Canada Soccer CEO uncertain about when drone investigation will be completed

In February, Canada Soccer hired former Golf Canada chief sport officer Kevin Blue as its chief executive and general secretary.

Months later, the federation was caught up in a scandal after French police arrested women’s national team coach Joey Lombardi at the Paris Olympics for flying a drone over a New Zealand team practice. Head coach Bev Priestman, Lombardi, and fellow assistant Jasmine Mander were sent home from the Games. All three are now serving a one-year suspension from FIFA.

On Blue's recommendation, the Canada Soccer board's human resources committee hired a Toronto lawyer to probe allegations that staff on both the men’s and women’s senior national teams have used drones to inappropriately spy on the training sessions of their opponents. He said he still doesn’t know how long the investigation will take to be completed.

In an interview with TSN on Wednesday in Montreal, Blue acknowledged that the scandal has been a distraction that has impacted the federation’s ability to kick-start plans to advance Canada Soccer’s fundraising efforts. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TSN: Did you have any trepidation taking the job, given what you'd seen happen with Canada Soccer over the past years?

Blue: I was methodical. You do your background and talk to a lot of people to try to get the most complete picture of the realities. And I had a very strong sense that my skill set, and my experiences, were a really strong match for what the requirements of the position were at the time and continue to be. The significance of the challenges, in part, is an attractive thing for me at this at this stage in my journey.

TSN: Has the reality matched what your preconceived notions were six months ago?

Blue: Being on the periphery, you don't get the flavour of actually what's going on. For example, interacting and working with the players has been an absolute joy. It's been really phenomenal in terms of developing a sense of mutual respect, understanding what their professional lives are like, figuring out how we can best support them and then having the sense of them partnering with us in a really positive way. This was not something that was advertised to me ahead of time. There was a bunch of information that came to me that this experience wouldn't be like this, and it's been fantastic.

TSN: What’s the backstory behind the new agreement with the senior national teams? (Canada Soccer has reached a labour agreement that is contingent on the federation reworking its media and sponsorship contract with Canadian Soccer Business.)

Blue: The backstory is clearly there were unresolved issues as it relates to how the players are compensated and how the programs are structured… It's not done yet, but it is one of the most important things that we need to do to have stability in our environment.

As I learned about the history of these issues, as I learned about our economics, as I build a relationship with the players by being curious about their experiences, truly trying to learn about their point of view, and then trying to communicate in a thoughtful way to help them understand the finances of what we're doing, we were able to work towards a resolution and an alignment. They understand we need to control costs on the labour side. At the same time, I understand what their needs are, as far as how they engage with the national teams and what type of support they need.

TSN: When you say support, what comes to mind for me is Quinn testifying in Ottawa about how there weren't enough support staff like massage therapists for players at national team events. What comes to mind is Janine Beckie talking about going to a camp when she was playing in Manchester, England and having to fly economy class with double connection to get to Vancouver. So, can you give any more details about what this agreement looks like? 

Blue: No.

TSN: Okay, can you talk about how you have built trust with these players?

Blue: They see me, they know me… I have missed one national team game so far, but I've been in every camp to help them understand I’m a person, not some email address, right? Again, I truly want to learn and understand their experience, because at the beginning, I didn't know anything about it, and I think they appreciate the humility of this. We communicate a lot by WhatsApp, especially with the leadership group and leaders on each of the teams, on various issues. We have very communicative relationships as it relates to texting and calling.

TSN: Where do things stand with renegotiating the Canada Soccer Business contract?

Blue: It's been another part of the landscape that I've had to learn quite a bit about. We and CSB are actively discussing. Over the seven months I've been here, there have been well over 20 to 25 collaborative exchanges as part of this negotiation. We've made significant progress on a number of areas, but there are still some areas where there are gaps that need to be resolved.

[A Canada Soccer Business spokesperson wrote in an email to TSN: “We continue to proactively engage in good faith negotiations with Canada Soccer and remain committed to reaching a conclusion that is beneficial to all stakeholders.”]

TSN: How does fundraising fit in to your vision of Canada Soccer’s future?

Blue: My background is in U.S. college sports where there is a diversity of revenue streams, one of the most significant being philanthropy. We aspire to bring a lot of those best practices that are native to U.S. college sports to Canada. In U.S. college sports, schools can raise 10 to 30 per cent of their budget from philanthropy. There will be opportunities for us to announce some things publicly as soon as, you know, in the next short while.

We will pursue a strategy that involves a combination of major gift fundraising, which is occasional gifts of significant amounts that are often designated for a specific purpose. And then separately, we'll have an annual giving program, which is broad participation, lower per donor amounts and recurring gifts that happen on an annual basis. This is increasingly common in organizations in Canada, whether they be hospitals, or sports. The Golf Canada Foundation is a good example of this. 

In Canada, you're seeing more philanthropic activity to support nonprofit amateur sport, particularly as people take stock of federal funding and whether or not federal funding will ever grow at the rate of inflation ever again. This diversification of revenue streams is important now.

TSN: Can you share more about the goals for the annual giving and major gift program?

Blue: We're still in the very early innings of structuring this… there's been a lot of work done to network and help people who have interest in being philanthropically supportive, to meet us, to meet [senior men’s team coach] Jesse Marsch, to understand the opportunities where they will be able to support. Jesse and I have been doing this in Vancouver, in Toronto, and we're doing this [Thursday] in Montreal.

TSN:  How has the drone story impacted your attempts to try to move forward on the philanthropy side?

Blue: It has impacted us in a couple different ways. The actual working through it has created a bandwidth constraint that has interrupted our progress in building. Secondly, people of course have questions about it, but people have not, by and large, expressed concerns to the point that they would be less interested in supporting philanthropically.

TSN: Has the drone investigation taken longer than you thought it would?

Blue: When we said the investigation would be external and independent, we meant external and independent, so we don’t have dictatorial control over any of it – the methods or the timing. I don't know what my expectations were. I had never seen a situation like this… I'm hopeful that we are able to move past this as soon as possible, because we want to move on.

TSN: How have the financial struggles of the federation impacted the junior national teams?

Blue: This remains a significant concern. We've done a lot of benchmarking about the depth of investment we are able to make in our youth teams as compared to other similarly positioned countries, and we are still under investing to a significant degree… There’s not enough contact, not enough camps.

TSN: How do the financials look this year?

Blue: We budgeted for $30 million but revenue and costs were both significantly higher because of the Copa America. There was $4 million (U.S.) in prize money for that tournament, and costs were not that high, so it was a positive result for us.