Developing soccer players in Canada is not cheap.

So Canadians want Canada to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.  Awesome.  Let's do it.  OK now, let's talk about the cost. 

Hey, where did everybody go?

Soccer is a game that can be played by the masses, regardless of gender, physical ability, income or social position, anywhere, anytime, 1v1 up to 30v30, with a ball, can, stuffed bag or whatever else will move if you kick it.  But the environment has to change when it comes time to move a player to the next level.

There has been a lot of talk in Ontario the last 12 months about our new Ontario Player Development League (OPDL) and the proposed costs associated with it.  And this is just an extension of the talk that has always existed about the price tag for private soccer academies.  OPDL is a standards based program introduced in Ontario.  The first season is 2014 and will feature only U13 boys and girls programs at 18 host clubs.  Eventually, this will eliminate our current provincial team system.

There is a painful reality of a more consistent, high level, professional system and that is the reality of
money.  Physical space, equipment, support staff and professional coaching all cost money. 

Around the world, the development system is delivered by professional teams who have made their youth system an
integral part of their business plan.  There is no charge to the player.  Most teams have a system extending from their reserve team all the way down to the grassroots level.

In Canada, we do not have such a system on a wide scale.  There are 3 MLS teams who runs youth systems (Toronto FC, Montreal Impact and Whitecaps FC).  To replicate this system over and over would take money from other sources.  In most cases, that source is the players.  (The players at the three MLS clubs do not pay).

Somebody will argue you don't need all the fancy bells and whistles.  "Give me a field, a few balls and ambitious players and I will develop them."  I know I can do that, no problem!  But will that bring Canada a consistent, high quality development system over multiple age groups? A system that will develop professional players who can wear our national team jersey?  Can we build a national player pool of 50-60 players who play first team football every week?

ummmm... no.

Many of us can develop a technical player.  But what are the chances of developing a player who can compete at a professional level if we all work alone and have 15-18 players?  What if I had a support network behind me to take care of details so I can work with 3 teams?  What if I was part of a group that had mentors/directors with qualified coaches under them working with 8 teams, 4-5 times/week?  And there were multiple organizations, doing the same thing, and we played each other to keep the environment at a consistently high level.

That kind of system will cost somebody, somewhere some money.

"There's a painful reality of a consistent, high level, professional system and that is the reality of money."

Ask any Canadian soccer aficionado what our national program severely lacks and you'll always hear "money".  We do need to replicate the successful systems of other countries and find a way to do that without having a full professional league system across the country.

Let's talk about Ontario soccer.

Ontario has almost 13.5 million people.  We have one professional soccer team with a youth system.  Toronto FC has 6 development teams in their academy.  One is a U23/College team, so let's say 5.  Let's say that most of these players are from within a 2 hour driving distance of Toronto.

Holland has a population of 17 million people.  With a land area of 41,500km2 , you can fit Holland into Ontario over twenty-five times.  Holland has 36 professional clubs developing players, down to U10.  They deliver our single professional program 36 times, to more age groups.  Think about it.  They do what we do once for 13.5 million people THIRTY SIX times for 17 million people.  How do we compete with that?

Oh, so I shouldn't compare Canada to Holland.  OK. Let's check out Honduras.

Honduras has a population of 8.2 Million.  Honduras qualified for the 2014 World Cup.  They have a top league of 10 teams.  Two of those teams can qualify to play in the CONCACAF Champions League (Canada gets one spot).  That's 10 teams worth of players getting weekly, competitive first team football and 2 teams worth of players getting even more exposure to high level play.  That's 10 teams that kids aspire to play for.  There are nine Hondurans playing in MLS.  Honduras has a National Team player pool of 42 players. 17 national team players have professional contracts outside of Honduras.  How do we compete with this system with what we have now?

People will argue that Canada is a hockey country.  That Canada is too big and travel costs too high to sustain a professional league of it's own.  People will argue that our populations are not concentrated enough to take advantage of efficiencies (The United states has 52 metro areas with more than 1 million people, we have 5.)   It's too cold to play all year round.  There is very little government or corporate support.  Well, the people who want Canada to qualify for a World Cup have to work around all that.

