Johnston acknowledged off-field matters may have impacted performances (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
According to multiple sources with insight into negotiations, some of the team’s higher-profile players took a backseat in negotiations.
“For some of our guys who football is their life, this isn’t the priority for them,” Johnston said. “And I completely understand that.”
In the fall, the men’s team organized a vote for a new bargaining committee. The goal was a mix of new and old faces. Johnston, Jonathan Osorio, Junior Hoilett and Dayne St. Clair were elected, with St. Clair, 26, being chosen to voice concerns from the team’s younger players.
“We need new faces and we need guys who want to do it because it is time-consuming,” Johnston said. “And we also understand that just because you’re one of our top players doesn’t mean that you need to be on the front line of doing this negotiation.”
There is a separate group of player representatives that keep the men’s team updated on other matters, which includes Samuel Piette and Mark-Anthony Kaye. The changes are seen as a positive, but they are only a first step.
The lack of momentum off the pitch has been compounded by an equally stagnant look on it, as Biello has named similar rosters and lineups that failed to get results late in 2022 and early in 2023. By relying too heavily on veterans who had lost their pace — such as Milan Borjan, Steven Vitoria and Kaye — Canada looked far from the team full of speed and attacking prowess of 2021.
But the loss against Jamaica meant the proverbial sword was being charged as close to the heart of the men’s team as possible.
Come 2024, when Biello named his first roster, he took a bold step to reflect the need for change. He said his players’ hunger to represent Canada had “slipped” after the World Cup. Longtime mainstays such as Borjan, Vitoria, Kaye, Hoilett and others are not on the roster to face Trinidad and Tobago. When Jonathan Osorio pulled out of the squad due to injury, it meant that the team will not have a single player on it over the age of 30.
“There’s been ‘political distractions,’ if that’s what you want to call them: a coaching change, lots of things happening in the organization,” Biello said. “When these distractions start to multiply, things start to slip a little bit, now it’s about reframing to what’s ahead of us.”
With all that recent terrible background, Canada’s men’s national team is now facing one of their biggest calendar years to date.
Qualification for Copa America and guaranteed games against Argentina, Peru and Chile would be the among only tournament matches against top-tier opponents available to the team before the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
“No matter what the negotiations come to, we have to be playing in these big tournaments for it to be beneficial to Canada Soccer and just the country and the sport in the country in general,” Johnston said. “If we’re not playing in these big tournaments, it doesn’t matter what the negotiations are. So we can have our full focus on that.”
That’s the message being echoed by Blue.
“The main thing in the short term is ensuring we have a distraction-free environment,” Blue said.
Does that mean getting a deal done?
“It’s a priority for everybody involved,” Blue said, indicating that as a “new voice” he may have some traction with players that didn’t exist previously.
It won’t be easy. The CSB deal remains the focal point of negotiations and Canada Soccer is bound to a 10-year contract.
“(The CSB deal) is the first domino that probably needs to fall. It is probably the biggest domino as well,” Johnston said. “But I think once that one falls, everything else will be smooth sailing by comparison. Do I think that’s going to be an easy domino to fall? No, I do not.”
Biello will hope for a ‘distraction-free’ environment (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
The skepticism is warranted. If CSB ripped up its deal with Canada Soccer, that would likely mean swift demise of the Canadian Premier League and the loss of thousands of jobs in the Canadian soccer economy from players to referees to support staff to media.
CSB also invests in the pathway to professional success in Canada. It owns and has managed League 1 Ontario since 2018 and has launched League1 Canada, which runs in partnership with regional organizers BC Soccer, Soccer Québec and Ontario Soccer. Crucially, many of Canada’s men’s national team players developed in League 1.
CSB has also made steps to support the men’s and women’s national teams. Multiple sources with knowledge of the agreement indicate that CSB paid approximately $100,000 (CAD) to cover the rights and production costs that came with ensuring Christine Sinclair’s final matches for the women’s national team were broadcast on TSN, not solely on OneSoccer, who had the original rights.
The CSB is on record as saying it is open to amending the agreement with Canada Soccer, in which it pays the federation a few million dollars per year in exchange for the right to sell all commercial partnerships for Canada Soccer. The arrangement has had the side effect of limiting the amount of revenue Canada Soccer is able to take in itself, with the bulk of commercial revenue going directly to CSB.
“CSB is proactively working to amend the deal with a focus on driving revenue for programming,” CSB CEO and CPL Commissioner Mark Noonan told The Athletic in March 2023.
But now, the CSB must take a seat at the table alongside Canada Soccer and the men’s team’s representatives and get to work. Admissions of past faults and a newfound openness to making concessions and changes are necessary.
“We need to try and help Canada Soccer in any way possible,” Johnston said. “And that’s something that we’ve made very clear. So hopefully now with Kevin (Blue), we’re going to try and help each other here to get creative and find a way to get through this.”
Canada Soccer is making progress, having announced long overdue friendlies against the Netherlands on June 6 and Mexico on Sept. 10. There is also the prospect of a second friendly in Europe in June against another team competing at Euro 2024.
There is a sense of urgency being felt by all sides to earn results on and off the pitch and make genuine headway towards 2026 in a way that has never been felt before.
Saturday’s play-in represents the boiling point: will Canada deliver the results they need to on the pitch and move forward with newfound momentum towards positive change? Or will they be unable to escape the heat that followed them through 2023?
(Top photo: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5356821/2024/03/21/copa-america-canada-federation/
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Publish date : 2024-03-21 03:00:00
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