Hello Time Bomb: The Vancouver Whitecaps residency program and Canadians in MLS

Via Duane, Thomas Niendorf , the head of the Vancouver Whitecaps residency program is departing the club:

"We are very appreciative of Thomas' contribution to the club," said Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi. "Thomas played a pivotal role in getting the club's Residency program up and running, and in establishing a successful track record on which we will build on. The program will continue to be a focal point of our club, and the recruiting process for a replacement will begin immediately."

Fake Sigi has obtained exclusive video coverage of Niendorf's exit from the Vancouver academy with some of his staff:




When Duane started talking about divisions within the Whitecaps, I suspected Niendorf was, if not Duane's source, the main person who was unhappy. Niendorf built the Whitecaps residency program, and his contacts in Germany were in large part what enabled the team to place players there for short internships and to explore transfers in Europe. On an unrelated note, he also played a role in developing the career of Owen Hargreaves.

While no one is irreplaceable, this is probably the beginning of the end for the Whitecaps residency program as currently structured. It's no secret that MLS roster rules currently don't allow for a professional residency program comprised of players who have renounced their college eligibility. Even with an ever-expanding Generation adidas program, MLS and the USSF appear content to build off the existing youth and college efforts already in place in the United States. It's a model that's not without problems, but at least there's a model. Compare that to Canada, where the Whitecaps academy is a lone bright spot in a very bleak desert of player development efforts.

Nor does MLS allow teams to keep the entirety of player transfer fees, since all player contracts are owned by the league. Vancouver obviously felt it could make more money by entering MLS than selling players to Europe, but it has still made rumblings about somehow holding on to its residency program. We don't know what promises MLS made to Vancouver, but I think in the near term the Whitecaps will look more like the rest of the league than not. The residency program was announced less than three years ago, and didn't start until late 2007, which means it's only been in operation for just over two years. Without being able to leverage Niendorf's experience and contacts, it will be much harder to justify going forward in the same direction.

It's well known that our Canadian friends are sometimes a bit perplexed by how MLS does things. And the Vancouver residency program is a prime example of not only thinking different than MLS, but of starting a program with a completely different philosophy. MLS focuses on providing a place for domestic players to play as opposed to providing a place where players can be developed then sold abroad. Obviously some MLS players will be sold abroad, and some Whitecaps residency players would enter the first team, but the core goals of the two endeavors were not the same in their conception, and are still divergent. And MLS isn't going to consider a radical shift in philosophy to the latter model any time soon.

In this case, I see nothing wrong with asking Vancouver to get with the MLS program and fall in line, at least as far as the residency program is concerned. The league, the USSF and the CSA can sit down and sort out the best way to develop players down the line. At the same time, there's a conflict, because there's the perception that Vancouver is far in the lead in terms of developing Canadian talent. And at the moment, Canadian talent is at a premium.

There's no question Canada has been able to produce some good players. But I wonder if the ones who play domestically are enough to support two or three competitive teams in MLS. There's a lot of areas of concern up north, including last year's internal strife in the men's national team, and the myriad of problems at the CSA. None of the "big three" professional teams in Canada were able to consistently start a lineup that was more than 50% Canadian in 2009.

And if you go through this guy's list of the top 25 Canadian players from the beginning of this month, you kind of want to weep in despair. 16 of the players are listed as playing abroad, and a bunch are old and on the downside of their careers (Tomasz Radzinski is smack in the middle of the list, for god's sake). Of the guys that are playing in MLS and don't suck, only three are on Toronto FC.

After having this list stare me in the face for a couple days, it strikes me that this is the reason we see Duane and others north of the border begging for the MLS roster and salary restrictions to be loosened. Most of the best Canadian men play abroad, and the only way Toronto FC or Vancouver could get those players back to MLS is by ponying up boatloads of cash, much more cash than they can under the current scheme. The other option is to develop new talent by vastly expanding their development rosters with several more players under contract at rates which exceed those in the current collective bargaining agreement. Right now it's not a big deal for the Whitecaps, because they're playing down a division. But we've seen Toronto struggle mightily in its first three MLS seasons, and the thin supply of Canadian players who are able and willing to compete domestically is only going to get stretched when Vancouver enters the league.

