Four days in and it may not currently feel like it, but 2019 is set to be an exciting year in Canadian soccer.

Vancouver Whitecaps will be under new management, and hopefully on an upward trajectory, with Marc Dos Santos. The Canadian Premier League begins its first ever season in April. The Gold Cup takes place in the States in the summer, with one of the most exciting Canadian teams for a long time set to battle for glory. Then there’s a whole host of exciting local soccer stories to tell with TSS Rovers, the college teams, and the other lower leagues across the country.

We can’t wait and we’re hoping you can’t either and want to be a part of it all here on AFTN!

Although there wasn’t a lot of success on the pitch for most of the teams we covered in 2018, it was another good year for AFTN off it, as we continued to grow and explore some new avenues. We want to thank all our readers and listeners for their continued support. It’s always very much appreciated by all of us.

We released 89 podcasts in total over the year (78 AFTN Soccer Shows and 11 of our ‘Extra’ subscription podcasts). In amongst those, we relaunched our preview podcasts, with Joe Deasy, Gideon Hill, and Nicolaas Rupprecht taking the reins, and those will continue this season, alongside the podcasts of our radio shows on CiTR on Sunday nights.

And if you’re not already sick of listening to our voices, we plan to release a new You Tube show at some point this year called ‘Pulled Off At Half Time’. It’s going to be a more light hearted look at the local and national football scenes, and we’ve already got a few things planned for it, so keep an eye on our channel for that starting in a few months. And if you want to be involved in producing or editing some of the content, then we definitely want to hear from you.

But we’re also looking to expand the written side of the site and we’re looking for some new writers.

On the Whitecaps and MLS side, we’d love to hear from anyone who fancies writing more analytical takes on the ‘Caps and the happenings across the league. Delving behind the stats with insights, thoughts, and takes on what’s playing out on the pitch and behind the scenes.

We’re also looking to expand our Canadian Premier League coverage. We’ll definitely be covering Pacific FC, but in the ideal scenario we’d love to have correspondents across the league and all seven teams. If you’re in one of those cities and would like to do some writing and/or podcasting for us, then please get in touch!

Initially all the Canadian Premier League content will run solely on the main AFTN site, but we have a CPL specific website and twitter account (True North Soccer) all lined up, registered, and ready to launch as soon as we can have more than the Victoria market covered. We have done for a while now! In a dream world, we’ll have a couple of writers in each city, and a photographer, providing match analysis, general insights, and some interviews here and there. Maybe podcasts too. Really the content is up to you. The standalone site may not make it live till 2020, but we hope way earlier.

We’re also looking for anyone that would be interested in covering any aspect of the local or national game here in BC and Canada. Got an idea or a passion for something you’d like to write about regularly or semi-regularly, then again, please get in touch, either by direct message on Twitter or shoot us an email to: aftncanada at Hotmail dot com.

We don’t have any set weekly or monthly stipulations for content from you, and encourage you to write when you truly feel the urge. I genuinely believe that’s when you get the best work out of people and not when forced to hit weekly target. We also don’t have any budget or money to pay, but do we have a good reputation, market and exposure for your work and there could be a chance to be involved with the podcast and You Tube show down the line as well.

So get in touch if you’re interested and help us celebrate this great footballing year in style! Even if you’ve never written for a blog or website before, shoot us a message. New, fresh voices are what we want to be about.