CSA masters of dysfunction

Opinion

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This article was published 01/09/2023 (738 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Of the myriad ways Canada Soccer reveals its utter loathsomeness, the frequency with which it exhausts good, well-meaning people is at or near the top of the pile.

Say what you will about John Herdman, but the now-former manager of the women’s and men’s national teams has done more for the sport in this country than just about any non-playing figure in its history.

As incoming head coach of Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC, that influence will continue.

The manner of his departure from Canada Soccer, officially the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), was itself a mercy. Under contract, he’d have commanded significant severance had he been sacked. In stepping down, he saved his erstwhile and cash-strapped employer the indignity of a bounced cheque. They deserved far less.

In purely sporting terms, it’s unlikely the 48-year-old would have seen out the 2026 men’s World Cup cycle, which concludes in the tournament co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. The 2022 competition exposed deficiencies in tactics and game management, and, as The Athletic reported this week, in dressing room stewardship as well. He took the team as far as he could, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

What’s troubling is that his tenure might have been the high point.

Mauro Biello, a national team assistant and former boss of Canada’s U-20s and Montreal Impact, is now in charge on an interim basis. Whether he’s still in the job when his squad next assembles is another matter entirely, though in the short term the gig is probably his as long as he wants it.

The CSA simply can’t afford a proper, permanent replacement for Herdman, who moved over to the men from the women’s side in 2018. In fact, chances are better they declare bankruptcy — as they’ve threatened — before conducting a single interview.

As it stands, the Canadian men won’t play until mid-October, when they face Japan in Niigata. By then they’ll not have seen each other in more than three months, even though their rivals will reconvene next week. The CSA, however, didn’t schedule anything for this month’s international window. To play you need to pay, and with the governing body unable to do its part, the players will be kept from doing theirs.

Combined, the two senior programs will contest a total of one friendly match in 2023: the women’s showdown with France back in April. If facilitating actual soccer games is one of the basic functions of a soccer association, then Canada’s is not fit for purpose.

The men have a Nations League quarter-final upcoming in November, and it doubles as qualification to the 2024 Copa America. No doubt the team and its fans would relish the chance to go up against Argentina and Brazil, Messi and Neymar. But to do it, they’ll need to overcome an opponent such as Jamaica or Panama over two legs, and both will have played four competitive matches by then.

Meanwhile, the women face a home-and-away series with Jamaica later this month with a berth in the Paris Olympics on the line. They, too, will take to the field with minimal preparation, and while ability alone might be able to see them through, there’s at least an uncomfortable chance the reigning gold medalists won’t be defending their title.

There’s no mystery as to the CSA’s financial woes.

In 2018 they sold their revenue streams to the newly formed Canada Soccer Business group, who in turn auctioned broadcast rights to Mediapro, who, for their part, had to refinance their nearly billion euro debt just last year and whose majority stake is held by a private Chinese equity firm.

Neither will there be any surprises regarding trickle-down consequences of the organization’s ineptitude.

Herdman is one, and if the United States are serious about hiring her, women’s head coach Bev Priestman could be another. Additionally, at least some of the men’s recent success can be credited to recruitment, and if dual nationals aren’t given a compelling case for choosing the red shirt, they’ll inevitably go elsewhere. The women need a domestic league, but the CSA sold them out for a handful of men’s World Cup games in Toronto and Vancouver.

That World Cup, if nothing else, should at the very least make Herdman’s previous role a desirable one. Canada are automatically qualified, so it’s a guaranteed appearance, at home, in the biggest sporting event to ever be staged.

Conversely — and this is why Biello won’t be looking over his shoulder anytime soon — it also presents the risk of national embarrassment. Besides, even if the CSA remains solvent, there’s no guarantee its next appointment, or the one after that, would still be around in 2026.

Following the men’s 2-0 defeat to the United States in June, Herdman remarked that Canada wasn’t “serious” about competing at its own World Cup and listed frustrations including his staff’s own fundraising efforts to secure a charter flight to Qatar last fall.

After their quick elimination in Australia and New Zealand last month, Christine Sinclair, visibly frustrated, stated that, in the absence of a league and meaningful backing from the association, the women’s team would continue to be surpassed by opponents they’d previously beaten.

Nevermind Canadian soccer, you’d be hard-pressed to find more committed, decent individuals than Herdman and Sinclair in Canadian sports, period. Or Priestman. Or Sophie Schmidt, who’d simply had enough and contemplated retirement ahead of the Women’s World Cup.

If one of the basic indicators of a healthy organization is the treatment of its people, then the CSA is deathly ill and likely past the point of recovery.

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