FC Edmonton owner confirms attendance at CanPL meetings, says USL not an option

Tom Fath

Tom Fath, who owns FC Edmonton along with his brother, Dave, is usually tight-lipped when it comes to front-office and ownership matters. On Sunday, before FC Edmonton’s match with the Indy Eleven, he opened up a little more about the Canadian Premier League and the future of the NASL.

Fath confirmed that he went to the Canadian Premier League meetings in Toronto earlier this week. Even though it’s been a not-so-well-kept secret that Fath has been going to CanPL meetings, he’s now confirming his attendance to the public.

“We have been going to the meetings,” he said. “I believe in the Canadian Premier League. I think it will be great for Canada.”

But, when asked if FCE will make the move, Fath simply smiled and said “we have been going to the meetings.”

As for the NASL, the league FCE has called home since 2011, he’s still holding optimism for 2018. The United States Soccer Federation gave notice to the NASL that it’s application for Division-2 status in 2018 has been rejected. But the matter isn’t dead and the NASL will approach the USSF again.

“I have been through nine sanctionings with the USSF. And I will say what I told the players: If they say yes, you know you’re sanctioned for next season. But if they say no, that means that things can change.”

This time around, Fath is not part of the NASL’s governance committee, so he’s not directly involved in talks with the USSF.

And, let’s kill any talk of any chance of FC Edmonton following the Ottawa Fury and making the move to USL, which got Division-2 status from the USSF for the 2017 season. From Fath: “As long as the USL has its current ownership and structure, we will not go to USL. There are many reasons on why I won’t go to USL that I won’t say publicly. But I can say that I do not believe in the franchise model. I believe in what I call the world model [where clubs are run independently of each other].”