March 19, 2012--CSL's Annual Conference Upbeat (from CSL website)
CSL's ANNUAL CONFERENCE UPBEAT There was an upbeat mood at the well-attended Canadian Soccer League’s annual meeting Sunday, when the member clubs reflected on the 2011 season and the league’s outlook for the upcoming 2012 campaign and beyond. Last October, Toronto Croatia won its eighth league title following its triumph earlier in the season at the Croatian World Club Championship held in Europe. To win the club championship, the Toronto side defeated Croatian teams from Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Australia. Looking ahead, the meeting considered there was good optimism for the future of Canadian soccer and the role to be played by the CSL in developing the game within this country. The league announced a record 16 teams will kickoff a 22-game First Division regular season schedule the first week of May - the previous highest was last year’s 14.. A reserve division of 14 teams will get the season underway a week later. The league announced that the governing body Canadian Soccer Association is arranging top referees to be brought in from other provinces to handle what is becoming a larger and increasingly competitive Canadian Soccer League. These match officials will complement the existing list of referees from mostly Ontario and a number from Quebec already officiating CSL games. The league also explained there are talks underway to launch a new Canada Cup competition with teams from the CSL and Quebec. The CSL previously staged an Open Canada Cup competition for ten years until 2007 with its teams from Ontario and Quebec, the Toronto Lynx of the USL and a team from British Columbia which reached the final only to lose to Trois-Rivieres Attak of Quebec in the final year. The CSL is becoming heavy on youth talent with more promising players being selected for one or more of Canada’s national teams and for higher clubs in other countries, while a steady flow of European players brought here to strengthen CSL teams has imparted a quality of play for which the league has become known in recent times. The CSL will continue to emphasize the greater number of young players in many leagues that can benefit from a stronger program of professional development and as programs interface with Canada’s three professional clubs in MLS and the CSL itself, more top players will emerge to eventually result in Canada becoming a more serious contender in world soccer. “Canada now has many highly qualified coaches and an overall good technical resource by virtue of a number of individuals having played at a high level, or by certification, and the CSL is doing whatever it can to make sure the many promising youth players within the CSL can benefit,” said CSL administrator Pino Jazbec during the conference. CSL major partners Rogers TV, Days Inn and Locust reinforced their sponsorship of the CSL. The league has planned a 30-minute TV magazine program in 2012 on Rogers to complement the televising of games on that network The league agreed to meet again at Kitchener mid-April and this will be followed by a media conference just before the new season kickoff. 2011 Canadian Soccer League
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