Canadian teams not on PASL’s schedule for 2011-12; new championship format announced

The Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League hasn’t finalized its schedule for the upcoming season — or even the number of teams it will have in January, 2012. But it knows that its relationship with the U.S.-based Professional Arena Soccer League will be changing. The PASL announced its schedule earlier this week — and with it came the revelation that there are no interconference games scheduled with CMISL teams. In the preceding years, PASL teams have traveled to Canada — and vice versa — for games that count in the standings for each league. And, the PASL will not hold its North American Championships this season. Instead, the league will hold its own championship game. Last year’s edition of the North American Champiopnships saw the champions of the Mexican League and the CMISL join the PASL champs in Cincinnati to determine a North American championship. “We are making plans for an international team championship that would replace the North American Championships,” stated PASL director of operations Sydney Nusinov. “It’s tentatively scheduled for February and could include champions from the PASL, CMISL, LMFR (Mexico) and any other league.” The new tournament would be administered by FIFRA (Federacion Internacional de Futbol Rapido), the international governing body of arena (indoor) soccer. And, because it’s governed by the international body, clubs from the USL-administered Major Indoor Soccer League would be allowed to enter, even though the MISL has a very different set of rules than those used by the other leagues (two- and three-point goals, a throwback to the National Professional Soccer League days, still exist in MISL). The decision of whether to go or not would be up to the clubs and leagues. So, the CMISL representative would have to determine if it’s worthwhile to spend the money to head to the FIFRA championships. And, if the new championships are in February, they will go ahead before the next CMISL season ends. So, it would likely be up to the reigning champs from Calgary whether or not they’d like to participate. In the past, the CMISL champ — which is generally made up of amateurs — has been hammered by Mexican and American competition in the PASL championships. Last season, the Mexican side, PPM Sidekicks del Estado de Mexico, clubbed CMISL champion Calgary United FC by a 10-2 count in Cincinnati.The San Diego Sockers won the title. As of right now, the CMISL membership for 2012 is unclear. League president Mel Kowalchuk has confirmed that talks are underway to bring a Vancouver franchise into the league, but that there have been some glitches in the possible deal. Last year, the CMISL had just three sides; Calgary United, Winnipeg Alliance and the Edmonton Drillers. Nusinov said that there is still room to send PASL teams to Canada in 2012. “We might send some teams to Canada to accommodate some CMISL dates.” But the problem is that if the games would count in the CMISL standings but not in the PASL, would the American teams send full-strength squads to Canada? Would they want to take on the expense of sending teams at all. Remember, if they schedule it, they might not play. Last season, the Kitsap Pumas forfeited two games to Calgary United, which was in a heated race with the Edmonton Drillers for the CMISL title (no playoffs in CMISL; it’s decided by league table). Calgary went from 5-4 on the season to 7-4 because the Pumas didn’t make the trip from Washington State. Because the games were a last-second addition to the Kitsap schedule, they didn’t count in the standings for the Pumas. So, you would have to worry that, if there is no incentive for PASL teams to make the trips, that we’d see more Kitsap incidents.