CSA response coming up on Soccer Central.......

[Winnipeg Fury]

..........right now

[JB_Tito]

YES,YES,YES Brennan and Pozniak were absolutely right more professionals and people they played soccer should be in CSA Board.FUC**NG MOBSTERS

[ag futbol]

Edit: I'm going to reword that... CSA just gets me too worked up.

Some of the CSA bod members made their way out of their ivory towers to talk to the media today on soccer central and the sort. They must actually be worried to subject themselves to (gasp!) media exposure.

Lucky for us they just made themselves look even worse. I've never heard less well spoken people in charge of an organization than Ursini and Montagliani. Probably heard them say "um" about 300 times in a two minute segement between the both of them.

[Richard]

The CSA needs to bring in a heavy hitter from the industrial/commercial sector as its new president/ceo. Hire, an experienced senior executive perhaps from the sports equipment industry on a five year contract and give him/her free rein. That would be a good start to the reformation but with the current BoD this is highly unlikely to happen. Too many of them are interested in little more than adding a line to their personal resume and fanning the embers of their egos!

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

They did. He's called Fred Nykamp.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/fifau20/sto...anada-ceo.html

I suspect this quote is what alarmed the old boys network at the CSA and brought that to a halt before it even started:-

CSA president Colin Linford said of Nykamp, who was introduced at Toronto's BMO Field.

"He has ultimate control. Everybody goes through the CEO.

"He is the No. 1 man [and] we didn't have that. "He will be the one who is accountable, totally."

[TOcanadafan]

[quote]Originally posted by BringBackTheBlizzard

They did. He's called Fred Nykamp.

A guy who did nothing but cause problems from alienating key members of the men's national team to pissing off everyone at the grass routes level as well. The "big business" guy didn't bring in the money for the program which was the one thing you'd think he'd be successful at.
Putting a "big business" sort as dictator of sport or education or something where people are the bottom line does not get results either. The only way a guy like Nykamp would fit in is if he had to work collaboratively with a soccer or sport person as the head figure.

[Richard]

Ah, but he was not the head honcho. Note I said the new man should be president and CEO much like the fellow who took over in Australia.

[ag futbol]

Hiring someone to clean up the CSA and make it more business like is good. All the evidence suggests that Nykamp was not that guy. Basketball Canada was happy we took him off their hands.

I think we all agree that the president needs more power but must still be accountable at some point and time. Having an unqualified board do checks and balances doesn't help anything however.

[Gian-Luca]

Not much of a "response" by the CSA, though Montalgiani (who is a lot younger than I would have thought) came across a lot better in this interview than that one on the BC radio station - although that's not saying much. Nice to say that priority & funding needs to be given to the national teams, but the time is running short for saying nice things - we need to see that this is actually happening with the cash we have.

It sounded like he had not heard about Linford's comments about encouraging kids to play for other nations. Once again everyone rightfully condemns that, but the problem is that there's been a lot of focus on that statement which is diverting things from the real issues.

Pozniak's comments just emphasize to me why we need to show our full un-conditional support & passion for the boys on the 12th & that any protest while the game is on must be completely secondary. We need to let them know that we have faith in the boys that they can go all the way, rather than to keep reminding them of the stuff that discourages them.

As I said elsewhere, we should have learned from the U20 experience (if not earlier Canada games where crowd support was mixed at best) that if you surround the team with a negative vibe & atmosphere, you will get negative results. We have a chance to help steer the ship around & it starts on the 12th.

[Richard]

I agree, protesting at the game will be perceived as protesting against Canada and thus the MNT which is NOT what people want. All of us are here because we support Canadian soccer, including all of our national teams and that is best done by being enthusiastically positive and upbeat at the game. The protest is against the CSA in its present ineffective or even corrosive form. To do that deal directly with the media, local and national, and through your local soccer administrative channels, not at international games in front of the TV cameras.