A Lot Has Changed At The Canadian Soccer League

PHOTO: Robin Glover

By Robin Glover Soccer In Toronto
Stan Adamson, Executive Director of the Canadian Soccer League opened yesterday’s 2010 pre-season press conference with three things on his mind:

• 2010 is a World Cup year
• soccer registration is up in Canada
• a lot has changed since the CSL Championship game of October 24th, 2009

The BMO Field Rogers Room meeting came to order at 12:15 pm. At this year’s head table were Eric Barber (Days Inn), Domenic Di Gironimo (CSL commissioner), John Knox (Canadian Soccer Association), Guy Bradbury (Ontario Soccer Association), Bobby Iarusci (friend of the CSL), and Pino Jazbec (CSL).

Adamson outlined some changes to the league.

156 Game Schedule
Negotiating with cities and owners to make a fair 156 game schedule is tough work. The 2010 CSL schedule will see the league operate 13 First Division teams — Brampton Lions, Brantford Galaxy, FC Hamilton Croatia, London City, Milltown FC, Montreal Impact Academy, North York Astros, Portugal FC, Serbian White Eagles, St Catharines Wolves, TFC Academy, Toronto Croatia, and York Regions Shooters. There are four new teams this year:

• Montreal Impact Academy are the reserve team for the Montreal Impact. They are taking the place of the Trois-Rivieres Attak who won the championship last year but are taking one year off and will be back in 2011
• Brantford Galaxy are from a great sports city that brought the country hockey great Wayne Gretzky
• Milltown FC from Milton
• FC Hamilton Croatia who have a long history at the senior level and have large attendances in Hamilton over the years

The Reserve Division will field 10 teams. London City, Montreal Impact Academy, and Toronto Croatia will be the only teams to not be part of the Reserve League.

New Commissioner, New Sponsors, New Connections
The league has appointed Domenic Di Gironimo as its new commissioner. Previously, Di Gironimo was involved as a silent partner in the Trois Rivieres Attak and Laval Dynamite. He moved up the ranks to be the league commissioner which he says is an honour.

In his remarks, Di Gironimo thanked the owners for their commitment to change. He reported that the league was restructured as a non-profit organization and has gained sanctioning from the CSA. The new commissioner said he will work governance closely with the governing bodies of Canadian soccer.

Getting Connected is the new CSL mantra. On the marketing side, Di Gironimo thanked three organizations for their commitments.

The CSL has announced Givova Sports from Italy as the ball and uniform supplier for the league. Givova is new in the big leagues of sportswear, having created the trademark at the beginning of 2009. The company founder, Giovanni Acanfora, has more than 20 years of experience in the sportswear business. The international apparel and equipment supplier sponsors teams and sports organizations in various countries.

Days Inn also has a new agreement with the CSL. The hotel chain will provide teams overnight accommodation especially for road games to Montreal and for the Montreal team coming to Southern Ontario. Eric Barber from the Days Inn said the company was looking to get into the sports market which is the one area that has shown growth for the hospitality industry. They will provide special rates for travelling fans.

Rogers Cable are scheduled to show 45 regular season games plus the playoffs and the championship game. Most games will be broadcast live and the coverage will provide wonderful exposure for the league. Willy Jong from Rogers said there will be an expansion of games that are covered.

For games in the Toronto area, every game will be produced in High Definition. The games will be broadcast beyond the local area. All the live games that are broadcast to just the local area will be available on the Rogers Super-Sports-Pack. Any subscriber can watch them which means as far away as New Brunswick and the other areas of Southern Ontario that are not in the local area. (eg. A Friday game at London City involving North York Astros will be available for Toronto area residents). There will be a weekly league results/magazine show too.

The CSL will be upgrading its website as well. The new website will have e-mail newsletters, podcasts, new connections with such publications as Inside Soccer Magazine among other things. Don Buddo and John Parker from Rightfast will launch the new CSL website next week.

But the real future of the CSL belongs to the young elite players. Canada does not have a full soccer development structure. While Toronto FC, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps do provide professional development they do not on a broad Canadian front.

So the real story is about young talent now staying in Canada rather than having to leave the country. Getting Connected means that professional and youth soccer come together with strong ties, a strong vision and higher standards including getting the cities to provide quality facilities to play in like these towns.

John Knox of the CSA spoke of the need for the CSL to develop young players to feed the pro teams and the National teams. Guy Bradbury from the OSA said this was an important time for soccer renewal. Bob Iarusci talked of the CSL being the missing link, the melting pot, the push to excel, the commitment to their cities and local soccer youth clubs.

Time To Mingle
Ryan Gauss of London City is back for another year of owner/management and said their team is ready to sign four players from FC London (PDL league) who have finished their NCAA commitments and want to play in a league that doesn’t end in July.

Jason Bent of TFC Academy said the club still has self imposed age restrictions on their reserve and senior teams so this year such 20 year olds like James Stamatopoulos and Daniel Di Biagio will not be back and could end up playing on other CSL clubs.

Tony DeThomasis answered my question about why his team has changed its name from Italia Shooters back to York Region Shooters. He said that’s so they can show that have the York County territory. He can remember now Toronto FC player Adrian Cann playing for the team in 2002 and can remember hearing his teammates calling him ‘Peaches’ on the field when they wanted him to pass to them. He, like me, didn’t know why he had that nickname. Over the years I’ve narrowed it down between the fuzzy afro hair he had back then or that Cann and Peaches went together like “Can of Peaches”.

The season starts this Saturday with one game on the first weekend. TFC Academy against Portugal FC. I will be at the Toronto FC game earlier in the afternoon and can just stay for the later game. I couldn’t come with any sure way of getting a lineup of the CSL game without being able to cross the field and asking the fourth official to let me copy down the game sheets.