Peddie plans soccer surge Peddie plans soccer surge By GEORGE GROSS -- Toronto Sun http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/Canada/2006/08/20/1766623-sun.html The horns of thousands of cars adorned with green-white-red flags saluting Italy's World Cup triumph were blaring on Toronto streets at all hours a few weeks ago. A Canadian flag rarely was seen. Richard Peddie, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., hopes that one of the billion-dollar corporation's teams one day will change that. Sitting in his Air Canada Centre office, Peddie is convinced that one of his teams -- the Maple Leafs, Raptors or soccer's Toronto FC -- will reach the Holy Grail in its particular sport. "We are making progress with the Leafs and Raptors, but we also have high hopes for our soccer team in Major League Soccer," he said. "When I looked at the soccer rankings, I realized that Canada is not even in the top 50. We plan to rectify that. "We will pretty soon announce an internationally experienced coach. He and our scouts will then travel to Europe to check on Canadian players. We plan to sign seven or eight Canadians for our 18-man squad. They will play together in 32 league matches and could form the basis of a strong Canadian national team. That team, then, could work on improving our (soccer) reputation." Peddie certainly has a nose for business, which is why MLSEL chairman Larry Tanenbaum and the Teachers Fund officials bank on his recommendations. That is based not only on his performance with MLSEL, but also on his business record with previous companies. He believes in all Major Soccer League partners. And what is not to believe in when that includes such well-heeled partners as Philip Anschutz and Lamar Hunt? Anschutz, who owns the Los Angeles Kings and has shares in the Lakers, besides numerous other business companies, fell in love with soccer after watching the 1994 World Cup final, using two complimentary tickets. Since then, he has purchased four MLS teams and spent more than $100 million US to keep them above water. Hunt, a mining magnate and founder of the American Football League, also owns multiple teams in MLS, a fact not lost on Peddie. About meeting Anschutz, the reclusive patriarch of North American professional soccer, Peddie had this to say: "Can you imagine sitting for hours with a man of such wealth, discussing every detail of the operation of the soccer league. The same thing happens with Lamar Hunt." Peddie's vision lies beyond just the pro team. Toronto FC will have a development team that will attempt to keep young Canadian prospects on home turf, rather than have them go overseas to gain experience. He would be proudest if some of those Toronto FC players make Canada's World Cup team. "Some writers in this city are xenophobic about soccer," Peddie said. "But with them or without them, soccer will be big in this city one day. We know it and that is why we became involved in its development. We don't expect any miracles from the soccer team in its first year of operation. We don't expect them to win the championship or even make the playoffs. But I know that they will be competitive." Hopefully, the same will be said of his other two franchises who wouldn't mind some springtime horn-honking of their own. GROSSLY ABBREVIATED Montreal's Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, has finished his seventh book -- Inside Dope -- which will be on store shelves next month. Pound still insists that a large number of athletes -- hockey players, cyclists, soccer, baseball and football players -- are taking banned substances. "It is pretty pervasive in cycling when second-, third- and fourth-place finishers are caught," he says ... Every week, 50,000 viewers tune in to GOLTV. They are showing pro soccer games from Germany and, starting next month, will air games from Spain, Italy, Brazil, as well as English Premier League games from Liverpool and Arsenal.
