The Importance of the Players vs CSA Pay Dispute

[RS]

4 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

2nd issue. The CSB deal- People are upset we don't handle our marketing in-house or get a bigger deal from CSB. Step in Paulo Senra who has some great experience. If his hiring (assuming his credentials check out) isn't exactly the type of person we need in a communications role, then I dont know who is. 

Senra was already working for the CSA but in a different role. Having worked with him in the past, he's extremely professional and passionate about sports.

[Ivan]

58 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

Given that the General Secretary's position is the most important role within the CSA, it's interesting that there has been very little comment about Jason's appointment. As a former player and captain of the CMNT and recent assistant coach, he certainly has the experience of what our National teams require to be successful and at the very least should be able to resolve the outstanding issues btw the players and CSA. 

Agreed.  I'm surprised we haven't head a word from Brittany Timko, who I would think would be in a similar position to help resolve these issues.

[masster]

OneSoccer's interview with DeVos:

 

[masster]

I enjoyed the interview, but there are some serious issues I would like to hear deVos' position on:

-his thoughts on the CSB deal
-as the former director of development, his thoughts on the CPL
-does he believe a coast to coast league like the CPL is sustainable without the CSB deal
-follow up...do the ends justify the means
-on which side of the fence does he fall on the pay equity debate

[Aird25]

14 minutes ago, masster said:

I enjoyed the interview, but there are some serious issues I would like to hear deVos' position on:

-his thoughts on the CSB deal
-as the former director of development, his thoughts on the CPL
-does he believe a coast to coast league like the CPL is sustainable without the CSB deal
-follow up...do the ends justify the means
-on which side of the fence does he fall on the pay equity debate

The interview being on OneSoccer instead of another network is telling. I wish deVos the best. It can't be an easy position to take over.

"The game has changed"

Edited April 26, 2023 by Aird25

[canuckgbp]

deVos has gone through the entire system. He has seen and lived through it all. He knows the frustrations with the CSA. 
 

Hope he can steer the ship. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

As with Charmaine Crooks he's been around when a lot of the matters that are now being discussed in Ottawa unfolded and did not rock the boat. He's a continuity hire rather than a case of bringing in somebody new.

[Bigandy]

2 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

As with Charmaine Crooks he's been around when a lot of the matters that are now being discussed in Ottawa unfolded and did not rock the boat. He's a continuity hire rather than a case of bringing in somebody new.

He's an interim hire.... of course hes not going to rock the boat because it would make no sense for him to make massive changes to the CSA (in a short amount of time), and then hire someone permanently and have them make massive changes again. Interim positions should never be tasked with changing an entire organization. Thats a task for a permanent hire. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[red card]

Reed got mauled on the Birarda issue.

The committee was shocked that as BC Soccer president and a Canada Soccer board member that he didn't know Birarda was coaching a u14 girls team after his tenure at Canada Soccer. 

They didn't like his answers to the point that they asked Reed to be sworn in. NDP MP Julian then went overboard by saying "I feel Canada Soccer is worse than Hockey Canada".

Housefather nailed him when he asked if Reed would tell his daughter if a sexual predator moved in next door to her. When Reed said he would, Housefather wondered why he didn't tell anybody about Birarda as BC Soccer president.

When Conservative MP Kevin Waugh was informed by Ciara McCormack on twitter that Birarda was the coach of Coastal u17 that won the National Championship in 2018 when Reed was Canada Soccer president, Reed apologized for not doing anything. 

In terms of CSB, he said deal was done to create revenue certainty and control costs (paying to broadcast matches). Inadvertent that 2 signatures weren't there for agreement as documents created by lawyers had 1 line for CSA and 1 line for CSB. Montopoli would have signed as he wasn't against the deal.

Reed said deal's renewal provision has 18 month window before it expires where it can be discussed. But he also said there is 6 months for discussions.

https://northerntribune.ca/canada-soccer-steve-reed-testify-heritage-committee/

https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2?fk=12137346

Edited April 27, 2023 by red card

[Gian-Luca]

Any word on who the next long-gone CSA executive to be called will be? Kevan Pipe perhaps? Even Pellerud? How about Eckhard Krautzun?

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^hopefully this doesn't imply a posture that the Birarda issue should just be forgotten about?

 

[Bigandy]

I know nothing about Reed and this situation but heres my thoughts.
 

