cornerkick

"In 2023, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) included Christiansen in a long list of nominees for the best national team manager,"
 
i wonder what the criteria is to be a nominee...interesting

From Barca to Panama: How Thomas Christiansen has brought Cruyff’s ideology to CONCACAF
https://theathletic.com/5358257/2024/03/21/thomas-christiansen-panama-nations-league/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=168577

my bad... i should ignore the algorithm fed stuff by twitter

Or more likely, with 10 minutes to go in the game if a draw seems like a possibility.

This is 100% fake

Apart from the incapacity of the self-proclaimed experts to distinguish between a properly done launch and botched hack job, which is what we've seen (aping an overworn presentation style and doing it badly) the real problem with the shirt design is other: the client-designer relationship. 
No one has mentioned this on this thread. There is an overall opinion, entirely mistaken, that the brand foists a shirt on the client, in this case the CSA, and we take what we get. That is only the case if there is a weak contribution from the client's side. Or of course, you can fail if the designer is incompetent or is performing some sort of trickery or scam on the client, which we should rule out. 
In ideal cases, designers will even teach the client how to dialogue meaningfully, they will educate someone, or a team (do we have such a team at the CSA), on how to go through the process of conceiving, and then converting the vision into something marketable and attractive for Canada fans.
I am fairly sure that Macron has done this with the CPL, as a league, and then with the individual teams. You can see it in the results, they make a concerted effort to listen and to have a bit of ethnographic method; and then you can see, for markets that are relatively small, quite good results. I don't know if they send teams to Vancouver Island, say (of if they did once way back when, with Covid I imagine they may not have) but they seek out dialogue. That leads to very specific results where each team has a home and away and even keepers, often with ultra-local motifs, from nature or the city, drawing on those sorts of things because of course, no club has its own history and legacy to draw on. The pattern design is detailed and shows strong criteria, each has a clear identity that can be distinguished from the other 7 teams. For me, sure, VFC looked rushed last year, compare to this where the red is used better on the main shirt and the "eagles" theme is given more play.
If anyone thinks the Raptors merchandising around the time of the championship, and after, did not involve some meaningful dialogue, they are mistaken (We the North, many lesser clients would have vetoed, erroneously forced changes or plain misunderstood a lot of those proposals). 
Most great designers, in fashion, architecture, in furniture, corporate image, who are working on commission, will have weak moments, it is actually quite common. We can cite great architects who have won the Pritzker (the "Nobel Prize" for architects) who have done poor jobs on certain buildings. Same with any other design project. And a reason, in a great many cases, is that the client did not know why they'd hired that team, sent out confusing messages, did not contribute meaningfully, or did not assume an intelligently informed role. That is what I think we are talking about with the CSA. They could do much better. They really should have a team or else hire consultants who are knowledgeable instead of acting like ghost stakeholders.
I don't know what people expect of the CSA. Do people think we have people at the association who are in meaningful dialogue with our shirt producers, who reject proposals, ask for tweaks, have a pride in providing expressions for the team's image? I don't think so.
I think we got a good home or red shirt for the women for the World Cup (the white not so much) but that is because Nike did it on their own accord: they bypassed any dialogue with the CSA and chose to put in that effort. They imagined their potential user-client well and went ahead without us. 
That said, because sales for any shirt producer for the Canadian market, you could understand that the effort might be weaker and the results poorer. If you are designing for a club that will sell millions, and you have paid millions for rights, you might assume more goes into it. But back to Macron: that case proves that even when you are a small client, if you know--or are taught--how to relate meaningfully with the shirt producer, you can get excellent results.

Maybe Biello thinks that making Davies captain tone down his hero ball and make him more of a team player.
Totally unrelated but Biello also has to make a call on the in-game penalty taker so there's absolutely no discussion after a PK decision on who steps up.

A bit disappointed for Alphonso but this kind of feels right at the same time. Also, I am not convinced Alphonso has the maturity for the captaincy at this stage of his career. He definitely has the big game experience, but I think Eustaquio is probably the right call. 

New Captain!

23 for the birthdate of his daughter Reina...

Not sure but I am sure he is going to solve it.

What does any of this have to do with Kevin Blue?

In response to question about DeVos mentioning bankruptcy last year, I'm glad Blue directly said it will not happen. He also said unnamed source views presented in today's Westhead article is only an interpretation of the situation.
The notion winning will compound financial woes also fails to take into account winning is part of gaining back trust. It has been a top 5 driver of increasing fandom in Canada. Financially, it means getting paid more for friendlies, getting better teams for home friendlies, getting better crowds paying healthy ticket prices for home matches, more jersey sales and more brand activation opportunities for sponsors.

