BEHIND THE PLAY #47

Last newsletter of 2024. Thanks to everyone who reads, forwards, contacts me saying what they did or didn’t like or sends in a question via the form. This may not be the biggest newsletter but it has a very interesting readership with many in positions to influence the game at every level. So it’s been fun so far but I’m going to take the rest of December off to brainstorm and generate some drafts. Next one out on Monday, January 6.

Questions answered

Q: We’ve had the league one structure in Canada since 2016 and in BC since 2022. As a person involved in the youth game with a history in the university game as well how do you see this level if you are to think ahead 10 or 15 years. What will it look like what role will it play and how will it relate to both the youth Structure and the university game?

A: League 1BC is a good idea trying to take root in an increasingly crowded market that is already characterized by a higher than normal rate of people who would rather ‘do’ things that ‘watch’ things.

What do I think it will look like in 10-15 years. I think a lot of that depends on how the Canadian Premier League (CPL) and Northern Super League (NSL) are doing in 10-15 years. As someone with experience at the CSA and CONCACAF level told me earlier this year, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a lot of small clubs with very limited financial means competing for the same eyeballs and wallets. I think we will need the CPL and NSL to get to the point where they are comfortably drawing 10-12k in paid attendance and then have League 1 teams either run directly by those clubs or have strategic partnerships with them.

In terms of how League 1 will relate to the youth structure and university game, it’s a very good question coming at a time where there’s emerging antagonism between youth clubs players at the older age groups and adult clubs and leagues. That friction isn’t necessarily bad as it will likely lead to better solutions and options for those players who aspire to university and League 1 but for now it’s just entering its messy, reactive phase.

League 1 BC clubs are increasingly fitting into two slots: off-season fitness for universities (UBC, Thompson Rivers and Trinity Western) running their programming through League 1 proxies and youth clubs extending their offerings into this level of play (Langley United, Coquitlam Metro-Ford, Burnaby FC and TSS Rovers).

Langley’s relationship with Vancouver FC (also based out of Langley) is the most interesting to me as it seems to offer the closest in terms of a vertical integration model which is what I was getting at above.

I understand why universities and the Vancouver Whitecaps enter teams into League 1. It’s a very helpful games outlet for their players at a high level. The problem though is that it is a secondary concern for them. League 1 is a means to an end rather than the be all and end all. It’s hard to build a league when more than half your clubs see it as an add-on to their main line of business.

Q: Share some toxic parent stories. Why is it that the best players usually have the best parents? Its rare that the best player has shitty, toxic parents but parents are still shitty believing they need to be to get their kid the opportunity they need.

A: I’ll preface this by saying that for every ‘toxic parent’ story this is an equally ugly ‘toxic club’ story. This is not a one-sided issue. I’m not going to relate a story from either side though. Instead I’m just going to say that I’ve worked in youth soccer at the club level for 21 years here in Vancouver and we are at a very concerning low point in terms of the culture of youth soccer here.

I mentioned in a previous newsletter that BC Soccer deal with the most serious of discipline issues that occur. The annual number of such cases had been steady for a long time and remained between 50-60. In 2021 that suddenly jumped, and has remained, in the 200’s. From talking with clubs and from league emails it is clear that more of these discipline issues are emanating from parent behaviour.

It’s a tough, divisive environment to work, play and parent in at the moment. Every party can and will need to do better if the game is to recover. One of the most unfortunate by-products of this is an increasing number of parents, the supportive, never a problem type, getting fed up with parents and/or club behaviour and actions and moving their kids to different sports. Clearly that creates a downward spiral that has to be corrected.

Yes, I’ve seen and heard of some jaw-dropping behaviour by parents and it continues to increase in volume. But yes I have also seen very questionable behaviour by people who have worked at clubs for a long time.

Solution? Realistic expectations from parents and more integrity from leaders at clubs.

So telling toxic parent stories is not going to happen as it would only tell one side of the story but a good friend of mine who I’ve worked with in the game in the past did suggest we should start a podcast about some of this stuff when we retire because there really are some doozy stories out there. 🙂 

Got a question you’d like me to answer (anoymously)?

Papers: Scotland v Sweden, 1990 World Cup, Genoa

I’m in with the Scotland supporters behind one of the goals. I was born in Glasgow but moved to Canada before I was one. I have a distant relationship with the country that’s really now tethered solely by support and interest in the national team. The players come out and there’s a spontaneous, overwhelming rendition of Flower of Scotland as they walk out. This despite having lost 1-0 to Costa Rica five days prior in the same stadium.

The Stadio Luigi Ferraris only held a shade over 30,000 but easily two thirds of the crowd were the Tartan Army. I remember the seating as being very steep. It was an exceptionally compact stadium. Scotland had to beat Sweden to have any chance of advancing out of their group. We go up 1-0 early and then with about ten minutes to go we get a penalty. It’s at the goal we’re sitting behind. Tension. This is the fifth World Cup in a row that Scotland has qualified for. Yet we’ve never advanced from the group stage. Mo Johnston scores. Ecstasy. Relief. Mass jumping up and down soundtracked by screaming. I suddenly feel what I take to be a massive shove from behind me. It knocks me to my left and I soon realize it’s not a shove. It’s a kid, around 14-15 years old, who has lost his footing in the celebrations/melee and fallen several rows clipping me on his journey. He’s badly hurt. Shaking. We’ll never know for sure but word was he broke his leg and getting him out on a stretcher was challenging due to the density of the crowd and the fact that Sweden soon scored to make it 2-1 diverting people’s sympathy from the smashed up teenager bac to their own concern and the impending misery that defines supporting Scotland at World Cups.

In the end we held on for a 2-1 win meaning we only needed a draw against Brazil in the last round robin game. Brazil scored in the 81st minute off a goalkeeper blunder to win 1-0. Ironically it was Muller, a player I had played against at a tournament in Acapulco five years earlier (and swapped kit with back at the hotel) who scored.