Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

On the CanPL's new CEO

Three posts in a week…starting to feel like 2008 over here…

Photo by Ondrej Machart on Unsplash

It’s been an eventful 24 hours for the CanPL.

As I reported on my social media channels yesterday, it has started the process of dividing the commissioner role into two parts: a business-focused CEO role that is going to be filled by Aussie football executive James Johnson, and a second role that will be sport-focused.

There has yet to be someone named to the sport-focused role, but I was told yesterday that they are in “advanced” talks with someone who would be “well known to Canadian soccer fans.”

It’s not that Johnson doesn’t have the football chops — he played in the NCAA and for the Australian u17s in the late 90s — to fill both roles. He played the game. However, the suggestion is that the individual who will be appointed to support him has really played the game.

As fun as it would be to speculate on who that might be (Atiba? DeRo? Christine!?), that’s not really the most important position to focus on. It’s sexier — and it will matter — but it’s the dessert of our meal.

Johnson is the meat here. The shrimp on the barbie, if we must (and I promise that will be the last time I go there). This is a guy with FIFA and AFC experience as well as with City Football Group. All three of those experiences will be valuable, but what might be even more important is that whole you-call-that-a-knife-this-is-a-knife-ness of him (Ok, that is it. I’m done now.)

Above, I said Johnson had the football chops for the job, but what I should have said is that he has the soccer chops. That’s because Australia is probably the one nation on earth that is kind of similar to Canada in regards to the environment the sport operates in. However, it’s about a decade ahead of Canada in its efforts to bring it in line with the rest of the world.

So, Aussies are one of the few who can truly understand the challenges that a Canuck faces in this game. Maybe a Kiwi too, but Australia is more successful and has the talent to draw from.

So, as much as I like that Johnson might be able to get someone from the blue half of Manchester on the phone (and open to a conversation about investing in a team here) I’m more hyped by the fact that this guy has worked in Australia and has helped build the A-League. It’s always been my belief — I’ve probably written it here, somewhere — that the A-League should be what the CanPL aspires to be.

So, I’m hopeful about this appointment. Not blind to its challenges (expansion, York, visibility, etc.) but hopeful. With all due respect to both Mark Noonan and David Clanachan, Johnson is a much more experienced and talented. It is a testament to the potential of the league that someone as talented as Johnson even considered it.