Members of Canada Soccer’s board of directors hit with player lawsuit

There is a dramatic new twist in the ongoing battle between Canada Soccer and its players the Canadian soccer players Association has filed a $40 million lawsuit against individual board members past and present over a controversial 2018 media and sponsorship deal John Molinaro was with me this morning for

Our coverage of all of this and he’s going to give us all the facts and details for us number one the lawsuit $40 million what is the issue here what is it all about yeah it’s a long-standing issue Heather dating back to 2018 when Canada Soccer signed an agreement with a

Company called the Canadian soccer business so essentially csb gives Canada Soccer a guaranteed Revenue stream of about3 to4 million over the length of the deal which is a 10year deal and there’s also an ability for csb to extend the deal another 10 years so Canada Soccer gets guaranteed income

From csb to $3 million a year in exchange Canada Soccer business controls the sort of marketing and sponsorship and broadcast rights uh tied to Canada Soccer so for instance CSD sells a sponsorship you know to CIBC or Nike or telis or VISA which they’ve done they pocket all the money Canada Soccer

Doesn’t get any now the can now the downside of that is that well Canada Soccer gets a guaranteed revenue from csb each year the Canadian soccer women’s team feels that you know this sort of agreement is really sort of robbing you know the program its program of of you know some valuable dollars

Because you know it’s not seeing the funding going directly into the program it’s going into the CB’s coppers and as I said this is a 10-year deal so that’s a long time and there’s the a possibility to extend it another 10 years so the women feel that this deal

Is one of the reasons why Canada Soccer is in such you know Financial per Peril and why their program is really suffering the consequences financially let’s talk about that in terms of the Imp impact of this when they didn’t feel they got sufficient revenues as part of

This deal what do they feel was the negative impact for the program well you you’ll see it in that it’s really sort of put a cash crunch on Canada Soccer because they don’t have as much revenue coming in had they had they retain the right to sell their own media

Rights and and Commercial inventory and so without that extra money coming in it plays into effects in terms of you know Canada Soccer not properly funding you know training camps for both the men’s and the women’s team Youth Development programs stuff like that so it’s it’s

Really you know the the the players who are kind of fight feeling the financial pinch of this in the long run L and and the abil okay and the ability of the national program I guess let me ask you as well so in in targeting those individual board members past and

Present any sense of what the thinking is there John yeah it’s an interesting one I I think it’s more along the lines of you know just sort of holding them responsible uh as opposed to Canada Soccer it’s you know the players have a long-standing feud with Canada Soccer I

Think this is just in terms of making those individual board members financially responsible and really sort of driving the point home that they feel you know really hard done by and that these members didn’t do their sort of due diligence and fiduciary duty so I think by making it personal in this

Regard in directing at specific board members they’re really sort of driving the point home that they think this this deal is just you know wasn’t um wasn’t good thing right to begin with okay and all happening as the conquer CAF Gold Cup begins John we’ll have you back to

Talk about that the actual game wanted to focus on what’s going on off the pitch with you this morning thank you for everything John Molinaro as always no problem either

The Canadian Soccer Players’ Association has filed a $40-million lawsuit on behalf of the Canadian women’s team against 15 current and former board members of Canada Soccer alleging ‘negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.’

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