Solid kickoff… and many more plays to make

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/10/2019 (2490 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most professional Canadian soccer players never dreamed of playing for their hometown team. Not because they wouldn’t want to, but because it wasn’t even an option until now.

The country was long overdue for professional soccer and finally, this year, we saw the launch of the Canadian Premier League. Like any startup business, the CPL had its ups and downs in Year 1. But overall, the league laid the groundwork that will allow Canadian players to stay home to develop their skills while also providing local soccer fans with an entertaining product.

Before the inaugural season officially comes to a close Saturday in Calgary when Cavalry FC hosts Forge FC for the second leg of the championship final, the Free Press chatted with CPL commissioner David Clanachan on five issues surrounding the future of the league:

Expansion

It’s no secret the CPL needs more teams. It was a bit of a drag for fans and players to have Valour FC play some clubs five times in the seven-team league. The CPL is confident that won’t be the case in the future, as expansion is currently one of its biggest priorities.

There have been rumours floating around about groups in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Quebec and Atlantic Canada having an interest in joining the CPL. Clanachan said he couldn’t reveal the cities, but there should be some expansion news within the next 30 days. The league is in discussions with 15 ownership groups and communities across Canada that are doing their homework on acquiring a franchise. Despite all the interest, Clanachan said, a new team may not be ready to play until 2021.

“It’s not as easy in this country as everyone thinks it is, because of the lack of facilities,” said Clanachan, a longtime executive at Tim Hortons before making the jump to the CPL.

“You happen to have a great facility in Winnipeg and we’re lucky to be partnered with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers with Valour. But the reality is, it’s not an easy game in this country. We’ve got a number of clubs — there’s probably three that are probably front-runners right now that have the potential of getting a (team). But I’ll tell you right now, the window is closing. The opportunity to bring them on for 2020 is very difficult right now, but we feel very good about them getting across the finish line and becoming franchises within the league.”

Schedule

The people who drew up the inaugural season schedule weren’t very popular around the league. Teams were handed difficult and sometimes downright confusing itineraries. Valour FC was no exception, as the Winnipeg club opened the season with five games in 2½ weeks. In August, Valour had another tough stretch where they played six games in 24 days, leading to several players going down with injuries. Valour also had a random two-week break at the end of May and 16 days between games in July.

Some of the mayhem was out of the CPL’s hands, as officials had to juggle their season around the Canadian Championship tournament and Forge FC representing the CPL in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football League. But Clanachan wasn’t making any excuses and acknowledged the league needs to do a better job moving forward.

“It was a first time for us. With Canadian championships and CONCACAF dates because of Forge going onto that tournament, it got a little hairy,” Clanachan said.

“We put a lot on most of our teams. Not just the clubs, but also the coaches and the players. And of course, you know there’s lots of new learning with referees, discipline and some of the things that come with a new league. So those are things we all got to work on.”

Potential for a playoff format

The CPL campaign was split into two seasons — spring and fall. The spring campaign featured 10 games and teams played 18 in the fall. The winner of each season earned a spot in the CPL finals — a two-legged series. If the same team won the spring and fall (which Cavalry FC did), they would play the club with the second-best overall record over the course of the two seasons (Forge FC). It’s a common format overseas, but likely didn’t resonate with the average Canadian sports fan. Nevertheless, Clanachan said, it’s unlikely to change any time soon.

“The spring and fall allows everybody to stay in it. It keeps the competition up for the full year,” he said.

“You can’t have anybody just running away with the whole thing. And then it also gives us the ability to do the two-legged champions final and that’s also very interesting because a lot of other leagues and competitions around the world have done away with championships, so we’re getting a lot of interest from overseas of the fact that we chose to do this. It makes it very exciting.”

Changes to international player rule

There have been reports online suggesting the CPL is contemplating making changes to the rules regarding import players. Currently, teams are allowed to have seven foreign players on the roster and there are no rules or restrictions as to how clubs can sign these players.

That may soon change.

There’s a fair bit of chatter — unconfirmed at this point — about the league contemplating an affiliation with a scouting agency to create a database of international players under the age of 25. Clubs would be allowed to sign players exclusively on the list or, at the very least, the majority of imports would have to come from it.

The response thus far has been extremely negative from fans and players online. Valour midfielder José Galan, a 33-year-old veteran from Spain, didn’t hold back in a tweet: “I’ve never seen or heard something like this in my life,” wrote Galan, who’s played in 12 countries in his career. “I can NOT believe someone would limit the age of the players in football.”

So, is it true?

“Nobody’s asked me this question yet, but I’ll tell you exactly this: there is nothing that’s been decided about what we’re going to do at this point in time,” Clanachan said. “There’s lots of talk around… how we should be strategic in the way we do things, but nothing’s been formally decided. Until you hear it from me, nothing’s been formally decided and nothing will happen.”

Long-term goals

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

The CPL got off on the right foot, but there is a lot of room for growth. The league wants to become a feeding ground for the national team program. For now, Clanachan is focused on spreading the CPL across Canada.

“Let’s get this league to 16 teams by the World Cup in 2026. And at that point in time, we’ll be working on potentially launching a second division. That will get us into a very unique part of this game that only exists in this game globally, which is promotion and relegation,” he said.

“Now, it’s the David versus Goliath. The smaller cities that bring in a team and compete — it happens everywhere. That’s what you really want. You want this game to be played at a high level, or the highest levels in as many cities across the country as you can.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.