The reality is that the USA has developed a deep enough talent pool to be able to stock a rapidly expanding MLS even when a number of high quality players are plying their trade overseas. Canada has the players, but its resident teams must expend much more capital to bring them back into the fold. Their domestic development model has resulted in too few players of varying quality mostly being dispatched to Europe, while being somewhat incompatible with the larger, stable development model and top level soccer structure of the United States. Like we've seen with Toronto FC, the Canadian MLS teams will get stocked with Americans and other internationals, and without sound management, will struggle to be successful on the field.

I think this is a problem, and if I'm on the mark, other bloggers up there think it's a problem, too. It provides some context for the weird conspiracy theories people like Ben Rycroft come up with:

The unwillingness of @bigsoccer writers to accept any other MLS structure + co-ordinated attacks on those that do is suspicious

And for Ben Knight's puzzling assertion that MLS is a bland league, first in his secret wish for an expanded Voyageurs Cup to be a shadow Canadian League:

Yes, MLS is saddled with the blandness of endless interchangeable opponents, most of whom still don’t have distinct identities for TFC fans even after three full and dramatic seasons.

And then in his resignation to the fact that MLS won't be completely reshaped by the new collective bargaining agreement:

Three years into this thing up Toronto way, and you could still run the same eleven guys every week in different visiting-team shirts, and not a lot of fans would really know the difference. And since better than half of TFC’s opponents wear all white on the road, you don’t really have to change those, either.

[Ed. - Ben also came unhinged this morning just before I posted this entry. By far the most entertaining of the three posts.]

Ben Knight and Duane Rollins have been unapologetic about their stance that MLS should do as much as it can to subsidize Canada's top three professional teams, even at the expense of the fiscal model that has kept MLS viable for 15 years, or at the expense of uncultured midwestern teams whose fans just don't care enough about soccer to make them worth caring about (their characterization, not mine). Of course in their view adding extra designated players who do not count against the cap, bringing small market teams like Vancouver into the league, and allowing Toronto FC to spend oodles of money on players is not subsidization, but I'd argue it is, in the words of Arsene Wenger, a kind of financial doping. Ben Knight:

All I want is somewhat-richer teams which, when they lose, are clearly victims of an upset.

And Canadian teams that receive financial handouts and a titled playing field that allows them to field moderately competitive teams in a league they're going to struggle in without special considerations.

I can't say I've got the answers, but my gut reaction is that the lack of domestic Canadian talent is a problem MLS just doesn't need right now. It's still 1996 up there, and MLS is going to continue to ask how many resources it can afford to expend to allow the Canadian teams to catch up.

On the other hand, thousands of paying fans, remembering some long-ago NASL or recent Euro glory, blissfully unaware or uncaring of the new financial restraints that prevent Toronto from acquiring quality European mercenaries or what little Canadian talent is available, have swelled the league's coffers. The attendant boorish behavior of those fans is a somewhat mitigating factor, but until there's real violence with real injuries, MLS is going to keep looking the other way as it cashes the checks that come from Ontario and British Columbia.

Duane has argued extensively that since Toronto FC's generating that money, then the team should be allowed to spend as much as it can to be competitive (or dominant, I think). At the same time, last year's salary figures and the liberal roster rules for Toronto FC, show MLS is already giving the Canadian team special consideration. I don't think that consideration will extend to a massive reshaping of the single entity system. Nor will it lead to a dismantling of the roster restrictions that have so far worked very well to impose parity and make on the field success a product of staff acumen as opposed to how many fans are leaving the game early on a given Saturday.

It will take a lot more than just Toronto FC not making the playoffs three years running for MLS to grant any more concessions. And who knows? Maybe the other investors admitted Toronto into the league knowing the side would struggle for years to come. Maybe they like having a team in the league that brings in cash, but suffers more than most under the MLS system. And the pension system that owns TFC probably doesn't care all that much so long as it makes money. I'm sure Ben Rycroft can come up with some theories.

In the short term, the lack of domestic Canadian talent will continue to provoke more Canadian frustration with the rigidity of MLS, and it will also be the motivation behind the Toronto bloggers supporting the players in their quixotic quest for free agency and bigger salaries. If Canadian teams continue to be unsuccessful on the field while drawing well at the gate, the misplaced outrage and blame could continue to grow. And at some point in the future, MLS may find itself with a larger headache than it anticipated from bringing those teams into the league.

Fake Sigi out.