CPL were willing to let the Fury operate under the same USL parameters for 2 years. The league said that they thought they had a deal 2 weeks prior to Fury going rogue in the media. They praised USL, somewhat bashed CPL and claimed that they wouldn't be able to keep their roster, which was a lie. They also gave no dates, no timeline and no indication on when and how they would join CPL. When they declared that they would join USL in 2019, they went rogue against the CSA who had yet to renew their sanction. At the time, the CSA wouldn't commit to it. You have to see from CPL perspective. They said no to investors the entire time out of respect for OSEG and been talking to them from the beginning. With this play, OSEG expects CPL to stay out of Ottawa for years or maybe indefinitely. That was never going to happen. CONCACAF put an end to it. The Fury really did this to themselves. They should have told both the CSA and CPL in advance that they didn't want to join but provide a timeline to join. They did neither of those things.
Sanction is a privilege, not a right. There's precedent of such move and CONCACAF are fully within their rights to do as they did. If it wasn't them in 2019, the CSA would have pulled the plug in 2020. They made their bed when they went rogue this fall
FC Edmonton Announce Signings of Four Players. #FCED #WeAreComing📰 Read the full story: https://t.co/KPi06kPHY8 pic.twitter.com/nctacB5iMF— FC Edmonton (@FCEdmontonNow) December 13, 2018 FC Edmonton is pleased to announce the club has signed midfielder Son Yongchan to a contract, following an outstanding showing at the Canadian Premier League’s #GotGame Open Trials. Son becomes the first International player in FC Edmonton’s CPL history. The club has also signed Bruno Zebie, Ajeej Sarkaria and Ajay Khabra to contracts. All three are graduates of the FC Edmonton Academy.
Why? CONCACAF doesn't exist to mix into the details of the national federations at this level. It's up to the CSA to figure out what's best for Canadian soccer. Flip it around. What if CONCACAF insisted Canadian teams stay in the USL because they saw it as a stable league compared to the untried CPL. I disagree that OSEG expects anything and I also disagree that the CPL would have any moral imperative to hold the market for them now that they've passed on the chance to become an inaugural team. Again, if the CSA felt it was necessary to force a particular team to go a certain way for the benefit of Canadian soccer, then fine. For CONCACAF, however, this is micromanaging and wouldn't be happening if it wasn't Montagliani in charge.
The Fury were told this would happen. Now they are playing the victims Based on information I gathered in early 2017 The CSA had a board meeting and it was said that @OttawaFuryFC could play in NASL or USL but once @CPLsoccer started up they had to play in the CPL. John Pugh, owner of @OttawaFuryFC is on the board of the CSA and was at that meeting.— Tony Marinaro (@TonyMarinaro) December 13, 2018 But the rules are crystal clear Statement regarding Ottawa Fury FCRead More ➡️ https://t.co/BaLxg1IheX pic.twitter.com/2bAiMREuTr— Concacaf (@Concacaf) December 13, 2018 Miami (Thursday, December 13, 2019) - Concacaf typically does not comment publicly on sanctioning matters, but due to the lack of clarity regarding the state of the process and the unilateral statements from various parties in regard to the Ottawa Fury Football Club (Ottawa Fury) participating in the 2019 season of the United Soccer League (USL), we would like to clarify the following: Under international sanctioning rules, clubs that are affiliated to an Association may only join competitions in another Association’s territory under exceptional circumstances. For the sanctioning of such play in our region, approval must be given by Concacaf and FIFA; Concacaf to date has not received a formal request from any party to consider sanctioning the participation of the Ottawa Fury in the 2019 season of the USL, despite public announcements by Ottawa Fury that it would be doing so; In the fall of 2018, after unilateral public statements made by Ottawa Fury and before any sanctioning application was made to any governing body, Concacaf clearly advised the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) of its concerns regarding this matter. A further written correspondence to the CSA followed in November, providing guidance on our view that as it stands to date, we do not see exceptional circumstances, given the launch of the Canadian Premier League (CPL) for the 2019 season. As the governing body for international football in North, Central America and the Caribbean, we are committed to govern on behalf of all of our 41 Associations and key stakeholders.
I'm not sure if by "they" you mean CONCACAF or the CSA. Even if CONCACAF wanted to do this, I'd expect the CSA to fight it as it would be a colossally stupid idea. The CPL hasn't even kicked a ball yet. They were talking about a salary cap in the $2 to $2.5 million range. Lately I've seen "soccer operations costs" of about $1 million. Either way, the entire league will be spending something like what the Impact alone spent on salaries in 2018. There's no way forcing the Canadian MLS teams to join the CPL is a good move for Canadian soccer.
