The 500 club: The Plastic Pitch subscription drive 17 Dec 2015 Subscriptions costs just $15 Canadian — that's four issues of what this editors feels is some of the best Canadian soccer content you'll find. Long-form stories, insightful analysis and advocacy for the improvement of the Canadian game. Put it in perspective, $15 is less than the cost of one craft cocktail.
FCE to head to Scotland; here’s why it makes perfect cents (sense) 11 Dec 2015 A preseason trip to Europe in no way suggests that Fath is doing anything more but increasing his investment in a team he and his brother, Dave Fath, have lost money on since day one. But, with the dollar slumping to less than 73 cents US on Friday, and it likely to drop even further as the oil price continues to sag, the fact remains that a trip to America has become increasingly expensive, and will likely be even more pricey in the spring of 2016.
FC Edmonton: No contact at all with Canadian professional league backers 1 Jun 2015 But, if the league does indeed come to be — and, to be fair, there is still a lot of skepticism out there — the assumption that the North American Soccer League’s Ottawa Fury and FC Edmonton would simply come along for the ride is well, off-base.
Fallout from FIFA arrests might be felt in Canada 27 May 2015 Trying to predict the aftermath of Tuesday’s FIFA arrests is like trying to gather up all the buckshot that’s been sprayed out of a cannon.
Fath gives his thumbs-up to NASL’s Miami expansion 21 May 2015 But, having more teams in the southeast will only serve to increase the travel bill for the Eddies, currently the only NASL team in the Mountain time zone. Just with the four Florida teams, the Eddies are looking at four road trips of 3,000-4,000 km (one-way) each. It’s given wisdom that flying an NASL team and paying for hotels and meals costs north of $20,000 a trip. But Fath told me that, when the Eddies faced Fort Lauderdale in the playoffs back in the FCE’s inaugural season, booking seats and hotels last-second ballooned the costs to over $40,000 for that trip.
Why the MLS-USL affiliation makes the free-agency issue even more urgent 13 Feb 2015 And it’s at the USL level where the issue of free agency — the divide that separates the union and MLS brass — might be most important. If players can be “parked” in the lower division for the lives of their contracts, including team options, then it’s hard to call USL anything else but a farm system. But, if players who are with MLS teams but don’t get the chance at first-team MLS football are offered the chance to move on, then we can argue that truly, USL is a system that puts the development of the player, first.
Weak Canadian dollar is bad news for Canadian soccer franchises 22 Jan 2015 MLS and NASL teams aren’t forthcoming about the terms of their contracts. But the MLS Players Union sheds some light on how the salaries are paid out. According to MLSPU Executive Director Bob Foose: “All contracts are calculated in U.S. Dollars, players can then choose to have them paid in either, or a combination.”
Without a CBA in place, there’s a “possibility” union action could see Montreal, DCU forfeit CCL matches 6 Dec 2014 “The Collective Bargaining Agreement is scheduled to expire on January 31, 2015,” Foose wrote in an e-mail. “When it expires, the obligation not to engage in a work stoppage also expires. I do not want to comment on when or if there would be a work stoppage. All I can say is that unless there is a Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, there is always the possibility of a work stoppage.”
Turfgate: Canadian Soccer Association will argue Ontario tribunal has no right to rule on Women’s World Cup venues in other provinces 15 Oct 2014 In the minds of the CSA and its lawyers it’s “likely” that the HRTO does not have jurisdiction over what goes on in other provinces, and Hern says it’s a matter that will be argued.
Flying coach: Cancellation forces FC Edmonton to ad lib travel plans to Tampa 3 Oct 2014 So, the Eddies’ staff scrambled late last night to try and find alternate flying arrangements for the team. Most of the team were able to get on one common connecting flight out. Other players are on another route. And the coaches were still in Edmonton late Friday morning, as they will be the last ones to get out.