SOCCER CANADA'S NEW BOSS FACES BIG CHALLENGE
Nick Bontis is bringing more than 45 years of experience to his new role as president of Canada Soccer and is likely going to rely on every bit of it to get through the current pandemic climate.
Bontis is taking over a program that has seen its revenues drop drastically due to the COVID-19 pandemic as soccer registrations were down across the country. He is also overseeing national team programs that are currently in holding patterns.
“The No. 1 priority is recovery from the lockdown due to the pandemic,” Bontis said Tuesday. “PRE-COVID, the organization was extremely healthy, soccer across Canada was extremely healthy. We had tremendous momentum both on the women's side and on the men's side, then COVID hits last March, and in April and May parents are not registering their kids to play outdoor soccer across the country.
“This is where we get a third of our revenues, from player fees, and that was a shock to our system as well to all of our members and our provinces. We fast forward to September and we see indoor soccer is having the same challenges and registration. Moving into 2021, I hope we can move past this so we can recover to PRE-COVID levels. The financial stability of ourselves and our membership organizations is a priority.”
Bontis has not exactly inherited a sinking ship, it just needs to be guided back on course once things return to some semblance of normality. That may be a while, however, considering coronavirus cases are once again spiking across the country with the only relief in sight seeming to be in the form of a vaccine.
The Canadian women's national team has already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, which have been pushed back to next summer, but have not played a game since March.
The men's national team are due to start World Cup qualifying in March 2021, but have not played a game since January.
There have been three international FIFA windows for national teams since September and Canada has sat out all of them.
“Our national teams, we have to get them back on the field,” Bontis said. “I'm a soccer fan first and foremost, I want to see our teams play, I live to watch soccer. But we will always at Canada Soccer adhere to the health professionals. They will have the final say as to whether we play or not.”
For now, the CONCACAF Qualifiers are still on, with Canada facing Bermuda and the Cayman Islands in March in a revamped tournament for a spot in the
2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Canada is expected to have an automatic berth in the 2026 tournament as co-hosts with the United States and Mexico.
“Sometimes you have to take one step back to take two steps forward,” Bontis said. “I know we've taken a step back in these last couple of FIFA windows, but I do believe in 2021 our volume of play will increase both on the women's side and on the men's side as we look toward the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the men and the Olympic Games for the women.”
Bontis started his road to the Canada Soccer presidency as a player in Scarborough, Ont. He played at the university level where he earned Ontario provincial and national all-star level recognition. He has his national coaching license and was a recent inductee to the University of Western Mustangs Sports Hall of Fame.
Bontis has been a director for Canada Soccer since 2012 and has been at the forefront of their strategic planning process for the past eight years. He served as Canada Soccer vice-president under Steve Reed, who had been president for the previous three years.
A tenured professor at Mcmaster University, Bontis holds a PH.D, in Business Administration from Ivey Business School at Western University. He'll be using that business background to try and stretch dollars as best he can until revenues return to normal after the pandemic subsides.
“Every dollar that we get in, a huge portion of that goes out to support our men's and women's national teams at competitions, at camps and for travel,” Bontis said. “Our men's and our women's national teams are the priority. If you take a look at our annual report you will notice our financial outlay for our men's and women's program is virtually identical and it has been for the last three or four years. I as president will continue to fight with our board to make sure our men's side and our women's side is as close together as possible.”
According to Bontis some of those decision are being made for them as FIFA has cancelled or postponed a number of underage tournaments.
With Canada continuing to field a strong women's national team, who recently hired Bev Priestman as head coach, there is an onus on Bontis to provide all the necessary resourced to give them the strongest chance to medal in Tokyo. Canada is going into the tournament of back-toback bronze medal performance.
The men's team, meanwhile, will be trying to qualify for its first World Cup since Canada's only appearance in Mexico in 1986. Canada, arguably, is fielding its most talented squad ever and is being led by head coach John Herdman.
“I do believe that qualification for 2022 is important, John Herdman had said so, that is his goal and I want that to be our organization's goal,” Bontis said.