It's funny how long it has taken so many here to see the whole Westhead thing clearly. He was always a muckraker with no knowledge of the sport, he is assigned the task of digging around for an angle instead of reporting. I am sure he is fed half the garbage he writes.  If you go on his Twitter and say anything, remotely anything critical, he'll block you. It is the sort of slanted agenda that deserves to be criticized. 

Back to Blue. I thought he handled the presser very well. Despite his boyish looks, he's a tough cookie. I liked his response to the CSA/CSB deal...it's not the be all and end all but rather part of what needs to be addressed, without minimizing it's importance and impact. If he can't bring all stakeholders to the table and reach consensus, I don't see how anyone else can. And this has to be seriously taken into account by all parties involved. It may be the last shot at getting things resolved and back on track.

I think you missed my point. Im not saying that the financials are dire but I want to hear about the positives. 

The information westhead is presenting is that there are costs to winning games. Thats half the story. Theres also prizes for winning games which he briefly touches on. 

Based on the above he comes to the conclusion that: The more we win, the closer to insolvency the federation becomes. 

That conclusion is wildly negative and false. Whats the most we can win? the whole tournament. If we win the whole tournament, we are much much better off. 

Why does he come to the conclusion about winning and insolvency when that simply is not true. Maybe theres a possible scenario where we win and are set back, but the overall conclusion could be more accurate if he wrote, "the further we progress, the more money CSA will profit from, even though costs also rise." 

 

I was out of the country for most of the hockey stuff but if you make your name via scandals, then it is in your interest that there be scandals.  British tabloids can teach you that.

“We would be looking at far more than $1 million in costs if Canada makes the Copa and gets at least a few wins,”

Oh little bird....here we go again.

Above is the quote. Can you cite where westhead talks about the other costs making up the "far more than one million"? Of course, you are correct that there are other costs but thats my point. Westhead picks and chooses what he writes. The above quote implies that costs are tied to performances but doesnt indicate that a performance bonus will exceed the player compensation costs. 
It is written in such a way that people think that the better we perform, the less money available. That is simply not true. 
 
Read this quote below for evidence: But in a bizarre twist that is linked to Canada Soccer’s media and sponsorship contract, it's possible that the better Canada performs in the Copa, the more it could accelerate the federation’s path towards insolvency.
 
We all know that CSA has no money. But the better we perform at the copa, the more prize money we win. NOT the more likely we are to be insolvent. 

Yeah, to echo Red Card, a napkin calculation says Canada would cover most expenses and bonuses should they qualify to the knockouts at Copa.  Winning the thing would surely put them ahead financially, not in a deeper hole.

Yeah, to echo Red Card, a napkin calculation says Canada would cover most expenses and bonuses should they qualify to the knockouts at Copa.  Winning the thing would surely put them ahead financially, not in a deeper hole.

Yeah, to echo Red Card, a napkin calculation says Canada would cover most expenses and bonuses should they qualify to the knockouts at Copa.  Winning the thing would surely put them ahead financially, not in a deeper hole.

On one hand, a unnamed source crying poor about finances is a good tactic during labour organization. But with source going with the simpleton angle that there is no solution unless the CSB deal is done tells me these are again talking points from the players camp.
Citing Football Australia making C$28 million in sponsors/media revenues for the FY June 2023 without adding in that Australia hosted the Women's World Cup a month later is poor work. Australian media also pays up way more for sports rights than Canadian media. Prorated for population, Football Australia's media revenues are even 4x larger than USSF. 
For overall revenues, Football Australia is also 2x larger than Canada Soccer. Their Nike deal actually includes payments beyond sales royalties. Their employee costs are about the same as Canada Soccer's total revenue. They charge about $4 more than Canada Soccer for youth player registration and A$34 for adult player registration.
Main premise of article that winning puts Canada Soccer in a deeper financial hole isn't even borne out by the numbers presented. It's more of a break even scenario: 207k + 600k + 500k = 1.3m in expenses vs receiving $1.5m for making the quarters.

someone remind me, does the Nike deal run through 2026?  I hope we can find another company for these kits sooner than later.  NB, Adidas, macron

The designs are fine but there is absolutely no reason for the Nike logo to be so prominent. They literally circled it!

This was definitely meant for the shirts.

Now I suspect it pertains to the people who designed them.