Thread by @stevensandor

Coming tweet stream/storm: Today's craziness brings to a head what we've been seeing in Canadian Soccer for years. We should have seen it coming. #CanMNT #CanadaSoccer

In Canada, soccer is going in two vastly different directions at the same time. The #CanMNT qualifies for Qatar. The #CanWNT wins gold. But, even before COVID, player numbers were down in Canada. And, there has been a stunning lack of success for the pro game in this country.

So, as the national teams succeed, domestic support for the game isn't there. #CanPL has failed, terribly, to move the needle. There's less interest in MLS than there was even five years ago.

So, at the top level, you say "look at Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David, Canadian Soccer has arrived!" Then you look to a #CanChamp final which had some regional interest, a '21 #CanPL final that no major news organization in Canada bothered to cover.

As well, #CanPL has burned many bridges in a very short time. A lot of people who worked so hard to support this league when it started are alienated. You can argue that it needs a reset.

The Iran debacle was a failure at so many levels.

But the big thing — if soccer is so healthy in this country, why can't we fund so many initiatives? Why can't we capitalize on the success of our senior national teams? Why is it that there is no relation to the success of the national teams and the health of our domestic game?

Soccer in Canada has, for too long, been fuelled by arrogance, regionalism, an insular mentality and the feeling that just by playing a soccer game, you should shame people into supporting it.

I've covered a lot of sports. A lot of leagues. Soccer is by far the most difficult. It's tougher to cover soccer in Canada than the NHL, because requests, questions are often met with roadblocks or indifference. And then we wonder why mainstream media walks away.

The problem is, you have to love soccer enough to put up with it.

And I know so many people who DID love soccer, and won't go near games, now — other than their kids' games or volunteering in the community ranks. No sport in Canada chews people up like soccer does. So many people fighting over a tiny pie. It's crazy.

We have a great disconnect, here. We can't use the fact we have sellouts in Edmonton or Toronto for #CanMNT qualifiers as the measuring stick. We have to look at how the game is seen week to week, throughout the country. And that's a very different picture.