So the CSA has endorsed the Easton Report model for a new Canadian Professional Division 3 league. This will follow the CHL junior hockey model, regional league's under one umbrella, playing a inter league season and then coming together at seasons end with a Canadian Championship tournament. It most likely will start with the CSL, Quebec Premier Soccer League, and either a BC and Alberta league or 1 league for BC/Alberta. Focus will be on players 18-23 but hopefully they will allow at least 8 over 23 players, otherwise the league loses credibility as a professional league if it limits itself to mostly U23 players. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...ion-new-league-similar-to-chl/article8207672/
Division 3?Or is it Division 2?I can't wait for the day our country will announce that we will finally launch a D1 pro league...
Its going to be Division 3 which is the most realistic goal for a Professional Canadian league at this time. It will be a start and hopefully grow into more years in the future. We already had a Division 1 national league, the CSL from 87-92, but it couldn't sustain itself financially and folded : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Soccer_League_(1987–1992)
Ok.Let's hope this thing works so we can finally move onto the right direction and finally set the foundations of club soccer/football in this country. Yeah I know about this.What's unfortunate with this league is that it was launched just a few years to early.Had it been a few years later,the league would have benefited from playing at the same time a s MLS,and our clubs would have faces theirs in regional competitions...
I don't mind the report. While a bit underwhelming, it does set out an obtainable first step. Let's get the D3 structure in place first and then see if we can grow it to D2. What I haven't seen (not even when I tried to read the report itself) is any semblance of a plan to actually make it happen. It is all well and good to talk about regional leagues, but the only action I've seen from the CSA on that front recently was to cut ties with the CSL. Basically, exactly the opposite of helping to establish a D3 structure.
cutting ties with the CSL is not really a step back. They were going to do it anyways because that league is dead wood. Even if you ignore the match fixing aspect, the ownership issues and most importantly a complete disregard for player development(the main focus of D2) meant the CSA had no interest working with them in any significant manner. The OSA is working to create a new league for a couple years now, anyone know how its at? It, in addition to the PLSQ and a yet unformed western league should be exactly what the Easton report is looking for.
The problem is that the CSL has a team in pretty much every viable market. There's no room for another league at the same level.
Match fixing involves a handful of players. It must be stomped out but is hardly a reason to sink a league. (Would you shut down Ontario's university system because some students cheat on tests?) I don't see how the CSL can be accused of having a complete disregard for player development. Leaving aside the two MLS academies, most teams have CSL2 squads of youth players. Development can certainly be improved, but it is there. I think your last point - that the CSA doesn't want to work with them - is most valid. That's the CSA's problem, however, not a bad reflection on the CSL. How is starting a new D3 Ontario division from scratch better than modifying a league that has been up and running for years? The CSL is certainly open to criticism but at least they actually exist and have teams, ownership groups, and fans. A real league with blemishes is better than a perfect but imaginary league any day.
Some good points there. I think you are underestimating the nature of the Match fixing issue, according to Ben Rycroft "Sources within the CSA, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that a number of factors had contributed to their decision to sever ties with the CSL -- including the admission the CSA isn't equipped to tackle the domestic match-fixing problem." Such a decision would not be taken lightly if it was only a "a handful of players" From what I have heard, CSL player development is very scattershot. some teams take it seriously, while others are highly focused on winning at all costs. They also have no regulated youth and import quotas, whereas OSA and CSA wish to move forward on their plan of "Long Term Player Development" which requires all parties to be on the same wavelength. In the CSL(as far as I understand) individual owners have all the authority.
The most important thing is that the three proposed leagues have a single governing body to ensure a standard level of quality across the country. I think that if that can be put in place, the standards defined the CSA can confirm if the CSL is up to the job of performing under this umbrella. If not, then there's a problem, because there is simply no room for more clubs at this level in Ontario. The only hope would be for the new league to pinch CSL clubs into the new system.
If the CSL isn't up to running that way, then I'm sure the powers that be can make the CSL go away by refusing it accreditation. They could threaten to go rouge but I doubt the players and refs would go along in sufficient numbers to make the league viable. I still think the CSA is throwing the baby out with the bathwater by not using the CSL as the Ontario division of its proposed new league. As I wrote earlier, I don't see any specific plans for the CSA to actually get this new D3 structure off the ground. Killing off the only group that is actually kicking soccer balls around on fields in favour of some future potential league is foolish.