1. Do all governing sports bodies know of every single coach in their system? I am not sure on the viability of following every coach. If its viable then I see CSA should be accountable. It does seem strange that Reed is being crucified if it is not viable. Surely the club is to take on the majority of blame for hiring a predator 

2. Clearly there is an issue with Birarda but I dont see how its relevant to the current CSA if this happened over 10 years ago. The heritage committee was brought in to investigate things like the CSB deal and equal pay. What relevance is there to going 10-15 years back?

3. From what I gather, Birarda was not convicted during the time period the MP's are grilling Reed on. If that is true, then why would Reed be required to track Birarda's coaching placement?  Obviously the hush hush nature of his departure in 2008 is scummy but is that indicative of the culture and current safeguards the CSA has today? 

This is a HUGE issue but I am wondering why this is being brought up at the heritage meetings as it doesnt feel like the time or place.  
Is there more going on that I dont understand or am I not seeing this properly? 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Perhaps worth bearing in mind that Birarda's court case and sentencing was as recent as last year:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/birarda-guilty-sexual-assault-soccer-1.6343845

and his last involvement in coaching was as recent as 2019 so how this was handled is definitely still relevant to the culture of Canadian soccer in the present day.

...In February 2019, Birarda was suspended from coaching at Surrey, B.C., club Coastal FC after a former player wrote a blog post called "A Horrific Canadian Soccer Story."

The author of the blog, former Whitecaps player Ciara McCormack, told the CBC Tuesday she wrote the post about a man she called "Coach Billy" after watching in frustration as Birarda was allowed to keep coaching for years after he was cut from the under-20 coaching spot.

She said she is currently in Asia on holiday, but woke up to dozens of text messages about Birarda's guilty plea. She said it comes after years of struggle for his victims to be heard.

"I'm just really really grateful for the women who stepped forward," she said...

https://ciaramccormack.com/2019/02/25/a-horrific-canadian-soccer-story-the-story-no-one-wants-to-listen-to-but-everyone-needs-to-hear/

Edited April 28, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[Kent]

I don't know how it all works, but in Ontario as a player you get what I think is called an OSA number. You have a card and the team gets registered with the OSA with the whole roster. Presumably the coach is also registered with the team through the OSA. I don't know if it is safe to assume all the provinces have the same thing in place but it seems like they should, and that this should be an easy enough way to ensure a guy like Birarda doesn't get back into coaching within the system. Steve Reed wouldn't have to personally know every coach, but if you have your black list and whoever is filing the paperwork (or these days, the software program should do this automatically) should be able to see if this person, whether player or coach, is banned.

So I do think it's a reasonable ask of the association to be able to prevent him from the same situation he used to abuse people.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

This guy was still in high profile coaching jobs in the Vancouver area (see the snippet in Red Card's post about the 2018 National Championships) after being booted from his Whitecaps and CWNT U-20 gigs. Vancouver is very much Steve Reed and Victor Montagliani's stomping ground. It's almost inconceivable that they didn't know about what had happened and were unaware of the possible implications of the fact that he was still coaching. Anybody trying to defend this rancid culture on here or belittle the importance of what happened with Birarda is part of the problem.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[narduch]

The CSA look stupid and evil for their handling of the Birarda case but that really isn't really relevant for this topic

[CanadaFan123]

11 minutes ago, narduch said:

The CSA look stupid and evil for their handling of the Birarda case but that really isn't really relevant for this topic

Agreed but it’s poetic justice that they’re subjected to this straw man given their negligence in that regard. Absolute morons for their handling of that situation. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Ciara McCormack views them as being linked and appears to have had an influence on what was asked in that last session:

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[narduch]

8 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Ciara McCormack views them as being linked and appears to have had an influence on what was asked in that last session:

 

Just because she says it doesn't make it true.

[CanadaFan123]

I think it’s clear that Ciara is suffering from trauma and hasn’t been able to heal due to the handling of the situation. With that said, I don’t think any reasonable minded person could come to the conclusion that the issues are linked. 

[Shway]

 
 

There isn’t money being embezzled in off shore accounts. There isn’t money being given to shady deals. There isn’t people getting overpaid. There simply isn’t enough money to go around.

 Will  this topic move on?, there doesn’t seem like there is an end or conclusion in sight other than the CSA did dumb deals with lack of foresight.

Soon the women will take their fight to the men as the equal pay vs equity pay hasn’t been agreed to.

 I’m forecasting the women perform below expectations, and the blame is put on the CSA because “their minds are focused on where their next meal is coming from”…I can see it already. 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Shway

[narduch]

Don't think I've seen Ozzie post about the Birarda issue in the Women's Sub forum a single time.

He doesn't care about it either.

He only cares now because he thinks he can tangentially score points against the CSB and CPL

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^a truly sickening sequence of posts.