We have signed Winnipeg natives Tyson Farago and Dylan Sacramento to multi-year contracts.📝 | https://t.co/lTsJDScKhn#ForValour | #CanPL pic.twitter.com/b9dXQn92vc— Valour FC (@ValourFootball) December 14, 2018 Tyson Farago was in the Irish top tier and Dylan Sacramento was MVP of League 1 Ontario
York9 FC brings on Richmond Hill-based forward Austin Ricci📝: https://t.co/MhEZD9zbQ7 | #CanPL pic.twitter.com/FHtplyL8Y0— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) December 14, 2018
As much as I'd like to see Ottawa in CPL, couldn't this be seen as a potential conflict of interest given Montagliani's ties to CSA?
As much as I'd have liked Ottawa in CPL because it makes sense, this is not the way you do it. CONCACAF has enough of a history of untoward activities that anything that even smells like conflict of interest should be avoided. All CONCACAF had to do was try to keep the appearance of not getting involved. Hell even give Ottawa their one year and then go behind the scenes (and when I say behind the scenes I mean noone getting ahold of the activity and putting it on Twitter) and making sure that Ottawa understood that this would be their final season in USL in no uncertain terms. Allow the situation to at least appear to resolve itself. I don't like the optics of this action.
If you read CONCACAF statement, the Fury public antics was the catalyst to this mess. CONCACAF contacted the CSA and said they wouldn't agree to the sanction as in their view, they no longer met the "exception" clause allowing them to play in USL. The CSA filed the sanction anyways for the Fury. CONCACAF put an end to it. They are enforcing the rules. This play from CONCACAF is a stern warning that they are serious. Perhaps Fury may play 2019 but after that, it's game over. Play in Canada or they'll have nowhere to play. The worst part is that the Fury were told in 2017 that this was going to happen once CPL started. The president of the Fury was in the meeting. To see them now crying and complaining is an act aimed at misleading their fans. They are acting in really bad faith here by trying to force the USL sanction to be renewed until whenever they feel like it. CONCACAF said no. Good for them. Sanction is a privilege, not a right and you must follow the rules
I completely agree with this. Ottawa, either through incompetence, arrogance, or maliciousness, assumed that they would be sanctioned, and USL didn't bother to do their due diligence. CONCACAF's decision wasn't a reversal, so nothing should have been announced until the exemptions were in hand.
Not that I disagree with you, but what happens to Ottawa if (or when) the CPL flops like its predecessor? Right now, the Fury are in a stable league and lead a stable, borderline successful existence.
I agree with that last sentence in principle, but there is a responsibility that comes with that power and how one wields it, whether initially in the right or not. Ottawa forced the hand of the federations that governed it, fair play, but CONCACAF came back with a sledehammer where anything between those two eventualities would have sufficed. This is not how this situation should have been played; this is everything that was wrong with how the USSF operated and how CONCACAF operated before Montagliani. Should Ottawa be in the CPL, I would agree with that but this isn't the way... Imo the means is as important as the ends...
This isn't my point, exactly: I think it's reasonable for Ottawa to get another year. That said, the Fury had no business whatsoever acting that next season would be business as usual in the USL without actually having all of the parties having signed off. So not only did they screw the CPL over with their dramatic, public rebuffing, they nearly screwed the USL over, too.
I would agree to this, except you have to think that part of CONCACAF's decision came about simply due to Ottawa's arrogance that they would get the exemption prior to the federation's decision.
I’m not sure they had any reason to think CONCACAF wouldn’t approve them since the CSA and USSF approved them..
To be clear, I want the league to succeed. But "money behind" a project does not equal infinite longevity. North America is littered with the corpses of well-funded sports leagues that died quickly - some of which were arguably successful. In soccer specifically, what happened to the NASL? Or the other NASL?
This is what I agree with. The Fury should have 2019 in the USL and if the CPL proves to be viable after its first season (always the roughest) with signs of growth in the second, then they should have to move. The plan should officially be USL 2019 and CPL 2020 and beyond.
You'll be proven wrong. Enough people, analysts, journalists have covered the league and and it's here to stay. The memberships and ticket sales indicates points to a good 1st season. The people the league hired to run it also increases the level of confidence unlike NASL or old CSL. The 1st employee was Paul Beirne, now CPL president. He was TFC's first employee and made it successful (off the pitch) when people thought that this would never fly in Toronto and during the pathetic years on the pitch. Actually, it's thanks to Paul Beirne that the Canadian business world came to the table to begin with as he had made his name working with them while at TFC. The subsequent hiring have been nothing more than quality. Looking at their business plan, this league is here to stay. Thank you for the support, I invite you to read more about it.
That explains why FC Edmonton sat 2018 out. They were at the same meeting when the CSA told the Fury what would happen when CPL started. That's why they kept saying that they would not join USL and also didn't like their business model. The Fury thought they could bend the rules and lost their gamble when CONCACAF enforced it. That's really on them. Blaming the sanctioning bodies has no ground here.