The Old Ways Must Change (Part Two)

Youth soccer in this city is suffering at the hands of what else… Politics!

Societal events tell the story of a political climate. The way people behave indicates their feelings, mood or comfort-level in an organization or community. The current soccer climate in Manitoba can’t be better stated than by Oui Truong, former Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association president.

“It has become very clear to me in the time that I have been with WYSA that the environment in our soccer community is toxic and not conducive to progress and collaboration, egos, grudges, hostility, stubbornness, and paranoia run rampant, and every action or decision is met with these barriers to success…”

In this political climate one of the biggest obstacles to progress locally is the failure to integrate the public club model with private clubs or private acdemies into a system where they can coexist. The “experts” will tell you that the district run soccer clubs are superior to private academies or private clubs in that they have the athlete’s best interests in mind since they offer services for the betterment of the athlete. “They” will tell you the private clubs and private academies over-train players in order to make money. This logic is simply loaded with inconsistencies.

The Breakdown

It has been my experience that all district soccer clubs offer extra training in their own “academy”, often the fees for which are in addition to club registration. What if, I want my child to receive some extra training from someone who has come highly recommended by a friend or colleague? It has come to my attention repeatedly this is highly frowned upon by the majority of the districts and the argument they will give you is this alleged “fear of overtraining”. Yet, it would be OK for them to over train my kid in their program? Seems hypocritical and downright dishonest to me. What difference does it make where I seek out extra training if I’m the consumer? I want to purchase the best product! If the district offered the best training perhaps I would choose the district. Sounds like they may be more concerned with lost revenue then the well-being of my child. I should be allowed to choose though, without penalty. Being a former club head coach and a parent, I have come to understand that if one wants their child to get noticed as an “up and comer” they better enroll them in some extra training offered by the district club and have them play for the district team in their neighborhood. Only then will they get noticed by provincial level coaches from the Manitoba Soccer Association (MSA) and National level coaches from the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA). Since when is competition not welcomed in a free, democratic society? It encourages accountability for service providers. Again, EVERY group needs to be accountable for what they are offering and I as the consumer have the right to choose the best product available. The notion that “because I live here, I must train and play exclusively for this district club” is anything but accountable.

Finally and perhaps the most confusing issue of all is the MSA’s decision to take the National Development Center (NDC) program in a new direction. Before the changes were made, it was decided this program must use the highest licensed and most experienced coaches possible; regardless if they came from a district club or private enterprise. Now, two years later, the program is staffed with unqualified or inexperienced coaches from the district clubs ONLY!!! The female stream of the program is called REX and has a mandate to advance girls through to the National Team; however, the two primary coaches that actually do most of the training don’t even have Canadian B-National Licences and they have very little experience. Which way do you think works better? The best way to find out would be to look at the number of players that progressed to national youth teams when we used the coaches with lots of coaching experience and with the highest level of coaching available in Manitoba – now compare that to the new model of the last 3 years. Kind of proves my point!

The point is this, the MSA and CSA mandates should be to hire the best coaches (experience+licences) and identify the best player talent regardless if they come from a private academy club or a public district club.

In Part 1 of this discussion on Governance, we established that the CSA has admitted in their own governance model that they defer to the provincial associations. So it becomes all the more important to have good leadership at our provincial levels. I will continue with the idea that MSA and WYSA needs to govern and not to become a club by creating soccer teams. The CSA moved away from the provincial programs , the NTC programs etc., and have ask the private clubs Toronto FC, Montreal Impact, FC Edmonton, Vancouver Whitecaps, Calgary Foothills, Ottawa Fury…to manage high performance instead. MSA and WYSA should follow suit, not do the opposite and start their own soccer programs.

To Sum Up

The question remains…is anybody at the CSA or MSA listening? As a coach over the past 25+ years I have come to conclude that the Manitoba community based soccer system needs help. There is little regard for the customers (parents & players). A monopoly simply has no incentive to pay any regard to those who pay the bills when they are the only game in town. There is little in the way of oversight regarding government funds being utilized to pay very large salaries to one or two individuals per club, regardless of results.

