September and October 2024 friendly matches (plans, speculation, rumours etc.)

[TGAA_Star]

Or we play the lower tier African teams but who?

[eramosat]

17 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Of all the reporting I've seen Rick Westhead do, I don't recall him making any actual mistakes or false statements.

Unflattering or somewhat misleading spin, yes, but never any actual lies.

I trust him. He's a Westhead, not a Dickhead.

https://www.tsn.ca/national-team-success-could-compound-canada-soccer-s-financial-woes-1.2091802

 

 

 

focusing your sports reporting on the finances of sports is quite simply boring.  making it the laser focus of your reporting? vendetta territory...especially as he is now writing about both sides "they're too good to pay the wonderfully fair wages they promised!!!!  It's a debacle you should care about!"

I do not care one cent about national team wages, for any Canadian sport.  I don't care about any athlete's wages.  I don't even care about my wages, or your wages...nobody's wages gets me upset!!

I care about disingenuous motives.

Edited June 24 by eramosat

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

2 minutes ago, eramosat said:

focusing your sports reporting on the finances of sports is quite simply boring.  making it the laser focus of your reporting? vendetta territory...especially as he is now writing about both sides "they're too good to pay the wonderfully fair wages they promised!!!!  It's a debacle you should care about!"

I do not care one cent about national team wages, for any Canadian sport.  I don't care about any athlete's wages.  I don't even care about my wages, or your wages...nobody's wages gets me upset!!

I care about disingenuous motives.

I care about disingenuous motives as well, but I think he has done some good by exposing some of the reckless spending and poor governance within the CSA. I don't love the guy but he's not earned the title of "Dickhead" for me. Westhead he remains.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

12 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

Or we play the lower tier African teams but who?

@TGAA_Star , do you really think Canada is playing one of the following:

● Eritrea 

● The Seychelles

● Somalia

● São Tomé and Príncipe

● Mauritius

● Djibouti

Those are the 6 African teams available.

[TGAA_Star]

Just now, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

@TGAA_Star , do you really think Canada is playing one of the following:

● Eritrea 

● The Seychelles

● Somalia

● São Tomé and Príncipe

● Mauritius

● Djibouti

Those are the 6 African teams available.

Well those are the only ones you can play...either that or the Asian teams that were brought up or should we just wait until UEFA Nations League is over? Or wait until AFCON qualifiers are over you know?

[eramosat]

6 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

I care about disingenuous motives as well, but I think he has done some good by exposing some of the reckless spending and poor governance within the CSA. I don't love the guy but he's not earned the title of "Dickhead" for me. Westhead he remains.

Whereas I fail to see where Westhead's reporting did any good but mostly to himself.  There are no fairer player-compensation models in place, for men or women as far as I can see.  CSA officials who were put in place after his initial tirades are under the same fire as those initially under fire.  And meanwhile, a few years of goodwill got wasted.

"Some good" is a pretty poor trade for what took place.  Maybe he could interview some actual players, women and men, to see what they think.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

17 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

Well those are the only ones you can play...either that or the Asian teams that were brought up or should we just wait until UEFA Nations League is over? Or wait until AFCON qualifiers are over you know?

@TGAA_Star this thread is strictly about the September and October 2024 FIFA windows and which teams are available during that time.

"Waiting" until AFCON qualifying or UEFA Nations League is over would mean next year or the year after.

Edited June 24 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 6/22/2024 at 10:56 PM, Mihairokov said:

We sorely need to play more friendly matches in Canada, and so I'm hesitant to support the team going off to Thailand to play middling AFC sides. I'm not sure how much usefulness there would be in us playing Thailand and India. I think hosting teams like them at home would be fine as they would be something different from teams we have played recently.

The only way me make money playing teams in Canada is to fill stadiums at a decent price point. And to do that for a friendly it would need to be either a big name team (none really available) or the situation of decades past, where the diaspora of our opponent outnumber us in the crowd.

On 6/23/2024 at 12:39 AM, blueseeka said:

Just a thanks to you @Olympique_de_Marseille. I truly appreciate the time and effort that you must spend on these updates.

Thanks for the kind words! I do appreciate them.

On 6/23/2024 at 12:39 AM, blueseeka said:

This team will need games where they can incorporate the youth of LDF, Bair and Ahmed into a regular spot. If Thailand is offering a couple games in October, i think you take it. Be nice to have some home games but those teams won't sell many tickets

Agreed. I say we take a Thai offer (unless we have other October plans) and play the bench.

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, eramosat said:

focusing your sports reporting on the finances of sports is quite simply boring.  making it the laser focus of your reporting? vendetta territory...

No, it's not a "vendetta" to write about the business of sports. It's apparently not what you're interested in, and that's totally fine. I find it endlessly fascinating.

[Watchmen]

48 minutes ago, eramosat said:

Whereas I fail to see where Westhead's reporting did any good but mostly to himself.  There are no fairer player-compensation models in place, for men or women as far as I can see.  CSA officials who were put in place after his initial tirades are under the same fire as those initially under fire.  And meanwhile, a few years of goodwill got wasted.

The CSA officials now in place seem endlessly more qualified than the previous ones, and are taking a more professional approach to the player negotiations. A deal is not in place. But the players also don't seem to be upset the way they were during the Bontis era. That's what improved leadership in your organization leads to.

[eramosat]

54 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

The CSA officials now in place seem endlessly more qualified than the previous ones, and are taking a more professional approach to the player negotiations. A deal is not in place. But the players also don't seem to be upset the way they were during the Bontis era. That's what improved leadership in your organization leads to.