ESPN.com reporting Toronto FC has hired Johnston Toronto hires Johnston as head coach By Ives Galarcep ESPN.com – August 22, 2006 Toronto FC, the expansion team set to join Major League Soccer in 2007, has chosen former Red Bulls head coach and Scottish legend Mo Johnston to be the team's first head coach when it begins play next year. According to sources within Major League Soccer, Toronto FC and Johnston are finalizing a deal that will make the Scottish legend head coach of his second team this season, just two months after being fired as coach of the New York Red Bulls. The sides are expected to reach an agreement later this week. Johnston beat out a group of candidates that included current D.C. United assistant Tom Soehn and former U.S. national team assistant Curt Onalfo. The first MLS franchise to be based outside of the United States, Toronto FC will begin play in 2007 with a roster that will be made up mainly of Canadian players. Unlike the other teams in MLS, which count American players as domestic players on their rosters, Toronto will field a team where Canadian players count as domestic players. MLS officials are still finalizing the parameters of Toronto's roster restrictions but a league source said Toronto FC will have between four and six slots for non-Canadian senior players. Construction on Toronto FC's new home, National Soccer Stadium, has already begun and the 20,000-seat venue is expected to open next spring. Johnston expressed interest in the Toronto position even before he was fired by the Red Bulls. Johnston's first meeting with Toronto officials came on June 26, just a day after his final game as Red Bulls head coach and a day before the Red Bulls fired him. According to a source, Johnston drew the wrath of Red Bulls officials, who gave Johnston permission to meet with Toronto, after learning that Johnston informed the team of his meeting with Toronto before the Red Bulls' 2-0 loss to Chicago on June 25. Johnson, who played for Scotland in the 1990 World Cup, became a popular figure in European soccer after signing with Scottish club Rangers after having played for and after being a life-long supporter of archrival Celtic. Johnston spent six seasons in MLS (1999-2001) and served as captain of the Kansas City Wizards' MLS Cup-winning squad in 2000 before retiring as a player in 2001. He joined the MetroStars in 2003 as Bob Bradley's assistant coach, serving in that position for three years before replacing Bradley at the tail end of the 2005 season. He became the club's full-time coach after helping the MetroStars qualify for the 2005 MLS playoffs with a 2-0-1 stretch in the team's final three matches.
I've never been one for conspiracies but this non stop reliance on UK influences really is starting to turn my stomach. And what's up with this line Johnston beat out a group of candidates that included current D.C. United assistant Tom Soehn and former U.S. national team assistant Curt Onalfo. Huh?? Who is running this show? MLS? CSA? MLSE? The CSA is running with the notion that this will be a great thing for Canadian soccer. How can Mo Johnston have the knowledge and the best interest of Canadian players at heart? Will this be like the CFL used to be, not long ago, when Canadians were treated as second class citizens in their own country by the foreign coaches and GMs.
Careful now. You will have the Toronto FC Ultras after you!! I agree with you totally. The myth being perpetrated that MLS in Toronto will magically give us a stronger CMNT is of course BS. In time, it will increase our player pool, but we have the players now. We just don't have a coach and we don't have a national association that considers the CMNT a high priority. But as I am sure will be pointed out, we have a nice stadium under the control of MLSE in Toronto (and, some downside for those few pitiful souls living outside GTA, pissed off USL franchises in Mtl and Van, and one very pissed off soccer community in Edmonton).
I do believe it will help (in conjunction with teams in Van and Mtl) just as NASL proved but we have to have the right people in charge. I'm not under any illusions that the CMNT comes before the MLS in the running of this team but gee whiz, Mo Johnston. Why not Bruce Wilson, Colin Miller, anybody who might have the slightest interest in developing Canadian players. I smell 70's CFL where one Canadian player used to say "If you're American the coach calls you by your first name, if you're Canadian it's hey (insert last name) Quite disappointing really.
Why so annoyed? Correct me if I'm wrong but the guy had a fair enough but fairly short run with a fairly crap team? He knows the competition and he's got plenty of time to find players to sign and I'm sure he and the club will put in place a scouting system to help him find talent. All in all, there's far worse choices for the side to have made, I'd have thought.
I think MOACA explained it quite well. Mo Johnson has absolutely no knowledge about the Cdn national men's team and furthermore would have (assumption here) absolutely NO motivation to enhance that same team. The reason this is being discussed is that Pipe and company and a lot of other talking heads have been trumpeting the arrival of an MLS team as an absolutely critical component in building our senior MNT. This is of course pure unadulterated bullshit IMO. It will help to some degree in that we will have a North American team for our middle to lower tier players (now in 2nd or 3rd tiers in Europe) to play on giving us a few more local players (playing at a little higher level) to pick from for CONCACAF games. However, the bulk of our players should be and will be in Europe with BETTER leagues (Bundesliga, EPL, LaLiga, etc) and it is that group's performance that will or will not land us in South Africa in 2010.
Sure, its likely to improve it as a side effect rather than a key aim of the team itself, but its going to be part of his job to make the Toronto team successful in the long term as well as in the short term and thats gonna involve developing talent and they're gonna end up with assistants and scouts and so on to help with that, especially if he doesn't have a deep enough local knowledge. I just don't see what the big deal that you're getting worked up about is - as far as I know he doesn't have a record of signing 34 year old past its, so what's the fuss? It's not like he's in charge of the youth team, who would be someone you could expect to have a bigger hands-on local knowledge.
