A letter from CSA president Steven Reed to Ottawa stated that CONCACAF was taking the position because the Canadian Premier League is set to play in 2019, and so Ottawa no longer qualified as an “exceptional circumstance” to play in a cross-border league.
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Ouch. No matter what you think of the Fury spurning CPL, that is absolutely harsh. It's more than likely way too late for them to get into CPL this season, so they've essentially been booted from competition in 2019, pending a successful appeal.
I get that CONCACAF thinks all the non-MLS professional teams should be in CPL, but I would have said, 2019 yes, 2020 no. This is just banana republic style.
“This action by CONCACAF is unprecedented and simply wrong,” said Mark Goudie, President and CEO of Fury FC’s parent company, the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG). “Our lawyers have requested that CONCACAF immediately provide further details on the basis for this decision. We also understand that Canada Soccer will be seeking clarification as to the rationale for CONCACAF’s decision. In the event that CONCACAF does not immediately reconsider its position, Fury FC will take all steps – including legal proceedings – so as to ensure that it will be able to continue providing professional soccer to our loyal and new fans and supporters in a league of our choosing.”
Suddenly, the overtures by TFC, Whitecaps, and Impact to treat CPL as a farm league become a bit more tactical. If CPL gets some traction, growth and stability over the next 3-5 years, that "exceptional circumstance" might disappear for them too and they may be forced into being the juggernauts of a smaller league by CONCACAF. MLS now has a vested interest in CPL sputtering and finding a niche as a reserve league for them.
Difference is, unlike the Fury, which might actually have a smaller (or comparable) budget relative to Cavs or York9 or Forge (for all we know), the MLS teams are worth tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars. CPL at maximum build out will still be smaller than MLS on raw population/market size alone, though some of the larger teams might have the revenue to compete with the bottom third of MLS one day. Canada Soccer would never sabotage the MLS teams, but with CONCACAF, all bets might be off.
You know they'll be fighting with OSEG on this one.
Last edited by Thunderball; 12-12-2018 at 06:35 PM.
I agree that it doesn't make sense to force the MLS clubs into CPL in the short term. They would have to cut their salaries from $25 million or whatever to $750K. Just not worth it. Long term? That could be a different story.
The Fury on the other hand, I think it makes sense. They have a league at a similar level of play in their own country. They were going to be given salary cap concessions to join CPL. And they chose not to. This was entirely preventable on their end. I feel bad for the supporters, but the club crying foul is just not cutting it.
I agree that it doesn't make sense to force the MLS clubs into CPL in the short term. They would have to cut their salaries from $25 million or whatever to $750K. Just not worth it. Long term? That could be a different story.
The Fury on the other hand, I think it makes sense. They have a league at a similar level of play in their own country. They were going to be given salary cap concessions to join CPL. And they chose not to. This was entirely preventable on their end. I feel bad for the supporters, but the club crying foul is just not cutting it.
I do agree that Ottawa should not be allowed to stay in USL long term. I don't think CONCACAF playing this card this way was appropriate though. They should have said something along the lines of "you can play in USL this year while CPL starts out, but we will deny your sanctioning in 2020 or 2021 if CPL exists and you aren't in it."
For the next 5 years the Canadian MLS teams have absolutely nothing to worry about... but if CPL grew to a CFL level salary cap (~$5m CAD), possibly introduce a DP/TAM like system for CPL Div 1 to allow teams to overspend on a player or two, and the gap between a cap CPL team and the Whitecaps/Impact (around $12-15m CAD) narrows to where this precedent becomes a concern for them. Even though TFC spends about double that, they might get dragged down too.
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I agree that it doesn't make sense to force the MLS clubs into CPL in the short term. They would have to cut their salaries from $25 million or whatever to $750K. Just not worth it. Long term? That could be a different story.
The Fury on the other hand, I think it makes sense. They have a league at a similar level of play in their own country. They were going to be given salary cap concessions to join CPL. And they chose not to. This was entirely preventable on their end. I feel bad for the supporters, but the club crying foul is just not cutting it.
I disagree. Either you accept cross border teams, or you don't. Bullying Ottawa on this, at this time, when we all know they will never say one word against Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal is petty. Especially given both the CSA and USA Soccer have approved it.
