Colin Elmes
Active Member
On the surface, I like where this is going- but of course this is soccer in Canada so stay tuned....
It was a small moment – but deeply significant.
At a closed-door Canadian Soccer Association meeting last spring, Canadian soccer journalists and former national team stand-outs Jason de Vos and Kara Lang were Tweeting details of the reform run-up proceedings to the outside world.
A visibly angry CSA president Dominique Maestracci huffed over to them, and ordered them to stop.
They refused.
It is the spirit of that refusal that brings us together here today.
With absolutely no help from Maestracci – the embodiment, to many, of the Old Boys Network that has long hamstrung Canadian soccer – reform passed. Beginning tomorrow, and culminating with the CSA’s annual general meeting in May – it will be implemented.
Canadian Soccer News resolves, this day, to cover this selection process exactly as if we were a major television network, and this was a national election.
Candidates will be profiled and interviewed. Agendas will be mapped. Backroom side deals will be hauled out of the back rooms.
A traditionally private organization, the CSA is about to become much more public.
The CSA is meant to have an amateur board of directors, with the experience, connections and wisdom to drive the game forward. It is not meant to be a cushy place with nice travel perqs, where personal political agendas rule the conversation, and divert the resources.
The hope of this investigation is to ensure the new board is composed of people ready, willing and able to help build and develop Canadian soccer first, and their own ambitions second.
There will, of course, be a very different CSA board come spring. Provincial soccer association president have traditionally been CSA board members as well – however many conflicts of interest that might create. Almost all will be gone soon, although a provision exists to let a very small number continue to do double duty for a couple more years.
The other major change – there will be six appointed directors, who will come from outside the soccer bureaucracy, bringing real-world experience – and connections. Things like marketing, corporate sponsorship, actual nuts-and-bolts best business practice.
Right now, a nominations committee is being set up – and the deadline to apply is tomorrow.
There’s a little bare-bones note about this, awkwardly hidden away on the back pages of the CSA website. It notes that this very important committee will consist of two CSA directors, and three outside independents. It further notes that directors on the committee will not be eligible to run for CSA office in the spring.
If you ever wanted to really have a say in the future of Canadian soccer, you might want to toss your hat in the ring. I find it very intriguing, but I’m going to stay out here and cover this story instead of trying to leap right into it.
Canadian Soccer News has a call in to CSA vice-president Rob Newman, who headed the governance committee that drafted all the changes, and who will now oversee the nominations process. He is apparently travelling this week, but as soon as he’s got 15 minutes free for a phone call, we’ll get his considered overview of all that is about to happen.
You’re going to know who the committee members are, what insight and experience bring to this significant task, and whether there are any apparent agendas we need to be concerned about.
Also – at a full CSA board meeting in December – interested candidates must declare their intention to run for president, vice-president and the six available elected directorships. Again, you’re going to know who everyone is.
It has been proven, time and again, that the CSA runs more efficiently – and effectively – when the spotlights are on. These conditions greatly favour inspired people who want to make the game better, and make life uncomfortably awkward for those who are in it more for their own reasons and benefit.
In the book Moneyball, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane builds an impoverished last-place baseball team into a contender, using sound mathematics. A former high draft pick who failed as a player because his skills weren’t really what wins ball games, he once said his intention was to make sure no one like him ever got drafted in the first round again.
Our intention – starting now – is to illuminate, question, clarify … and ensure that no one like Dominique Maestracci ever becomes CSA president again.
Onward!
It was a small moment – but deeply significant.
At a closed-door Canadian Soccer Association meeting last spring, Canadian soccer journalists and former national team stand-outs Jason de Vos and Kara Lang were Tweeting details of the reform run-up proceedings to the outside world.
A visibly angry CSA president Dominique Maestracci huffed over to them, and ordered them to stop.
They refused.
It is the spirit of that refusal that brings us together here today.
With absolutely no help from Maestracci – the embodiment, to many, of the Old Boys Network that has long hamstrung Canadian soccer – reform passed. Beginning tomorrow, and culminating with the CSA’s annual general meeting in May – it will be implemented.
Canadian Soccer News resolves, this day, to cover this selection process exactly as if we were a major television network, and this was a national election.
Candidates will be profiled and interviewed. Agendas will be mapped. Backroom side deals will be hauled out of the back rooms.
A traditionally private organization, the CSA is about to become much more public.
The CSA is meant to have an amateur board of directors, with the experience, connections and wisdom to drive the game forward. It is not meant to be a cushy place with nice travel perqs, where personal political agendas rule the conversation, and divert the resources.
The hope of this investigation is to ensure the new board is composed of people ready, willing and able to help build and develop Canadian soccer first, and their own ambitions second.
There will, of course, be a very different CSA board come spring. Provincial soccer association president have traditionally been CSA board members as well – however many conflicts of interest that might create. Almost all will be gone soon, although a provision exists to let a very small number continue to do double duty for a couple more years.
The other major change – there will be six appointed directors, who will come from outside the soccer bureaucracy, bringing real-world experience – and connections. Things like marketing, corporate sponsorship, actual nuts-and-bolts best business practice.
Right now, a nominations committee is being set up – and the deadline to apply is tomorrow.
There’s a little bare-bones note about this, awkwardly hidden away on the back pages of the CSA website. It notes that this very important committee will consist of two CSA directors, and three outside independents. It further notes that directors on the committee will not be eligible to run for CSA office in the spring.
If you ever wanted to really have a say in the future of Canadian soccer, you might want to toss your hat in the ring. I find it very intriguing, but I’m going to stay out here and cover this story instead of trying to leap right into it.
Canadian Soccer News has a call in to CSA vice-president Rob Newman, who headed the governance committee that drafted all the changes, and who will now oversee the nominations process. He is apparently travelling this week, but as soon as he’s got 15 minutes free for a phone call, we’ll get his considered overview of all that is about to happen.
You’re going to know who the committee members are, what insight and experience bring to this significant task, and whether there are any apparent agendas we need to be concerned about.
Also – at a full CSA board meeting in December – interested candidates must declare their intention to run for president, vice-president and the six available elected directorships. Again, you’re going to know who everyone is.
It has been proven, time and again, that the CSA runs more efficiently – and effectively – when the spotlights are on. These conditions greatly favour inspired people who want to make the game better, and make life uncomfortably awkward for those who are in it more for their own reasons and benefit.
In the book Moneyball, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane builds an impoverished last-place baseball team into a contender, using sound mathematics. A former high draft pick who failed as a player because his skills weren’t really what wins ball games, he once said his intention was to make sure no one like him ever got drafted in the first round again.
Our intention – starting now – is to illuminate, question, clarify … and ensure that no one like Dominique Maestracci ever becomes CSA president again.
Onward!
