April 22, 2011 CSL--CSL Connects With Newly - Formed Canadian Academy Of Futbol CAF (from CSL news release)
CSL CONNECTS WITH NEWLY - FORMED CANADIAN ACADEMY OF FUTBOL (CAF) Friday, April 22, 2011 There are now more than one million players in organized soccer in Canada and 85 per cent of those are registered by their local district or region, which also gives them membership in their home province or territory and also Canada’s national soccer body, the Canadian Soccer Association. Despite this, it is clear that many players are still to experience the very good formal skills training Canada’s governance, clubs and private academies are known for, due in large part to the way the game has evolved during the years when player registrations outstripped the available technical expertise needed to do the teaching. But there is now good agreement that many young players show enough natural ability that more serious player development should be available and that young players should be encouraged to take the extra step, at least for a period of time until the player’s potential for high level soccer has been determined. Such a process is bound to produce more candidates for top professional soccer and Canada’s World Cup team. Greater encouragement of players is one of the objectives of a newly-created private soccer academy, the Canadian Academy of Futbol (CAF), now being formed in Toronto and which has agreed to a working relationship with the Canadian Soccer League. The CSL in 2010 decided to embrace the subject of skills training and the broader scope of player development, requiring its member clubs to affiliate with youth soccer in the immediate community as part of an overall stepped-up CSL player development program. The newly-formed Canadian Academy of Futbol is based in Ontario and will, therefore, be in full compliance with the Ontario Soccer Association’s recently announced requirements for soccer academies operating in the province. “We are pleased to join with the CAF under Ontario Soccer Association rules, all of which provides our league the opportunity to carry out what we believe to be a player development program that gives players encouragement. For those who join the program, they will become more skilled and better equipped for high level soccer if that is the course they desire to pursue,” said recently appointed CSL chairman Vincent Ursini. The CSL is governed directly by the Canadian Soccer Association which follows FIFA’s edict to encourage well-run player development programs world-wide.. While the early programs will take place this year in southern Ontario, the eventual scope of the CAF and CSL affiliation will expand across the country in parallel with the proposed expansion of the CSL. An important aspect of the program is to identify players in the higher age categories for entry into CSL professional teams, creating a path that leads to the top professional soccer in North America and abroad and the possibility of national team honours along the way.
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