"A deal is not in place".  So...no magically OK compensation package emerged?  After all that uproar?   Yeah, players not being upset...not boycotting matches...that is certainly due to the better vision of the new CSA partners, and not the outlandish position expressed by the players getting them nowhere except fired executives.

"CSA officials now in place seem endlessly more qualified".   Despite some of those same new officials now being the target of new lawsuits. 

Tell me how again the improved leadership Westhead ushered in was for the best?  

[Ivan]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

The CSA officials now in place seem endlessly more qualified than the previous ones, and are taking a more professional approach to the player negotiations. A deal is not in place. But the players also don't seem to be upset the way they were during the Bontis era. That's what improved leadership in your organization leads to.

The women's deal is in place is it not?  It's the men who have yet to accept any terms. 

[red card]

2 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Of all the reporting I've seen Rick Westhead do, I don't recall him making any actual mistakes or false statements.

Unflattering or somewhat misleading spin, yes, but never any actual lies.

I trust him. He's a Westhead, not a Dickhead.

https://www.tsn.ca/national-team-success-could-compound-canada-soccer-s-financial-woes-1.2091802

 

 

 

Westhead didn't know enough about the business of global football and its governance to add context to the info and views provided to him. Given he's a seasoned journalist, he should have had enough spidey senses to detect dubious info/views or sense sources who are disclosing with an agenda.

So, as the recent independent review of CSA governance structures and practices stated the issues facing the CSA were "used as weapons by those who wanted to criticize the organization, often without enough information to make evidence-based opinion. If the Board would have had been more transparent and informative, this would have helped mitigate criticisms or the “weaponizing” syndrome. "

Westhead also didn't have any global football industry contacts to vet info especially when dollars are involved. Though, it would have been easy for him to get the views of a few European football finance experts who are on X/Substack/podcasts. Lots of industry reports also available but he would need to do legwork in a similar vein as he did with Hockey Canada issues. The handful of industry experts he quoted came across as the same hockey-centric people used for his Hockey Canada investigation.

[Watchmen]

36 minutes ago, eramosat said:

"CSA officials now in place seem endlessly more qualified".   Despite some of those same new officials now being the target of new lawsuits. 

General Secretary Kevin Blue was not named in the lawsuit, as he was not even in place yet. I do not believe new President Peter Augruso was named either, and he was definitely not the president at the time of the lawsuit.

[eramosat]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

General Secretary Kevin Blue was not named in the lawsuit, as he was not even in place yet. I do not believe new President Peter Augruso was named either, and he was definitely not the president at the time of the lawsuit.

Charmaine Crooks?  Does she count somewhere?  The unanimous  choice of an invoked Canadian parliamentary committee, no?  To the bad or good?   And you don't believe the new president was named either, at the lawsuit time?  What a vote of confidence!!

We can both name whosevers until the cows come home.  And it will all be completely pointless.  Because we both have zero credibility.  The entire debacle is pointless.  Including the players trying to make their waves.

[Watchmen]

24 minutes ago, eramosat said:

Charmaine Crooks?  Does she count somewhere?  The unanimous  choice of an invoked Canadian parliamentary committee, no?  To the bad or good?   And you don't believe the new president was named either, at the lawsuit time?  What a vote of confidence!!

We can both name whosevers until the cows come home.  And it will all be completely pointless.  Because we both have zero credibility.  The entire debacle is pointless.  Including the players trying to make their waves.

Crooks is no longer president.  Augruso was named in May, and came out of the Ontario association.  So yeah, he wasn't part of the lawsuit.  You have yet to name a "new official" who is part of the lawsuit.

 

[eramosat]

59 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

Crooks is no longer president.  Augruso was named in May, and came out of the Ontario association.  So yeah, he wasn't part of the lawsuit.  You have yet to name a "new official" who is part of the lawsuit.

 

Crooks is no longer president?  Are you certain of her position at the CSA?  She is somehow named in the latest lawsuit against the CSA?  Care to dance around the pointless facts any longer? 

[Watchmen]

38 minutes ago, eramosat said:

Crooks is no longer president?  Are you certain of her position at the CSA?  She is somehow named in the latest lawsuit against the CSA?  Care to dance around the pointless facts any longer? 

The lawsuit was launched in February, when Crooks was president.  At the AMM in May, Crooks chose not to run again.  What her exact position is now, I could not say.

https://canadiansoccerdaily.com/2024/05/05/canada-soccer-elects-peter-augruso-new-president-raises-membership-fees/

At what point would you care to admit that the current General Secretary and President (ie the new officials) are not being sued?

[Mihairokov]

15 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

The only way me make money playing teams in Canada is to fill stadiums at a decent price point. And to do that for a friendly it would need to be either a big name team (none really available) or the situation of decades past, where the diaspora of our opponent outnumber us in the crowd.

Oh, definitely. My intention wasn't for CSA to make money hosting friendlies but to host friendlies that provide something interesting and different for CMNT. This window isn't a good example of it but we have a number of opportunities to host good teams ahead of WC26 in stadiums which we can probably fill.

Or, we could just play China at BMO or BC Place and let the cash machine print money, whichever. 😜

[RS]

 

[Alex]

The USA has us and New Zealand in September then Panama in October. 

[Mihairokov]

What good timing! Makes sense for us.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

19 minutes ago, Alex said:

The USA has us and New Zealand in September then Panama in October. 

19 minutes ago, Mihairokov said:

What good timing! Makes sense for us.

Makes sense and makes it even more likely that we'd go to Thailand in October.

[Obinna]

extreme heat.....multiple CMNT games.....is KC the new Dallas?

[youllneverwalkalone]

KC, MO is Dallas. KC, KS is Frisco