We should see in the next few weeks or so if the CSL will be sanctioned for 2013. CSA has handed it over to OSA to sanction or not sanction the league. I think it will be sanctioned and hope it is and becomes part of the new D3 setup.
Not a wise decision by the CSA, unless they can mange to entice a significant number of the CSL clubs into their system because there's no more room in Ontario for any more D3 clubs.
The CSL has released this statement, and has posted four letters to-and-from the CSA. C.S.L. TO TAKE WHATEVER ACTION IS NECESSARY TO OVERTURN C.S.A. DECISION TO DE-SANCTION http://canadiansoccerleague.com/newsnet/templates/?a=689&z=5 CSL letter to CSA, Feb 4 http://www.canadiansoccerleague.com/Letter_to_CSA_Feb_4-2013.pdf CSL letter to CSA, Feb 11 http://www.canadiansoccerleague.com/Letter to CSA February 11 2013 VU.pdf CSA letter to CSL, Feb 13 (this basically acts as the official notice from the CSA that the CSL will no longer be directly sanctioned) http://www.canadiansoccerleague.com/CSL - 14.02.2013 - VM.pdf CSL letter to CSA, Feb 26 (sixteen pages) http://www.canadiansoccerleague.com...anctioning of CSL on Feb. 13, 2013 Feb 26.pdf
Has the CSL applied for sanctioning from the Ontario Soccer Association? Hopefully this will all be sorted out and there will be a CSL 2013 season. It makes sense to have the CSL as Ontario's regional D3 league in the new Canadian Professional Soccer system.
It seems that the CSA make the decison in association with the OSA, so this looks like its a done deal. I can't imagine this would go ahead like this if Ontario League 1 wasn't already close to being ready. Given the attitude of the CSL to this development, I can see why the CSA thinks its better off with a blank slate. The two parties could have continued negotiating in private. Instead the CSL is making this a public battle. That never ends well. Now the CSA is forced to stand by its decision no matter what, and i'm pretty sure they will.
League 1 Ontario has only 4 teams apparently and haven't issued any real news since may of last year I think, so unfortunately they don't seem to be ready for a 2013 season.
The Feb-4 letter above says that Ontario League 1 had been frozen, and the four teams were to play in the CSL. (Would have loved to be one of those teams.... they could get bumped out of TWO leagues before they even took the field.) And I'll throw one point out there, even if I'm just being pedantic: No where in the Easton report does it say "Division three." Not sure if the proposed league is supposed to be "D-3 pro" or a "Canada-PDL"
Just wanted to revisit this thread, after Canada's showing in the Gold Cup. So, do you all think that the proposed "regionally-based development-focused league" is the correct option, going forward? Do you see success from this "Canadian PDL?" Also, wonder when we'll hear any plans about the league (probably after the CSL season, I guess).
I think the CSA should emulate the NPSL model of one league with regional divisions that don't play each other in regular season play, just in a championship at the end of the season, except be semi pro unlike the NPSL(and PDL) which are amatuer leagues, so it won't be a "Canadian PDL" or fully pro to begin with. However, they're using the CSL junior hockey model with various regional leagues and one unified championship. Hope we hear something at the end of the year around Nov.
I don't quite understand the difference between that NPSL you mentioned and the Canadian junior hockey system. They seem like the same type of system or at least that's how you described them.
NPSL is one league, CHL is an umbrella organization for 3 leagues, WHL, QMJHL, and OHL. Just hope the CSA gets the new setup going for next year though in the end and hope its sucessful, we haven't had a good Canadian pro league since the 87-92 CSL.
This is great news and hopefully can be properly done. I hope this will truly help develop the talents of many youngs players in Canada.
This seems like a trivial difference to me. I haven't seen anything in the CHL model that has resulted in any inter-league problems. What specific concerns do you have? Me, too. I'm concerned about the lack of detail on how we get from a report to an actual, functioning league with balls being kicked on pitches. It's all very well to commission a report, but the bunch of us here in the Canada forum on BigSoccer could have written a very similar report. Neither we nor Easton, however, are going to conjure up ownership groups by writing a report.