http://www.canadasoccer.com/canadia...ership-of-canadian-soccer-association-p156026 Canadian Soccer League expelled from membership from Canadian Soccer Association 5 March 2014 The Canadian Soccer Association Board of Directors, pursuant to its by-laws, voted on 28 February 2014 to expel the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) from membership with immediate effect.
Some background on the SFC: http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?5244-Canadian-Soccer-League-to-go-outlaw-in-2014
nothing...but for the right fee...I'm sure that the USSF might even provide the referees that they'll need. ;-)
No, the Judean People's front. And what I meant was...does "shacking up" with an outlaw league - even one from another country - put the ASL's sanctioning in a precarious position? Not good for a startup, even if few people pay attention to what goes on in America's Attic.
Unless the USASA really bothers to check, they may not know that this connection (with the CSL) even exists (or even that the CSL is, in fact, "outlaw"). With the sheer number of leagues that the USASA sanctions each year, they may not have the time for much due diligence.
I would think when the phrase "match fixing" comes into play, and the story gets on MLSSoccer.com, somebody at USSF becomes aware of it. This is not a small story. And if the ASL really has plans of being a professional league, it's one of only a handful, not a multitude. Nowadays, you can't flick away loose blades of grass from your second shot in the fairway without someone sending up a flare to the PGA Tour. I doubt very seriously someone could run a league that intends to be higher profile than the Southwest Metro Kearney Nebraska Association without someone bringing it to someone's attention that they're in bed with a group of Canadian outlaws.
Unless it was an attempt to generate betting interest in, and thus exposure for, the league by letting Asian bookmaking cartels know they exist. (Sort of a seedier version of the AISA/indoor NPSL's three point line.)
CSL already knew back in December their relationship with the CSA was done with. This expulsion announcement was probably made to put the heat on CSL teams as Ontario's New League 1 U23 league thats trying to get started is supposedly having trouble getting teams, even after lowering the amount for a team to enter the league and extending their deadline in January. The CSA should have worked with the CSL instead pushing for L1O which has lower standards than the CSL. CSA did absolutely zilch about the match fixing allegations in the 2 games a few years ago when they should have immediately addressed it and put in safeguards. CSL will most likely make a move to counteract this threatening of sanctions against refs/players, they didn't give up last year when CSA took away their sanctioning as they went to a sports arbitrater and they ordered the CSA to extend sanctioning for last season. Don't know if they will be successful working something out for 2014 but I wouldn' bet against them yet.
Forming a relationship with a league accused of match-fixing and crowing about it on your website shows an amazing degree of poor judgement. ------RM
And the thing is....there has still, after 25 years of that experiment, not been any appreciable betting interest in indoor soccer. Because there has to be interest in a sport before there can be gambling interest. And gamblers and bookies alike would much rather expend their energies on known quantities rather than try to figure out where to put a line on Rochester/Pennsylvania.
I was intending that as a joke, hence the smiley. Your point still stands, though. There's no way it would work if that was really their serious plan with the CSL move.
I know...I was using the opportunity to poke holes in what is, for some people, a talking point about indoor and multi-point scoring that is, to be honest, complete bollocks.
People see what happened in the NFL and forget that there was inherent interest in American football in the US before it became a major betting sport.
Yeah, but it probably followed hard upon. Considering there were gamblers fixing baseball games in the late 1890s and early 1900s, there was obviously gambling interest there. Any sport that shows it has an actual following can begin to attract action.
The problem is that people think that the sport got popular because of the gambling interest instead of the other way around.
Just like they think that because they get a huge amount of money from TV, that they don't need to sell tickets, and that every other sport can concentrate only on TV revenue. When they wouldn't get TV revenue without actual interest expressed in the purchase of tickets.
ASL's partner league the CSL has now taken off their website as of yesterday recent news from last November onward which mentioned their 2014 plans and the SFC. End of the line perhaps?
End of the line for that partnership. Now they'll just scale back their ambitious plans and have their six or seven or eight teams play each other twice, then take an extendo break, then do it again and call it amazing.
I spoke too soon, articles about the ASL/CSL partnership are back up on the CSL website after a couple of days : http://canadiansoccerleague.com/newsnet/templates/?a=861&z=5
So does the CSL expect the ASL to "fight the power" with them? I have a feeling this relationship is about to become mighty awkward. ------RM