With a surprising – or not so surprising statement from the Canadian Soccer Association, the national governing body has created confusion about the one-year re-instatement of the Canadian Soccer League back to full playing status.

 

It’s to the end of the CSL’s 2013 season, says the CSA, in an announcement

 

The CSA statement came in response to a ruling on April 23 by arbitrator Justice Hugh L. Fraser that the CSA will have to wait until February 13, 2014 – a full 12 months – if they wish to de-sanction the CSL.

 

The CSL season is expected to be concluded by the end of October, but activity continues when teams become involved in exhibition games outside of Canada and other various activities, including indoor soccer during the ensuing fall and winter months.

 

The CSL sought clarification from the arbitrator following the CSA’s announcement of an early de-sanctioning time, and Justice Hugh L. Fraser re-affirmed that February 13, 2014 is the earliest date by which the CSA can de-sanction the CSL. 

 

Media outlets have been unable to gain confirmation that the CSA will abide by the ruling issued by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC), which is constituted by a federal act and is funded by the federal government and works closely with Sport Canada.

 

But it’s not the first time the CSA has attempted to avoid SDRCC jurisdiction with the CSL appeal.

 

While the CSA By-laws state the SDRCC is the avenue for members who wish to appeal national decisions of the governing body, the CSA took a position that the SDRCC does not have the jurisdiction to arbitrate this dispute and it became necessary for Justice Fraser to over-rule the CSA’s objection, which he did on April 2.

 

The CSL is seeking a further assurance that the CSA will follow the ruling handed down following several weeks of deliberation and a hearing on April 10.

A recent decision by the Canadian Soccer Association to de-sanction the Canadian Soccer League with immediate effect was wrong, Canada’s sport dispute resolution body has ruled.

 

In a decision brought down in Ottawa today, arbitrator Justice Hugh L. Fraser considered the CSA decision to be heavy handed, without sufficient consultation with the CSL and leaving the league with little opportunity to seek an alternative means of playing its upcoming season. If the CSA wishes to remove sanction from the CSL, it will have to do it effective February 13, 2014, he decided.

 

As a result of Mr. Justice Fraser’s decision, the CSL will continue to operate throughout the 2013 season under full CSA sanctioning and governance.

 

The CSL appealed to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) mid-March following discussions with CONCACAF, then FIFA,  after receiving a letter dated February 13 from the CSA which stated the national body will no longer sanction the CSL following the adoption of a proposed new structure for soccer in Canada at the semi-professional level.

 

 CONCACAF and FIFA considered the disagreement to be an internal one and the SDRCC arbitration was then decided to be the CSL’s next avenue of appeal. The CSL remained a member in good standing with the CSA following the decision to de-sanction.

 

The CSA stated at a hearing on April 10 that it is empowered to make policy decisions in the best interests of soccer and its members. CSA president Victor Montagliani stated the decision to no longer sanction the CSL had nothing to do with any match fixing allegations against the CSL and everything to do with the adoption of the Easton report and CSA Professional Committee recommendations for a new semi-professional structure.

 

The CSL argued at the hearing that there was no legitimate, logical or legal reason to de-sanction the CSL immediately.

 

CSL president Vincent Ursini said he was anxious to see the conclusions of the Easton Report.  Only Phase 1 of the two-phased study has been completed and disseminated to date and Phase 2, which is to study the viability of two different options, is anxiously awaited as it is expected to contain conclusive recommendations.

                                                                                                       

The CSL has maintained a position of being eager to assist in developing a national structure for semi-professional soccer and agreed with the concept of a national semi-pro league, but the extent to which a new league would be developmental required some consideration. The Easton report put focus on the age group 18 – 23, while the CSL’s first division has many promising professional players in their mid-20s  with emphasis on games being attractive for the fans.

 

The CSL, which has a long history going back to 1926, and its member clubs, were rocked by the CSA decision to de-sanction, particularly in view of its long-standing aspirations to expand on a regional basis across Canada. The CSL was accepted into CSA membership in 2009 after being governed for many years by the Ontario Soccer Association and expansion was a significant reason for the CSL seeking national governance.