Well not to be pedantic but did you read my post? The CSA and others have been very vocal in saying that the MLS team in Toronto will help our MNT. I don't see that happening, especially with Mo Johnson as he would not know a Cdn soccer player from a hole in the ground. That's all I am saying. (well, aside from the fact that we've had quite a lot of 'help' here in the backwater colony from Scottish/English coaches for the past 20 years and frankly haven't seen any great strides made).
Isn't it safe to say that an MLS team (and I am not a big fan of a Canadian team in MLS) might help the CMNT irrespective of the 'Canadian' bona fides of their head coach? I mean - the guy is going to be using a lot of Canadian players by virtue of the league rules that require him to use Canadian players. And there will be big benefits in seeing a variety of Canadian players (some already in MLS who move to Toronto FC, some guys who come back from Europe, some guys who 'move up' from USL-1 sides and some guys who jump straight into MLS from college, etc) playing together rather than playing wherever. Think about the difficulties that the CMNT generally undergoes getting together a good team for friendlies that are not butted right up against the A-level matches (qualifiers, etc). None of the Euro guys are able to come so the team has NO continuity with the team that gets together a few days before the matches. It would be a big help if say half the squad is regularly playing together and only half of the guys are 'reach' selections from Montreal, Vancouver, etc. Also, the MLS opportunity provides an equivalent outlet for guys like Occean who initially were not going to get a shake in MLS due to their international status, and are now consigned to leagues that complicate their national team participation without providing a particularly better standard of play relative to what MLS provides. Now a guy like Occean is more than affordable to MLS - he can still get a good wage and get an opportunity to play in his home nation and play with the Nats more. Same could be the case for Will Johnson (if he so chooses) or for Canadians in the Regionalliga, English Leagues 1 and Leagues 2, lower Scottish divisions, etc. Also, there is nothing necessarily wrong with having a different kind of coach overseeing the MLS project. He might go about things differently, but perhaps he will be looking in areas that coaches from the typical CMNT mileau have overlooked. Perhaps he will bring some new ideas and philosophies that benefit the Canadian players. Goodness knows guys like Peter Nowak have been a blessing for MLS. Sure he played there awhile, but he does bring a different mentality and his work with US players has helped them develop for the USMNT. After all, guys like Boswell and Gros would likely not even be in the league if it were not for Nowak. Brian Carroll would not be half the player he is without Nowak. He has also guided Adu with a firm hand. Now they have good chances of participating at high levels for the USMNT and the 'distance' Nowak has from the US Soccer set up may have even prepared him for a future role as a National team coach. I would think that you could do a lot worse than a guy like Mo Johnston - who has shown a willingness to work hard in a new country (though familiar league). Besides, his football heritage is not so different from many Canadian national team players (Scottish and English) or coaches (after all Yallop came from the English system prior to MLS). I think the drawbacks to naming a guy like Johnston are few and far between. But I ultimately think that a single MLS team is a step backwards for Canadian soccer when careful planning and proper scaling might lead to a league that involves more Canadian cities. Especially since I don't think that MLS can (or should) continue to expand until the accommodate all of the logical US and Canadian cities that can support MLS caliber teams.
Of course I read what you were saying and I agreed that ok, they're overhyping the teams importance to Canada as a whole - but its their job to do that and try and generate a bit more interest isn't it? Annoying, but expected, surely. What I was saying was to do with your second part - would you turn down Arsene Wenger, or Martin O'Neill or Dario Gradi or whoever else? OK, he's not in their league, but that doesn't mean he isn't a decent choice if he has the right guys telling him where to look. Most of what Liverpool SC said is what I was trying to say, although I disagree that its a step backwards - its a step sideways, that limits the chances to go forwards again, in my opinion. Better for the next few years, not necessarily better for the next 50, but if its the option of that or no changes, of course its a little better.
My question is if Toronto does great, when does Mo leave and go to coach our next MLS team in Vancouver or Montreal? There are still a lot of pissed off Celtic fans in Toronto and BC towards this guy