The past week began with an announcement that flew under the radar in sports news: Canada Soccer has hired American coach Jesse Marsch to take charge of the men’s national team until the 2026 World Cup. , when we put this hiring in context, it is difficult not to see the ridicule in which Canadian soccer is now immersed.
The hiring of a new head coach for the national men’s program was necessary, remember, because the excellent John Herdman left this position in August 2023, sickened by the financial cancer that is gnawing at Canada Soccer.
In 2018, the leaders of Canada Soccer ceded all the commercial rights of the federation until 2037. While we knew that a World Cup was going, in part, to be presented in Canada in 2026 and that an impressive windfall was going to result, these precious rights were ceded for peccadilloes, of 3 to 4 million per year to a suspicious entity called Canadian Soccer Business (CSB).
On its face, this agreement is so bad that it could only have been orchestrated by incompetent people or people with bad intentions.
For several years, Canada Soccer has been financially stifled. The federation is constantly at loggerheads with its players over their working conditions and the budgets allocated to team preparation (training camps, preparatory matches, transport) have been affected.
This agreement between Canada Soccer and CSB is so damaging that the national team players have filed a $40 million lawsuit against the members of the federation’s board of directors for negligence and breach of their fiduciary duties.
In short, instead of fighting with a federation incapable of supervising its athletes normally, Herdman chose to go elsewhere. He now manages Toronto FC.
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John Herdman
Photo : The Canadian Press / Nathan Denette
At the start of the week, therefore, Canada Soccer announced that Jesse Marsch will take over from Mauro Biello, who has been acting since Herdman’s departure. And at the same time, we learned that the new coach’s salary will be almost entirely borne by the three Canadian MLS teams: the Vancouver Whitecaps, CF Montreal and Toronto FC.
For a brief moment, let’s take a step back. Canada is a G7 country. And Canada Soccer, which has some 740,000 members, is the largest sports federation in this G7 country. We are therefore not talking about a neighborhood pétanque association. What’s more, Canada will host 13 World Cup matches in 2026.
Despite all of the above, Canada Soccer is forced to beg for private funds to finance its head coach’s salary. Isn’t that both embarrassing and ridiculous?
New Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue was praised for his creativity when Marsch’s hiring was announced. The significant financial resources supposed to come from sponsorship agreements and broadcasting rights having been diverted elsewhere, Blue certainly has the merit of having explored the path of philanthropy to alleviate the misery which has befallen its organization
At the same time, however, it seems that the community is forgetting why Kevin Blue is reduced to begging for money and why Canada Soccer adopted a 44.4% increase in contributions two weeks ago. annual fees that minor soccer participants will have to pay to their national federation. These fees increased from $9 to $13.
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While Canada Soccer is struggling for suspicious reasons, the rest of the country is preparing to host the World Cup as if nothing had happened. And on this side, there is no shortage of funds.
At the beginning of May, we learned that the federal government was going to spend 116 million to support the presentation of seven games in Vancouver. And at the same time, it turned out that Ottawa was going to contribute $104 million to support the presentation of six games in Toronto.
If we consider that the traditional 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 sharing formula applies between the provincial, municipal and federal governments, this means that the 7 games presented in Vancouver will cost some 348 million and the 6 games in Toronto will require spending of 312 million. We are therefore talking about a total of 660 million to cover the sporting and event aspects of these 13 matches.
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Seven matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Ben Nelms
These 660 million ignore security costs which will easily amount to 400 or 500 million, or even more. In 2010, security expenses for the Vancouver Winter Games totaled $900 million. However, these Games lasted 17 days and their presentation was concentrated in a single region of the country.
The 2026 World Cup matches will be presented in Canada over a 24-day period, in two different provinces. Without forgetting the fact that several national teams will arrive in Canada well in advance to complete their preparation.
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In the world of high-performance sport, success goes hand in hand with the financial means available to programs to develop and prepare their athletes. It’s a shame, but that’s how life is.
And spectacularly, the Canadian team that will be supposed to rock the country in two years is preparing for the biggest sporting event on the planet with a slap and a boot, begging for money here and there to ensure its operation. For its last year of operation, while the sport has never been so popular in the country, Canada Soccer also presented a deficit of four million.
After being cheated during the conclusion of the infamous agreement between Canada Soccer and CSB, our international players are in a way becoming beggars.
All this because of a suspicious agreement whose effects will be felt until 2037 and which everyone is almost forgetting.
2024-05-20 09:02:40
#stuffing #turkeys #beggars
