Archive for World Cup Women
Time Capsule: Women’s World Cup
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP FOR DUMMIES
Germany No Longer Pretenders
Women’s World Cup A Very Serious Business
Canada Shut Out
OBE Blog
By Bob Koep
Canada lost its bid for the 2011 Woman’s World Cup tournament to Germny in a decision made by FIFA at Zurich, Switzerland, today.
And chosing Germany over Canada, the only two bidders for the meet, was not really a big surprise.
Naturally, FIFA never gives a reason why it picks one contestant over another, but we speculate that our disorganization in the Canadian Soccer Association has something to do with it.
First of all there was nobody in authority to do the presentation of the bid in Zurich, mainly because we have no one in authority at the CSA headquarters in Ottawa.
So they sent the president of the Vancouver Whitecaps to do the job, but his job really is to run a club in a professional U.S. based soccer league, and not to represent the CSA.
But there is no CEO in the CSA and neither is there a technical director. The CSA is leaderless and it must be assumed that FIFA has learned about this situation.
In fact, it prompted FIFA earlier to advise the CSA to get its house in order and to fall in line with FIFA governance standards.
Moreover, FIFA is also aware of the fact that only this past summer Canada managed to lose money on the under-20 World Cup staged in this country.
Even though the CSA bragged high and low with having run the most successful tournament ever with a record attendance of nearly 1.2 million, the organization still managed to lose some $2 million. This deficit FIFA will probably have to pick up to balance the books.
And FIFA is really averse to running a deficit or bailing somebody out. They are in business to make money and did so on their end from their share of TV rights and sponsor involvement.
Thus the world soccer body is probably happy with its choice of Germany as that country has just last year run a superb World Cup tournament and there is no question it will do so again.
For Canada all that remains is to try again for the next Womens World Cup, slated for 2015, and by that time we might even have a proper organization in Ottawa.
At the same time at the Zurich press conference, FIFA announced Brazil as the host country for the 2014 mens World Cup. Of course Brazil was the only applicant and FIFA didn’t have a choice there. It seemed sort of funny that FIFA president Sepp Blatter walked up to the podium, opened an envelope, pulled out a card and announced Brazil as the winner!
CSSU Calls For CSA Review After Women’s Bid Lost
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.
