The Canadian Soccer Association needs to revamp its structure and more than double its budget to a minimum of $25 million by 2013, the organization says in a new five-year plan released Tuesday.
More than a year in the making, the association's "Strategic Plan" and "Strategic Activities" 2009-13 documents are billed as "the starting points to a co-ordinated approach to soccer's future in Canada."
The documents are long on good intentions and, at this stage, largely short of specifics other than identifying a myriad of areas that have to be fixed or improved.
Still it recognizes that the sport in Canada needs to be fixed.
"We aim to regain the confidence of the Canadian soccer community by giving our teams the means to improve their performances within CONCACAF and FIFA," the plan concludes. "We also aim to show that the association does what it should for the development of our sport."
The CSA plan comes in the wake of elimination of the men's national team, the association's flagship team, from World Cup finals contention in 2010 (one of the report's stated goals). Canada has not qualified for the sport's showcase event since 1986. The failure of the men's team has also been accompanied by reports of dissatisfaction from several of its players.
The report raises the bar significantly on on-field performance, calling for the Canadian women's team, currently ranked 10th in the world by FIFA, to win a medal at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics and at the 2011 World Cup.
The men's goal is to reach the round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup. The plan also calls for the Canadian men to crack the top 40 of the FIFA rankings and top three in CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean. Canada is currently 84th in the world and fifth in CONCACAF.
National team plans include establishing European and Central American training camp locations.
Improved funding is seen as the lifeblood for on-field improvement and the report concludes that the CSA has to be reorganized if it is to secure the resources to properly fund its soccer teams.
"It is a start. It's ongoing, it is fluid, " association general secretary Peter Montopoli, speaking from Ottawa, said of the report. "And I think we have to recognize that ... but I think we've captured the essence of soccer in the strategic plan itself, as a start. But we do know and we probably all agree that there is tremendous potential for the future."
Money is needed to translate that potential into reality.
The CSA's 2007 budget was $12 million, $5.9 million or 43 per cent of which came from membership fees from the more than 867,000 registered players in the country.
Of that budget, $4.5 million or 36 per cent was spent on senior teams. Another $1.8 million or 14 per cent went to youth teams. The remaining 50 per cent went to expenditures described as technical, marketing and communication, national competitions and administration and meetings.
The new plan calls for hiring of a "senior business development person" to help increase revenue and establish a business advisory committee as well as maximize existing revenue streams such as gate receipts from home games, sponsors, merchandising and CSA members.
It also cites the objective of a new staff structure, with the goal of "more efficient organization."
The association has already released the first part of its so-called "Wellness to World Cup" plan. Issued in June, it was billed as a framework for long-term player development and is the first of several instalments.
The new strategic plan identifies the 2012 women's CONCACAF Olympic qualifier, 2010 Peace Cup, 2015 Women's World Cup, and the men's CONCACAF Gold Cup, as well as a new tournament called the Canada Cup as potential events Canada could host.
While there are big-picture goals, there are also smaller ones like ensuring the CSA website is bilingual and having "ongoing positive relationships with media outlets."
Soccer in Canada has produced a variety of plans over the last decade, including failed blueprints to launch a top-tier domestic league. And it has spent long hours trying to find ways to translate its enormous grassoots playing base into success at the national and international level.
In the process, there has been a revolving door of CSA executives, coaches and other officials.
Holger Osieck, then men's head coach and technical director, and Andy Sharpe, then CSA vice-president, released a damning look at the sport in Canada in 1999.
"Freezing temperatures, rain-soaked shale, gravel fields, gymnasium-type playing areas are not suitable to prepare our national teams to compete against our CONCACAF neighbours such as Mexico, U.S.A., Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Guatemala," the report stated bluntly.
"In addition the lack of a professional infrastructure further handicaps our young Canadian players. We found the CSA staff feeling helpless due to the lack of facilities available and proper funding."
In 2000, there was another association five-year plan dubbed Blueprint for Success. And in 2005, there was a Deloitte review of the CSA's organization structure and planning.
Many have tried to fix the problem, including England's Dick Bate, who came on board as technical director in the fall of 2005 and soon learned the challenge facing him.
"There's a lot to do," he said in an interview in February 2006. "There's a lot of very enthusiastic, very willing people working in the game. Many wishing it was different. Not having the staff or the authority to change things. That's a first impression.
"It seems to be very fragmented. ... Nothing particularly universally co-ordinated."
Bates resigned five months later, after just 10 months on the job, to accept a technical director's job with English club Watford.