CSA has no real plan for beauty

The CSA has announced a new strategic plan:

"The strategic priorities have been established to help the Association achieve specific milestones for 2013. Those milestones include greater revenue streams (a $25-million annual budget), triumphs for the national teams (FIFA World Cup qualification for the men and a FIFA or Olympic podium finish for the women), the promise of another FIFA tournament (FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015), and the registration of more Canadians playing the beautiful game (a million players by 2013)."


But to us the new plan sounds just like the old plan. The organization is not risking anything of it's own or creating anything of it's own. It is once again piggy-backing on others: on registered players, on revenue from a FIFA tournament, on revenue from qualification.

Bumping the budget up to 25 mil sounds great but how do you do that when the men's and women's teams have never "trimphed"? The way it works in the real world is that you risk something up front in order to create the quality you need to win or achieve something.

In recent years, the only groups that have been willing to risk anything for the sake of the "beautiful game" have been Canadian players who have correctly sought their training and opportunities abroad and Canada's emerging professional teams (TFC, Impact, Whitecaps).

The fact of the matter is that given the current and future lack of courage from the CSA - the only thing that will make the strategic plan work is if the young Canadian men playing abroad come home to lead Canada to Brazil in 2014.

But even that seems like a pipe dream given the CSA's unwillingness to splash-out the cash for a big time manager.

My advice to Canadians? Completely ignore the CSA.

If you're a player - dream about playing in Europe or for an MLS team (not for the Canadian national team).

If you're a fan - support your old clubs abroad and your new clubs in Canada, and quietly applaud our boys who are bravely and bolding pursuing the beautiful game on other frontiers, instead of paying lip-service to the phrase that captures the essence of soccer.