 

The CSL operated 16 teams in its first division and 12 in the second division during the 2012 season. Many players are on professional contracts and there has been an increasing number selected for various national teams in several countries in recent years and many players have moved to high level clubs, mostly in Europe.

 

Toronto FC withdrew their top two academy teams from the CSL following the CSA decision to de-sanction the league and the senior academy team from Montreal Impact followed.

 

The ensuing uncertainty of the CSL has caused other teams to put their season plans on hold and major business decisions have been delayed or cancelled.

 

CSL president Vincent Ursini said on receiving the arbitration decision: “While we are pleased with the ruling, I have to say that never for a moment did I consider the CSA decision and the process, or lack thereof, to de-sanction the CSL to be a correct one. It flies in the face of fairness, it was unprecedented, unjust, and has been very disruptive and harmful to our league and our teams – now somewhat depleted for the coming season. The teams deserve some reckoning for what they have endured, I thank them for their conviction and patience and I’m also grateful for our lawyers and our group for their work in helping to arrive at this decision” he said.

 

The CSL’s new season will now kickoff May 3 when SC Waterloo visits London City at 8.30 pm, delayed from the late April starting date decided in January. That will be followed on May 5 by the Kingston FC opener against Brampton City Utd, a 1 pm kickoff.

 

The complete league formation and 2013 season schedule will be released at a press conference the week of April 29.

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A delayed Canadian Soccer League will kickoff Friday, May

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The Canadian Soccer League lost a team going into its well-attended Annual General Meeting on March 3, but gained a new one with the approval of SC Burlington from one of the fastest growing soccer communities in Ontario. TFC Academy withdrew its franchise from the CSL in the wake of the de-sanctioning announcement by the Canadian Soccer Association on February 13.

The Canadian Soccer League (CSL) has advised Canada’s soccer governing body, the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), that it is prepared to take all necessary steps to reverse a recent decision by the CSA to strip the CSL of official sanctioning just two months prior to the kick-off of the CSL’s 2013 season.

The CSL is a semi-professional league, which in 2012 operated with 15 clubs in Ontario and one club in Quebec. It is the only league in Canada with direct membership with the CSA and has for many years been planning expansion on a regional basis across Canada, very much along the same lines recommended in the James Easton report (known also as the Rethink Management Group Report).

In a letter delivered to the CSA last week, CSL Chairman Vincent Ursini states that a recent decision taken by the CSA to remove the CSL’s sanctioning with immediate effect is invalid and “a miscarriage of justice”.  In the letter, Mr. Ursini indicates that the CSA failed to adhere to its own rules, regulations and by-laws in arriving at the decision not to sanction the CSL, which at all times has been a member in good standing of the CSA.  In particular, Mr. Ursini notes that the CSA provided the CSL with no prior notice of its plans to de-sanction, and no opportunity to meaningfully participate in or comment on a decision that materially affects the league’s membership status within the CSA and its CSA league sanctioning.

 

In the letter, Mr. Ursini documents the operational harm the CSA’s decision has already caused the CSL, given the timing of the announcement, with CSL exhibition games slated for late March and the 2013 season due to start in April. 

 

Mr. Ursini advises CSA President Victor Montagliani in the letter that “the CSL requires an unequivocal, immediate, public statement and/or rescission of the motion whereby the CSA has refused to sanction the CSL…the CSA must realize that the CSL is prepared to take all necessary steps in order to maintain its sanctioned status within the CSA.” 

 

The CSA’s decision to remove the CSL’s sanctioning was communicated to the CSL in a letter signed by Mr. Montagliani dated February 13^th.  The CSA letter provided a single reason for de-sanctioning the CSL – an earlier decision by the CSA Board of Directors to ratify and approve the recommendations of the James Easton Report, which favoured a national, regionally-based semi-professional league structure for soccer in Canada.

