Why is CSA sitting on announcement of men’s Olympic roster?

Shaun Saiko in action.

The Canadian Soccer Association is still basking in the glow of a successful women’s CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. But, at the same time, the CSA has made an absolute hash of the announcement of the men’s Olympic roster.

We know from various announcements (FC Edmonton sent out a press release about its three call-ups two weeks ago), Tweets (confirmation from Huddersfield keeper Simon Thomas) and interviews (Toronto FC’s Matt Stinson confirmed he got the call) that the players who are going to me invited to the preliminary camp in mid-March were contacted almost two weeks ago. Yet, the CSA has been eerily silent on announcing the roster. In fact, it’s being sat on like a state secret.

In the days of Twitter and Facebook, an organization can’t hope to call players, name them to a roster, and not have them talk about it. It’s silly to sit on the announcement of a roster for weeks.

Instead of wowing us with one announcement of the roster, the names of players have come out in dribs and drabs.

Maybe the CSA wanted to be clear of the women’s tournament before announcing the men’s roster. Maybe the CSA wanted to wait for the new Umbro national-team jerseys to be unveiled.

But really, with so much attention being paid to the women’s tournament, would it not have been perfect to announce the roster for the men’s preliminary camp during a Rogers Sportsnet broadcast from B.C. Place? The women created a lot of buzz; so why not launch the countdown to the men’s camp? Would the men’s roster not made for great halftime programming during one of the Canadian women’s qualifying matches?

On the heels of the women’s feel-good story in Vancouver, we should be hyped for the upcoming men’s tournament in Nashville. Instead, we are playing guessing games with a preliminary-camp roster we know was settled weeks ago.

It’s not just a PR or meda issue — it’s not fair to many of the clubs who will need to replace these players. Some may only be gone for a couple of weeks, cut, then return. Some will go to qualifying. And, if Canada achieves its goal, the players on the team would then miss a huge chunk of summer league play in MLS or NASL. It’s one thing to let the clubs now verbally that players are on call; it’s another to see it in writing.

And, when the roster comes out, clubs can also prepare their fans for the fact that players could be missing for large chunks of April and, if Canada qualifies, June and July. For a club like Toronto FC, which will lose Stinson for sure and feels it is likely to lose Morgan, it’s important to prepare its fan base for the loss of some key players.

So, here are the for-sures: (These players are invited to camp, but not guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team)
Michael Misiewicz, GK, FC Edmonton
Simon Thomas, GK, Huddersfield Town
Shaun Saiko, MF, FC Edmonton
Matt Stinson, MF-D, Toronto FC
Kyle Porter, MF-F, FC Edmonton

Yes, anyone reading this column can be a cynic and think, “wow, easy for a journalist to complain about access to a roster.” Actually, while sitting on the roster isn’t good business for the CSA, it’s actually pretty darn good for us in the media. Instead of having the Olympic roster come out, and then having us soccer writers write a story each about it, we’ve been able to write more than a few speculative stories. Instead of having one story on this site about the Olympic roster, there are several. That means more hits and more readers. So if I wanted to write a column that looked out for No. 1, I’d ask for more secrecy and less transparency from the CSA. It’s better for business.

UPDATE (Jan. 31, 2011): The CSA has told The 11 that, according to CONCACAF rules, the teams had to each submit a 30-man list a couple of weeks ago. No national team is bound to that list. Next week, coach Tony Fonseca will call players with official invites for camp. Again, the CSA stresses, no official invites have gone out.

Canada then has up to 48 hours before the kickoff of its first game of the tournament to submit its final squad list to CONCACAF.

So the question arises: Will all of the players who are on the initial CONCACAF-mandated squad list also get invited to camp? Surely, if there is a discrepancy between the two lists, there will be some bruised egos with the players.