“It would be positive on many levels,” said Hart. “The players will more easily accept to play in the country once their clubs accept their call ups to the national team, which still remains a difficult issue. Three Canadian clubs in MLS will also mean that there will be room for young players and that we’ll put more emphasis on development.”
Of the 19 players selected for the Canadian National team to take on Saint Lucia (ranked 184th in the world), in the curtain raiser, on the second of September at BMO field and four days later in Puerto Rico (ranked 144th), seven players from the MLS sides.
The seven players are: defenders Andre Hainault (Houston Dynamo), Ante Jazic (Chivas USA) and Dejan Jakovic (DC United) and midfielders Dwayne De Rosario (DC United), Will Johnson (Real Salt Lake), Julian de Guzman and Terry Dunfield (Toronto FC).
“These numbers vary according to the circumstances, depending on the countries where these friendly matches/tournaments take place or the period of the year in which they are held,” explained Hart. “At this point in time, the MLS players have already played three quarters of their season and therefore are more match fit than the European players whose seasons have only just started. It’s an important factor. Just like the fact that our first two matches take place in Toronto and then in Puerto Rico.”
At the moment there are about twenty Canadian players playing in MLS. Of those twenty, a dozen or so are definite starters rather than occasional replacements.
Since two thirds of these players play with Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps, we can easily understand the importance of the presence of Canadian clubs: to assure the development of domestic players so that they can be called up to the National team.
“I am happy to know that a great number of young players will be taking part in the academies that have been built in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. We noticed the effect of the existence of a premier division on the US national team,” Hart underlined.
“The United States head coach can now build a team comprised of exclusively MLS players and European-based, while at the same time being able to compete just as well on the continental or international stages. Only ten years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Ideally, it’s what will happen in Canada also, even if we can only count on three teams.”
Special clause for Canadian clubs
This qualitative and quantitative development of American players posses a certain menace for the Canadian clubs in MLS. From a marketing standpoint, even if counting on local and even national players would surely be an advantage, the league felt the need to insert a rule that would ensure that Toronto FC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact (starting in 2012) have a minimum of three Canadian players in its roster.
This particular clause, a first of its kind in MLS history having to do with a “domestic” or national player minimum, is explained by the fact that the league has decreed that - along with players born in Canada - players of United States’ origin are also included in the “domestic” category for the Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal clubs, in order to not put Canadian teams at a competitive disadvantage on the field.
“Without the minimum of the three Canadian player clause, theoretically we could have ended up with Canadian clubs without Canadian players,” explained Todd Durbin, executive vice-president of MLS. “It was certainly not the objective in mind when we let United States’ players be considered as domestic players by Canadian clubs.”
Ultimately, over the course of the next few years, the MLS directors hope and wish that the Canadian pool of players of a North American premier division calibre becomes big enough “so that we can move away from the minimum three player clause and – ideally - that we remove the special statute accorded to American players that belong to a Canadian team’s roster”.
A committee formed of representatives of MLS and the Canadian Soccer Association was put into place to evaluate the “Canada clause”, which has to be put to an end by the end of 2015.
“We want to assure that the opportunities to develop the potential of Canadian players be maximized,” continued Durbin. “With this in mind, we will follow up on the number of Canadian players in each of the MLS clubs, in order that we find a right balance between the need of each organization to be competitive and our collective engagement to develop players in Canada.”
André Hainault thinks long term
André Hainault didn’t wait for the “Canada clause” to make his place in MLS. A starting center back for both the Canadian national team and for Houston dynamo, the 25 year old Quebecois native had also played over fifty matches in the first and second divisions of the Czech Republic before signing a contract with Houston in April of 2009.
Content with being in Texas, where the Dynamo is involved in the playoff race, Hainault sees the coming of a third Canadian club in MLS as very positive.
“I don’t know to what extent this [three teams in MLS] will help the national team in the short term, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will see an improvement in the medium and long term, because Toronto FC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact will be a great source of motivation for the promising young players across Canada,” said Hainault.
Hainault also believes that Canadian players can generally better develop in MLS instead of moving to Europe where a different environment, a set up that is not always the finest and a foreign player status, may not play in their favour.
“I followed my own path which was strewn with obstacles, but that still enabled me to reach the level that I find myself in now. I am happy to see that there will be three Canadian clubs in MLS starting next year. This will eventually be good for the national team. By 2012, the arrival of the Impact will be positive for Montreal, for Quebec, for soccer at home. The biggest positive consequence for me is that I will be able to come and play in front of my family and my friends,” Hainault concluded with a laugh.
The Canadian national team won’t instantly rise from 100th place in the world to the 40th with the arrival of a third Canadian club in MLS in 2012. For Stephen Hart, the improvement will be done gradually.
“It will depend quite a bit on the willingness of the three Canadian clubs to play their Canadian players,” he concluded.
Martin Smith, Impact Media
CFMTL Media
