More Than Meets the Eye?

The following is conjuncture and speculation based on a couple of documents that have crossed my desk in recent days so please read with that in mind. This is meant as a discussion starter and not the final word on the many issues raised.

A few things to keep in mind:

The Canadian Soccer League comes under the direct jurisdiction of the CSA and not the OSA.

There has been a recent application to the OSA for the launch of a new "non-amateur" league which is in direct competition with the CSL - in fact at least two teams have indicated they want to jump ship from the CSL to the new loop.

The recent documents raise some interesting questions about both the new league and what the OSA is trying to do.

The first is the application to form a New Ontario Non-amateur Soccer League - the interesting thing is the application is under the name of Dino Rossi Jr the President of Milltown FC and is dated January 17, 2011 almost a full month before Milltown and Hamilton Croatia were not readmitted to the CSL.

Not a crime in of itself but it certainly appears that Milltown had no plans of returning to the CSL (perhaps Croatia as well) in 2011 and had been working on an alternative for a while.

Digging into the second document, which obviously of one of those dreaded PowerPoint presentations we know and love, has a number of interesting little points.

Among them:

That non-amateur leagues (read CSL) are not permitted to run youth development leagues in Ontario. Additionally it is pointed out that the CSA has RULED that the OSA is responsible for youth leagues and youth development in Ontario.

Another point in the document is that this new non-amateur league will register directly with the OSA and NOT the CSA as per the CSL. A minor, but important, distinction that would give the OSA control over the league (how that would owrk in a cross border league with Quebec I'm not sure).

The Long Term Player Development model also gets a mention with document pointing out that the OSA will be implementing a High Performance Youth League in Ontario. Look for it be modeled on the new HPL in British Columbia. On another youth note the OSA has been forced to recognize the academies due to a FIFA regulation but they are looking at how to extract the fees.

What does it all mean? Hard to say but I think it's pretty obvious that there is much more to meet the eye with this whole NONSL (not the real name for obvious reasons) and CSL issue and the it appears whether we're ready or not the LPTD is going to begin changing youth soccer in Canada in a number of ways very soon.