The O Canada interview

In part 11 of my global interview series we visit Canada and Liverpool fan Eric Bergeron.

Eric hosts a web log called LIVERPOOLFC.FAN.CA which, obviously, is dedicated to Liverpool FC. My thanks for joining in.

FC: Canada has not made a World Cup since 1986, what must happen for fortunes to change? What is the current state of the national side and how well supported is it?

EB: Yup – the last time we qualified, or even came close to qualifying, was 1986 in Mexico. I actually have our round robin games on tape at home – even though I was only 10. Our national squad is ranked 84th in the world, right between Algeria and North Korea. I think we were once in the top 60, but that was a few years ago.

Honestly the national side is not doing very well. We failed to make the final qualifying round by finishing last in our pool vs. teams like Guatemala and Panama. We handed mighty Belize a spanking though ;) It has been a very bad year for soccer in Canada on the national side. Most countries would consider the level of support in Canada as poor or very poor.

I think one of the positives in the National soccer side is that there is a lot of young talent, and they are starting to play at better and better levels. We have a few players in the Premiership, the Bundesliga and one in La Liga, but overall, Canada’s crop of players play first or second division or in Canada/USA. Developing young talent has been a priority in Canada for a few years, but it is tough to get players signed internationally. Canada is hosting the 2007 FIFA Youth Cup which should help put our young talents on the world stage, as it did for our women’s side a few years ago.

The women’s team is one of the top in the world and finished 4th at the most recent Women’s World Cup. They have a ton of talent and many young players. They get good media coverage too compared to the men’s side.

Part of the problem is that most Canadians are descendants of other countries and thus cheer for other countries. I personally like the Dutch as I have family there. Not many people pay as much attention to our own team as to their country of origin though. Even if we had one of the best squads in the world.

FC: What do you think of the CPSL (Canadian Professional Soccer League)? Would you like to see Canadian cities join the MLS (Major League Soccer) from America?

EB: The CPSL is not really a league at all. It would probably rank up there with a 3rd division in Norway (with apologies to Norwegian football) or a Pub League in England.

There are 3 Canadian teams in the USL, basically the First Division in North America. Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto have teams in that league and it is really the only national soccer we ever hear about in the media. It’s tough to find games on TV, although I live outside of those markets myself. Vancouver and Montreal are both doing very well, and are actually planning to expand to new stadiums. Both clubs do very well and average about 6 to 7 thousands fans per match. The Toronto team struggles and finished last this season.

I read a report that MLS will expand to Canada (Toronto) by 2007. I believe a team can thrive there as well as in Montreal and Vancouver where soccer is more popular. I don’t follow MLS at all though personally. There is something about the names of the clubs that turns me off (San Jose Earthquakes, Real Salt Lake!). I prefer to follow the European clubs, as I believe most real soccer fans in North America do. MLS has come a long way in ten years and is making progress, but it will be a very long time before I actually follow it with the passion of European football that I love. The league is far too “American” in the sense that they have playoffs, logos, no clubs, no relegation, and no first or second division teams.


FC: Is football doomed because of hockey's popularity in Canada? What's the youth football system like?

EB: Everything is doomed because of Hockey’s popularity. I can only compare it to Rugby in New Zealand or Cricket in India in terms of how dominating the sport is media wise and in the minds of Canadians.

It is difficult to get a proper national level youth system going as the country’s population is so far apart. Different Provinces have different setups, but overall I think the country does a lot of good to get kids playing soccer. In terms of participation soccer is actually the most popular sport – far greater then hockey.

FC: Who are your top 5 Canadian players at the moment?

Very few Canadians can answer this question. But here goes:

Tomas Radzinski (Fullham)

Dwayne deRosario (San Jose Earthquakes)

Paul Stalteri (Werder Bremen)

Greg Sutton - Montreal Impact

Iain Hume – Leicester City

Extra:

Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich) – he’s ours!

FC: What foreign leagues are popular in Canada? What football leagues do you get to see there?

EB: Coverage has gotten better in the past few years. The English Premiership is by far the most popular overall. We get a lot of Champions League Coverage, but the Italian Serie A and the Spanish La Liga don’t get the coverage they should. You can watch 5 Premiership games for every non premiership game in Canada. A few cable channels play a lot of Brazillian and Argentinian league matches – so there is a good mix on the television.

See a list of all the interviews published so far

*Please email if you'd like to conduct an interview (over email) or if you know the name of a weblog in your country.