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Dark days indeed for our neighbors to the north or .....Oh Canada.. |
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on 09 Nov 2006
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While Pipe received credit both for making Canada the host of FIFA's
Under-20 tournament and bringing the next MLS expansion team to Toronto
(and building its new stadium), the decision to remove him has come "20
years too late," says former national team player Bob Iarusci, who says
"the game up here has been set back 25-30 years" by "the British mafia"
who've instilled "no structure, no leader, no passion, no vision.
While soccer in the U.S. has become incrementally more popular with each passing World Cup, the game is steadily on the decline in Canada. The U.S.'s northern neighbor has now failed to qualify for five straight World Cups; the USA, Mexico and Costa Rica have been the beneficiaries of its failure. It's this record of futility, the New York Times says, that has led to the defection of two of Canada's greatest exports: former Canadian national team coach Frank Yallop, who now coaches Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy, and Bayern Munich midfielder Owen Hargreaves, whose dual-citizenship allows him to play internationally for England. The Canadian Soccer Association, whose day-to-day operations manager was fired last week, understands the gravity of the situation: "We have to do everything possible to ensure we qualify for 2010 because the effects will trickle down. There is not a country in the world where the men's team is not the top priority." Colin Linford, the organization's president, told the Times. Canada sits between Lithuania and Venezuela as the 71st ranked country in soccer, according to FIFA, the sport's world governing body. Canada's soccer critics say the firing of Kevan Pipe, the CSACOO, is a positive step in the right direction. While Pipe received credit both for making Canada the host of FIFA's Under-20 tournament and bringing the next MLS expansion team to Toronto (and building its new stadium), the decision to remove him has come "20 years too late," says former national team player Bob Iarusci, who says "the game up here has been set back 25-30 years" by "the British mafia" who've instilled "no structure, no leader, no passion, no vision.
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