccer League. All while his mind remains fixed on the daily strife in his former homeland which by chance makes his team the beneficiary of a number of players moving to Canada.

“I’ve wanted to play a greater role in professional soccer for as long as I can remember and the CSL gives me that opportunity to launch this team and include some players wanting to get away from the trouble where soccer has now taken a back seat. The players are grateful to Canada for the opportunity to play in the CSL,” said the former pro player from that eastern European country.

Several players have already been granted work permits to play in the CSL, including from Lviv, Ternopil and Dnipropetrovsk.

Atomic FC will kick off its CSL campaign in May, one of two additions in an expanded 12-team First Division in the CSL. SC Scarborough is the other, while Brantford Galaxy returns from a three-year absence and Milton SC moves up to the top division following a successful first year launch in the CSL Division Two. Other First Division teams in Canada’s top league this upcoming season are Brampton City Utd., Burlington SC, London City, Niagara United, Serbian White Eagles, Toronto Croatia, SC Waterloo and York Region Shooters.

Prokipchuck, who played for six years as a professional in a country where football is the dominant sport highlighted by a quarter-finals position for the national team in the 2006 World Cup and followed by a successful hosting of the 2012 European Championship.

Prokipchuk is surrounded in his soccer activities by an abundance of skills with no shortage of experience, including head coach Ihor Yavorsky, who holds a UEFA B licence and time in the Ukraine’s Premier League and First Division, while Stas Honcharuk, a product of the Dynamo Kyiv academy who excels as an instructor in the local academy environment, has played professionally in the Ukraine and Poland. He will be playing for the CSL professional team.

“We take our football very seriously and the CSL will find we have a very professional approach to the game as we channel our young academy players in the right direction,” said Prokipchuk. The Atomic Selects Academy is a member of the Canadian Academy of Futbol (CAF). Of course, we share the responsibility of supporting our people in the Ukraine. Everyone understands that Ukrainians are hard-working, decent people wherever they are and we in Canada will do whatever we can to help,” he added.

Atomic FC are also entering a reserve team in the CSL Second Division and both teams will be playing out of the LCI Institute Stadium in Toronto’s west-end  for a kickoff expected to be the weekend of May 16.

Players seeking a tryout for first entry to professional soccer are invited to email atomicselects2013@gmail.com.

Player Kiril Dimitrov, transferred from Bulgarian second league club PFC Belasica to Serbian White Eagles in the Canadian Soccer League in 2009, and who played the 2014 season for SC Waterloo, believes Scarborough, Ontario deserves a professional soccer team.

The Bulgaria-born midfielder is spearheading the launch of SC Scarborough in the CSL First Division, one of three new clubs to join Canada’s top professional league.

Scarborough is accompanied in the 12-team CSL top division by new entries Toronto Atomic Selects, Brantford Galaxy and Milton SC. Brantford is a team returning following a three-year absence, and Milton SC has been elevated from the CSL Second Division.
“I live in Scarborough, a great soccer community, which has a very good ground in Birchmount Stadium, one of the sites earmarked for the Pan American Games, but we are discussing the possibility of our team playing there as well,” said Dimitrov, following his club’s acceptance in the CSL.

Two teams from last year’s CSL First Division – North York Astros and Kingston FC – will not be returning for the coming season, for a net increase of two teams. Each team will play 22 games.

In addition to Scarborough SC, Toronto Atomic Selects, Brantford Galaxy and Milton SC, teams in the 2015 CSL league formation are the current league champions York Region Shooters, Toronto Croatia, Brampton City Utd, Burlington SC, London City, Niagara United, Serbian White Eagles and SC Waterloo.

York Region Shooters won the 2014 CSL Championship with a penalty kick decision over Toronto Croatia in the final game last October 26 after going undefeated the entire season.

The upcoming CSL Second Division will consist of reserve teams only and the complete CSL schedule for both divisions will kickoff in May for a six-month season ending the end of October or early November.