The MSA needs to open up the competition. We need to use the most experienced and qualified coaches in the province and country, we must include them not exclude them because somehow the people in charge feel threatened by them and their knowledge. How can a province like Manitoba and a country like Canada for that matter afford to keep the private clubs and experienced Canadian A-licence coaches out and not get them involved? Somebody please explain to me the rationale behind that? The only one I can think of was best said by Oai Truong, former President of WYSA, in his resignation letter:

“That the environment in our soccer community is toxic and not conducive to progress and collaboration. Egos, grudges, hostility, stubbornness, and paranoia run rampant, and every action or decision is met with these barriers to success”

What is Meant by “Old Ways”?

First and foremost we need to move away from decision making based on personal agendas within associations and clubs. Remove the leaders of these organizations with agendas aimed at protecting their own spheres of influence. Move away from this mentality and these people who are detrimental to players and the game of soccer, move to a more supportive soccer system. A system where the athlete and the game are put above those of the chosen few presidents, board members or executive directors.

The MSA and WYSA simply need to govern the game, nothing more!

Our Soccer Governance Needs to Change.

All players in Manitoba, as well as Canada, should be allowed, even encouraged, to play as much or as little as they like. The elite player along with the grassroots player should be embraced with the same enthusiasm, each player should have their specific needs fulfilled. In this way the game of soccer is strengthened.

Under the present soccer system in Manitoba, there are countless examples where elite players are not allowed to return to their appropriate soccer leagues once they are finished with their elite level commitments. Meaning they want to play, but are disallowed! Who benefits? Not the athlete. Neither the league nor the teams within those leagues.

Players from Winnipeg’s PDL team are a perfect example of this foolishness. Arguably among the best players at their age, PDL players are not allowed to return to their appropriate leagues, men’s or youth leagues, once their very short PDL season is finished. This means that some of the best players in Manitoba must sit idle, waiting for these leagues to finish their seasons before joining a team. Players like Moses Danto who has just signed a contract to play professional soccer, could not find a team to play on in Manitoba once his PDL season had finished.

Absolute madness… an amateur star player is denied the opportunity to play soccer in his home town! Further, the fans of soccer in Manitoba are denied the opportunity to watch a star player. An amateur player that all Manitobans should be proud of playing the beautiful game. Sometimes the youth and the adult teams are playing short as they don’t have enough players and what do we do? We restrict amateurs and youth players from playing. Again, who benefits from this? Or rather who does not benefit? The answer is our sport does not benefit. Our youth have a tremendous number of options, sports and otherwise, competing for their time and energy. If the players do not feel they are being embraced by the beautiful game of soccer… they move on to something else.

The “old ways” must change. The petty self-interests, bickering, grudges and distrust that former WYSA president Oui Truong referred to must be eliminated. If Canadian soccer is to evolve and advance on the world stage and if we hope to improve our participation rates… look after our athletes… change our soccer governance and change our old ways of doing things!

Social Change Movement

The main theme of this blog has been to provoke discussion and hopefully generate change in the way our province and indeed our country do things with regards to the game of soccer. Social change initiatives may serve as a barometer of political climate or even shape it.Public sentiment about an issue can be a deciding factor in the importance of the issue. Mr. Truong’s comments, about the political climate and the need for change may alter the present course by instilling new public expectations or garnering mass support.

“It has become very clear to me in the time that I have been with WYSA that the environment in our soccer community is toxic and not conducive to progress and collaboration. Egos, grudges, hostility, stubbornness, and paranoia run rampant, and every action or decision is met with these barriers to success…”

THAT REALLY SUMS IT UP!!!

Solution

We need to move away from the old ways of doing things. There needs to be a new Canadian and Provincial governance system that works and not one that pretends it works! Everybody is moving in separate directions when they ought to be moving in a single unified direction under strong centralized leadership. Only once this happens will we have a shot at joining the ranks of of true footballing nations, but it requires true intelligent leadership.

The true leader serves people. Serves their best interests, and in so doing will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated by loving concern rather than a desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the

price.

“As Mr.Truong before me I leave you with the message below and I hope you all will carry with you as I have”

LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT and

PARTNERSHIP.

WITHOUT INTEGRITY DEPENDABILITY AND

PERSEVERANCE NOTHING WORKS!