One way or another, we need to replicate the systems in those countries in spite of the fact that our professional system is not big enough.  There is very little corporate sponsorship to cover those costs.  The soccer world does have a few sugar-daddies around (benefactors) but not enough to put a dent in the true cost.

What drives up costs for elite player development in Canada?

• Professional level coaching.
• Cost of support system (admin/therapists/officials/etc)
• Cost of large indoor facilities necessary for year round soccer in Canada.  (Futsal can help keep that cost down a bit)
• Cost of outdoor turf to extend outdoor soccer past the usual late-May to late-September grass availability.
• Travel costs.

So, who is left to pay?  I would like to think that professional teams might see value in affiliating themselves with OPDL clubs and cover some of the costs, but mostly on the boys side.  That will take time and they would want to see proof.  This leaves the player to pay.

We have the rare situation in North America of a pay-to-play system for soccer.  If you are pay-to-play, it negatively impacts your club's right to development fees from a professional team that might sign one of your players.  Pay-to-play limits who can play because of economics.  Pay-to-play comes with expectations from the paying player.  Pay-to-play may involve customers who can affect program decisions. 

The first outdoor season for OPDL is next summer.  The initial estimates for costs per player are being determined by each individual club.  I am certain that member clubs will work hard to contain that, but costs are a reality.  They have to if they want it to work.

Here is what a small part of a budget might consist of:

• 18 player team.
• 6 hours/week of field time
• 14 weeks indoor, 30 weeks outdoor, 2 months off
• indoor space $80/hour
• outdoor turf $40/hour
• professional/licensed coach $40/hour 

You're looking at $1360/player for field time and one coach.  Not including club registration, games, officials, equipment, physio on site, GK coach, etc, etc.  And some of you are probably thinking my hourly rates for indoor and outdoor turf and a coach are all very very low.  Indoor field time for a 6v6 field runs anywhere from $80-150/hour.  In Welland, a 9v9 field is $200/hour.

You can try to argue that:

1. professionally trained soccer players who train 3-4/week playing other professionally trained soccer players who train 3-4/week will still not develop the kind of soccer players we need.  
2. the price tag will limit who can participate.
3. we don't have the culture to make such a program fly.
4. we don't have enough coaches to make this happen on a wide scale.

I think we can all agree, in response to each point:

1. What we have been doing until now has not worked.  Professionally trained soccer players playing each other every week across Ontario can't be a bad thing, in fact, it's a great thing.
2. Clubs will have to sharpen the collective pencils on the price tag to capture as many quality players as possible and make the program sustainable over a long term.  Member clubs and the OSA will have to find a way to control this if interest is to grow on a bigger scale and include every player who has talent.  Canada is at a stage where it cannot afford to leave any stone unturned.
3. As long as we don't qualify for the World Cup, we will struggle to build the culture.  So Point 1 needs to work.  Success will bring more of the culture, but the culture is growing.
4. The league has started out with only one age group for 2014. Support staff, systems, officials, host clubs and coaches will all have to grow together.

Let's be clear... this is not about soccer costing more for everybody.  Not being in an elite type system does not make you any less a part of the soccer community.  I know there are experienced coaches out there running a team program in a regional level league that is being delivered at a very high level.  But we don't have enough of them.  This is about replicating a player development model over and over within our province/country to develop professional level players and properly feed a national team program.

The next two pieces of the puzzle are a drastically expanded grassroots movement and a properly organized and competitive senior component for the players to gain the necessary competitive experience.  That's another story in itself.  If we don't have a system to take these developed players from one level to the next, we are wasting our time.  The OSA just announced L1, a senior semi-pro structure. The OSA is investing heavily in grassroots soccer and that is shaping up.

Some people agree with OPDL, some don't.  The fact is somebody had to do something bold, and  nobody really did anything to steer the ship straight for a long time.  When LTPD came out for U12 and below in 2012 the masses were divided but many now see the light.   We are on the right track with the kids leading to U13.

Developing players costs money in every country.  In most, that cost is covered.  Here?  Whether it's OPDL, academies or professional teams, a consistent effective player development system will cost. 

Who should pay will be the great debate.