August 29, 2003--CPSL finishes Open Canada Cup without Ottawa Wizards (from It's Called Futbol)
Open Canada Cup kicks off in London Today… without Wizards Aug 29, 2003 - 9.30 am - Author: Soccer Online - It's Called Futbol If you like drama with your soccer, you will get your fill today. This is a tale of two soccer cities, two soccer clubs, two passionate CPSL owners and two different interpretations of the same set events. The setting? A soccer field and a courtroom. The Open Canada Cup is set to kick off in London tonight. The hometown CPSL club London City battle the Durham Flames at 8:30 p.m. at the Cove Road field…or will they? At 10:00 a.m. this morning, in another part of the province, the nation’s capital to be exact, the Ottawa Wizards will enter a courtroom and attempt to persuade a judge to pass an injunction that would halt the final round of the Open Canada Cup from being played. High drama, indeed. How did this climactic scenario come to pass? The Ottawa Wizards were removed from the competition last week after the CPSL administrative office announced that the club had failed to notify the league of its intent to attend the competition before an imposed deadline. The Wizards, who had qualified for the competition by defeating the Laval Dynamites in the previous qualifying round, were upset with the league over the final round schedule. The original schedule had Ottawa playing three games over three days. In London, the show is set to go on. City owner Harry Gauss and his committed band of volunteers are expecting the usual strong turnout for the competition. With the strong backing of the City of London, it is a good bet that the Open Canada Cup will be a success at the gate and on the field…if it takes place at all. The odds at this late stage favour the tournament being played, as Wizards owner Omur Sezurman admitted last night in Ottawa. But the dispute is far from being resolved.
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