Csl 2010

As usual with the CSL there is nothing official.

2010 is supposed to be the year they launch a "six team" western division. The thinking is that the cities would be Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, and one other but, again, nothing official.

There was also a rumour last year of a team for Quebec City to start in 2010. Nothing official.

There is also a rumour that the CSL has approached the CSA about having the CSL champion compete in the Canadian Championship. That one's really a rumour, though, because I haven't seen anything except in places where people with wishful thinking might post wishes as fact. The original CC deal was for three years so, even if it was approved, presumably no CSL participation would happen before 2011.

I really like the idea of the CSL and wish them all the best. I'd go to games if I had a local team to support. That said, we're talking about a league that can't even be bothered to update its own website half the time so getting any firm news about the future is really tough. Even direct emails to league officials tend to go unanswered.

 

Yeah the CSL have spoken to the CSA about the Canadian Championship before, but it never happened. I suppose it won't either until the CSL has some full-time professional clubs in the league, because at the moment they're only Semi-pro. If they get the western league right and maybe scrap the international division, then i could see it happening. The majority of people don't like the international division, so i presume the CSA aren't big fans of the idea either. It did it's job, but time to move on.
There's a new man in charge now, so hopefully the league will move fowards and the western league is the way to go, which has been in the works for a while now. So expect that. It would also help if they can get some already establsihed clubs to join aswell, maybe some from the USL DL and such, like Victoria Highlanders, FC London, Abbotsford Mariners and Windsor Spartans who currently has a team in the Super-20. I think they have enough Toronto (met.) based clubs at the moment, though Toronto Lynx would be good for the league. Maybe even a couple from the PCSL (many of them already Semi-pro).
Anyway i hope the CSL makes some good changes some time soon, the league has potential.

 

There is absolutely no way that either the Impact or the Whitecaps will play for the CSL. The CSL is pretty pathetic and I think that anyone who is being realistic understands that. However, it WOULD be nice for there to be a true Canadian soccer league and not just one that claims to represent the whole country.

Ideally, the CSL would have teams from every province compete at a decent level and post its results to local media regularly to at least give readers the impression that they deserve some sort of recognition. Currently, the CSL has teams from mostly Toronto that were formed by what seem to be a bunch of drunks looking to do something in their spare time. TFC Academy and Trois-Rivières Attak have their reasons for existing and the Toronto Croatia, I assume, are an extension of the old team that played for the NASL. However, every other team looks to me to be nothing more than something that was put together at the last minute.

Still, if they could get some coverage and a few more teams from both Quebec and Manitoba at the very least, they could at least deserve mention.

 

The Impact in the CSL wouldn't work. The Impact would win every game by a minimum of five goals. Plus, the Impact are already committed to the TOA league for next season.

 

Define 'committed' Kingston. If the owner of the Montreal Impact is the chairman of the TOA board but states on his team's website that he is still discussing with the USL, how is he committed?

 

The gesture might come with future rewards : be nice to a future MLS and open the door to your own entry into the league. On the other hand, the Whitecaps might have been added for two other reasons : they have the same problems with the USL, they are a very stable institution that would give the new league instant recognition.

 

I don't have any special knowledge or hold discussions with Joey Saputo but I'd say fairly committed. Regardless, if the Impact aren't in the TOA league next year they'll be in the USL not the CSL.

 

I am thinking Montreal Impact at the earliest would be selected as a MLS franchise by 2011, maybe 2012..I think they are waiting for a commitment from the province on infrastructure improvements to Stade Saputo, but I can not see the Caps or Impact playing in the CSL, but I could see their respective reserve sides playing in a similar league like Trois Riviere are presently doing. The only talk I heard was Edmonton having a rep at the USL 1 meetings last week. Anyone hear about who this group are or who represented them or anything more about Ottawa's application?

 

The CSL is a basic pub league team...even the Red Patch boys are trying to put a club ion>.can you see that a lot of beer swilling staggering players on the pitch...Now really!! how much credibility can a league have if they resort to taking a bib for a franchise from a supporters group? :{

 

You have no ********ing clue what you are talking about buddy. It's not an RPB team, the idea was just born there. I can promise you that it won't be supporters running around on the pitch pretending they are TFC. Our goal is to create a top youth development program that can guide talented young players into pro soccer.