The thing is, it is well within CONCACAF's right to deny sanctioning. It's right in FIFA statute 73, which states:
Quote:
Associations, leagues or clubs that are af
filiated to a member association may only join another member association or take part in competitions on that member association’s territory under exceptional circumstances. In each case, authorisation must be given by both member associations, the respective confederation(s) and by FIFA.
Every Canadian team that had played in a US league has had to get yearly exceptions approved first by the CSA, then the USSF, then CONCACAF, then FIFA. CONCACAF has determined that the Fury no longer qualify as a special exception; there is a league of equivalent nature that operates in Canada.
The Fury knew the rules, they took the risk, and they are going to get burned for it.
Think the Fury got what they deserved there... special circumstances, for me, apply when the league/competition they are applying to play in is a higher standard of play not offered locally.
USL vs CPL doesn't meet that bar but MLS does. USL was fine when Canada had no pro league, but given the cap etc I think it's easy to argue that MLS is unique/exceptional compared to the options on offer in Canada.
For me I look at the Welsh clubs in the english system, some of them are way down the ladder but overall it's a higher standard of competition and thus they haven't been forced into the welsh league.
Having the right to do something and doing the right thing are not necessarily synonyms. And given Canada and the US have a significant, long running history of operating cross border soccer leagues, refusing to sanction an existing team that is uncertain about a new league this late in the game remains petty. Tell them they need a plan for 2020 if you like, but this is not a good look for CONCACAF's leadership, AFAIK.
Also, lets be blunt. We have no idea if the CPL will be equivalent to the USL at this point. So that argument is empty.
Having the right to do something and doing the right thing are not necessarily synonyms. And given Canada and the US have a significant, long running history of operating cross border soccer leagues, refusing to sanction an existing team that is uncertain about a new league this late in the game remains petty. Tell them they need a plan for 2020 if you like, but this is not a good look for CONCACAF's leadership, AFAIK.
Also, lets be blunt. We have no idea if the CPL will be equivalent to the USL at this point. So that argument is empty.
I think they can probably examine equivalency pretty easily by looking at salaries. For me that's a pretty black and white argument that would hold up. If the CPL wages are equal to or greater than USL, hard to argue that the USL opportunity is an exceptional circumstance for the Fury. If USL wages blow CPL out of the water, maybe the Fury have a case, especially if there is a salary cap in the CPL and it would harm their champions league chances by moving over.
I'm betting CONCACAF looked at that and consulted with lawyers on this one before making the move and the Fury are screwed here but you never know.
CONCACAF's statement on the Fury situation. Sounds like the Fury announced they would be playing in USL in 2019 before receiving sanctioning from CONCACAF.
And this article indicates that the CSA was waiting for USSF approval, which would have been the next step after CSA approval, before approaching CONCACAF for federation approval.
Quote:
The CSA told the Fury it had received a letter from CONCACAF, the regional confederation that oversees North and Central America and the Caribbean, that it would not sanction the franchise playing in the USL.
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CSA president Steven Reed said his organization is going through its normal procedure, awaiting approval from the U.S. Soccer Federation — which oversees the USL — for its OK for the Fury and other Canadian teams, like PDL clubs, to play in the U.S.
Much as I still don't think the Fury should be forced to switch leagues, at least for year one, the stuff now coming out does make CONCACAF's behaviour far more understandable.
If the only approval that's missing is CONCACAF, what's the consequence of just ignoring them? Ineligibility for the Voyageurs Cup? Would they lose some funding?
CSA should grow some balls and not wait around to have Concacaf step in and do their dirty work for them as far as sanctioning pro soccer in our country.
Sounds like they’ve been silent throughout, but thats likely as a couple CSA members are associated with the Fury and don’t want to rock the boat, as with most things in the highly political CSA.
Ottawa Fury are now appealing to the Court of Arbitration and Sport.
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Ottawa Fury FC today announced that it is seeking urgent relief from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in respect of sanctioning for its participation in the USL Championship level professional soccer in 2019. Sanctioning has already been confirmed by Canada Soccer and by the United States Soccer Federation, but has been called into question by CONCACAF, the governing body for soccer in North America. The rules governing the Canadian Soccer Association and CONCACAF require that such disputes be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).