Canadians shouldn’t be surprised that this country’s bid to host the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup was rejected today.
By selecting Germany, despite all-but promising the tournament to Canada four years ago, FIFA is sending the Canadian Soccer Association a clear message—get your house in order.
Canadian Soccer Supporters United, the group that organized last month’s successful Black Wednesday T-Shirt protest at the National Soccer Stadium, has learned that, following a thorough audit of the CSA constitution, FIFA advised the CSA that their constitution was outmoded and needed to significantly updated in order to fall into line with FIFA governance standards.
Specifically, FIFA has taken issue with the CSA’s failure to institute a one province, one vote policy. Currently, the CSA’s voting structure gives greater voting power to the largest provinces, which FIFA objects to.
“While disappointed that this tournament will be held in Germany rather than Canada, we can’t imagine that FIFA would want to grant another major tournament to a country that is unwilling to adhere to FIFA’s most basic governance rules,” CSSU co-founder Dino Rossi said.
“FIFA has asked the CSA to fix it, but the CSA has told us that the Board of Directors will not approve such an amendment to the constitution.”
Rossi and members of his group learned of FIFA’s reform request during a meeting between representatives of the CSA and CSSU last week. He said that it is disappointing to learn that the CSA would not take a direct request from FIFA more seriously.
“Canadian soccer, and Canada itself, has lost a tremendous opportunity here,” Rossi said. “One can only imagine what impact the Women’s World Cup would have had for Canadian soccer, especially to the women’s program.”
“Hopefully, the leadership at the CSA can fix this problem and refocus its efforts at landing this tournament in 2015.”
Rossi reiterated the CSSU’s call for an independent review of the CSA, with an eye for reforming the organization. He pointed to Australia’s Crawford Report as a template that Canadian officials could follow in undertaking the review.
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