 

I think it would be interesting to see if Forest City London could take over London City's spot in a truly national CSL...the management for London City have been a terrible group over the years (i.e. no wins in 2008, 1 win against TFC's youth academy in 2009, and even that was quite suspect from my point of view in the stands.) Forest City London on the other hand have an excellent ownership group who've run a youth team like a professional top flight organization, drawing crowds in the thousands.

My personal preference would be for London City to stay on as London's highest level team, and if the team is sold to a proper owner with an actual passion for soccer in 2011, then this could happen. That said, if the CSL moves on to a bigger and better level, FCL is probably going to be needed to make London an actual competitor.

 

the problem with this league is that there are too many ethnic clubs, the (few) supporters though look like real eastern european ultras lol

 

The international division definitely seems like a boundary to attracting new interest from non-CSL followers. When a matchup says "Brampton Lions v.s. Serbian White Eagles or Portugal FC or Italia Shooters" It sounds like amateur hour.

The new league management will have a hell of a problem with this, they want to expand, and get the champion in the NCC, but honestly, how would it look if the Canadian representative were an academy team, or a club representing a foreign country? The CSA won't stand for that.

The international division teams and the Trois Rivieres academy club are actually the only real contenders in the league. The CSL has developed into a bit of a corner when it comes to being a potentially professional league.

 

the CSL is nothing but a Pub league or REC league brand of football and thats all it will ever be..so cant see the Impact there, but with the team they do have maybe they do belong there as the USL is a pub league by soccer standards. the CSL should just go away and die..Canada
need a league like the OHL for bringing up younger talent
having them play in a pub league like the CSL is NOT the
answer.

 

Well is it really fair to exclude pro/semi-pro clubs with a history in this country from any kind of provincial or national league, especially when some of them (e.g., Serbian White Eagles, Toronto Croatia) have excelled in their league. When it comes to pro-leagues most players aren't from the country of the league anyway, and some of these guys are expats who want to play footy. If I'm not mistaken the White Eagles represented Canada in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup back in 1975.

Teams form for various reasons, like a company's soccer team that one day turns pro (Arsenal, Crystal Palace FC). Do people shoot them down for not being named after the city in which they play? That would be so generic; this is what makes football cool. Teams have different histories, not just artificially set up by people with census information like the MLS.

Anyway, I just want to say there is room for all types of team, as long as they can keep the same level of play, and professionalism, which seems to be the problem with the current CSL. I would want to see a new CSL that has bad teams relegated out but that does not exclude teams because they aren't "Canadian" enough, whatever that means as I don't see too many native american soccer teams around here.

 

with those team names they are not representing this country now are they? any team that wants to play for the canadian championship should have the following:

1) minimum 10,000 seat stadium
2) a bank balance that will allow a CSL team to travel to
play the Whitecaps in Vancouver/if not they dont enter

that would keep most of the semi pro clubs out from the start,
but would better for the tournament, you dont want teams
playing for the national championship in a stadium that seats
500-1,000 fans its not good enough

 

It's a club team tournament, not the olympics. Clubs can be called whatever they want... Anyway CONCACAF has the stadium rule so only TFC, Whitecaps, and the Impact could be in the NCC right now really.

 

thats good to know now maybe this will put and end to the talks of CSL
franchises entering the tournament!!

 

But it would still be good to have some sort of truly Canadian soccer championship having smaller clubs play the big boys could only be beneficial to the game.

Also, I'm sure if a smaller club played in and won the NCC they could find a stadium to play in, but they couldn't afford to host the match (As they have to incur all the costs according to CONCACAF rules). And also take on the travel costs when they played the away games.

Here are the CONCACAF Champions Cup rules if anyone wants to take a look: http://www.concacaf.com/staticFiles/d1/3a/0,,12813~146129,00.pdf

 

The CSL looks like it might be adding several new clubs next season that won't exactly be expansion teams. It'll be nice to have teams with more than 8 or 9 home games in a season.

Source: http://www.canadiansoccerleague.ca/news_archive.php?news_id=223025

 

Interesting article. I wonder what the disadvantage of being a "playing member" as opposed to a "full member" is? If you can field a team without paying an expansion fee, what incentive is there to become a full team? The article doesn't say.

Also, while their list of desirable cities is really quite good I'd make some minor changes. First, I'd delete Oakville and Oshawa. There are already too many GTA teams. Second, I'd look at adding some Quebec cities. Gatineau and Sherbrooke anyway. Quebec City is tempting but adds a lot of travel. Sudbury and North Bay are also a travel consideration but wouldn't be too bad if they came together.