 The irony of the CSA’s actions, according to CSL League Administrator Pino Jazbec, is that “the CSL fully supports the regionally-based concept for Canadian soccer that James Easton has advanced in his report.  It is consistent with our vision for the growth of the CSL, and for the development of pro soccer in Canada.  What we cannot tolerate, however, is the immediate implementation at any cost. This direction has been acted upon prematurely. ‘’

 

“The CSL and its owners and clubs will not sit idly by as ‘soccer road kill’ in the CSA’s efforts to force-fit a new structure into the existing professional soccer landscape in Canada without providing even basic fairness to the CSL,” Mr. Jazbec said.  “We were never given notice and we never had any opportunity to comment on how the Easton Report recommendations should be implemented and we were never even asked by the CSA what impact the recommendations would have on our league.  That is just unacceptable.”

 

In the letter to the CSA, Mr. Ursini questioned why a pledge given to the CSL and other participants at a November 16, 2012 CSA Professional Soccer Committee meeting to establish an internal CSA committee to discuss the recommended regionally-based concept and to work with existing leagues in the different regions of Canada, including the CSL, was abandoned, again without any notice to the CSL.  He indicated that the CSL voted in favour of accepting the James Easton Report recommendations on the concept of a regionally-based pro soccer structure at the November 16^th meeting.

 

“If anyone at the CSA had bothered to notify us and ask us our views before moving to de-sanction us without due process,” he said, “we would likely have asked for the opportunity to defer implementation of the James Easton Report until a later time in order to allow all stakeholders the opportunity to consider the best structure for Canada and how best to get there in a seamless manner and without the kind of upheaval to the CSL that the CSA’s actions have now triggered.”

 

 “Make no mistake about it, our 2013 CSL season will take place whatever the CSA decides to do in response to our letter,” Mr. Jazbec said.  “We haven’t been in business as a fixture of Canadian pro soccer for the past 87 years just to meekly fold the tents when our governing body acts in a manner we consider to be fundamentally unreasonable, unlawful and unfair.  We hope that common sense will prevail, but we are ready to take whatever actions are necessary to defend our rights, our league and the commercial viability of our member clubs.” 

The Canadian Soccer League issues the following statement in response to an erroneous online CBC story and broadcast of Thursday, January 31 ‘CSA cuts ties with the Canadian Soccer League’, also described by the CBC as ‘Canadian Soccer League loses sanctioning after match-fixing report’.

 

The Canadian Soccer League is still sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and there has been no suggestion that the CSA is severing ties with the CSL.

 

The national governing body told the CSL recently it is considering a new professional soccer structure that, if adopted, will accommodate professional leagues in Canada.

 

The proposed change follows the CSA’s consideration of the James Easton Report following a study of the viability of Division II professional soccer in Canada. A change of the professional soccer structure and a proposed change of governance for the CSL has nothing to do with the alleged match fixing of a CSL game played at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec on September 12, 2009 reported in a German court in 2010, or a recent Interpol conference in New York attended by the CSA and the CSL, with soccer officials from FIFA and CONCACAF.

 

Vincent Ursini, president of the CSL, who attended the Interpol conference for his league, said the CSA has expressed to him that it is important for the CSL to continue its legacy of 85 years in soccer. Ursini said on Thursday: “The CSL will continue to co-operate and work with the CSA and OSA towards a new structure aimed at the advancement of professional soccer in Canada.”

 

The CSL has taken exception also, to the report in the CBC story that several requests for a comment from the CSL went unreturned. Ursini said this has been investigated and it is clear no such enquiry by the writer or any member of the CBC has been received.

 

Ursini explained the CSL is working hard toward the new season to kickoff late April, that it is business as usual and his hope that all teams, old and new, and fans will not be deterred by the unfortunate misleading story released by the CBC.

 

Ursini reported that according to the Interpol conference about $185 million is bet each year on CSL games world-wide, so the need for vigilance on the part of the CSL and a strategy by FIFA to prevent match fixing are paramount. The CSL will continue to follow the direction of the CSA and FIFA, to be given high priority by the CSL.

 

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The CSL annual general meeting of teams is scheduled for Saturday, March 2, a time when the league formation and competition guidelines are finalized for preparation of the the 2013 season schedule, which is expected to kickoff late April. …….