Canadian Soccer Business, the private company whose media and sponsorship agreement with Canada Soccer is being blamed for crippling the governing body's finances, has come out in defence of its contributions to the game in this country.
Two days after Canada Soccer interim general secretary Jason deVos said in an interview with Rick Westhead of TSN that his organization might have to consider filing for bankruptcy because of its deteriorating cash flow, Canadian Soccer Business (CSB) took issue with the characterization that it is somehow holding back the national program from succeeding.
“I’ve told CSB that we are in this together,” deVos said in his interview. “I know how important it is to have professional leagues for men and women in this country, but that cannot come at the expense of our men’s and women’s national team.”
“We respectfully disagree with those comments,” CSB spokeswoman Laura Armstrong wrote in a series of emails to Sportsnet. “CSB is making contributions at every level of the game that will ultimately benefit our national teams. To say anything to the contrary simply ignores the facts.”
Under the terms of the deal, CSB pays Canada Soccer a set amount each year (currently around $3 million) and retains whatever revenue it generates from the national teams’ media rights and sponsorships, which helps fund the Canadian Premier League (CPL). CSB is owned and controlled by CPL team owners.
“Our annual guaranteed payment and bonuses to Canada Soccer represent a single source of the organization's many available revenue streams,” said Armstrong.
The deal was signed in March of 2018 for a 10-year term, with an option for CSB to extend it for another 10 years through 2037. At the time, Canada was part of a bid with the U.S. and Mexico to co-host the men’s 2026 World Cup, which likely guaranteed it a spot in the quadrennial tournament, increasing the value of the men’s rights. The three-nation bid was awarded three months later in June. Not long after, the men also qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“CSB has invested heavily in order to develop a Canadian soccer ecosystem when no others were willing to take any risk,” said Armstrong, citing the 322 Canadians who have been employed in the CPL and the 10 who have been called into the men’s national team. “This pipeline is just beginning, considering the CPL is only playing its fifth season, with two seasons adversely affected by Covid, and particularly as the CPL continues to expand into new markets.”
When asked if CSB was aware of the suggestion of Canada Soccer going bankrupt before deVos’ comments in the TSN interview, Armstrong would not directly answer, nor provide comment on how this might affect its deal.
“We have zero input into the management of that organization,” Armstrong said.
Both the men’s and women’s national teams are in a labour dispute with Canada Soccer and have been negotiating player agreements. The women's team is scheduled to report to a pre-World Cup camp in Australia's Gold Coast on Wednesday. The men played their first game of the Gold Cup on Tuesday in Toronto.
Armstrong said that CSB has been willing to amend the agreement “for well over a year.”
“Given the recent changes in leadership, with a new president and interim general secretary at Canada Soccer, we have re-engaged these discussions, which are ongoing.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
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