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Hockey Quebec withholds funds from Hockey Canada, Tim Hortons pulls sponsorship

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MONTREAL — Hockey Quebec says it has lost confidence in Hockey Canada and will not transfer funds to the national organization, while a well-known Canadian brand extended its sponsorship boycott.

Hockey Quebec confirmed to The Canadian Press that its board of directors adopted a motion Tuesday night stating it does not believe Hockey Canada’s current structure can change hockey culture. The resolution was first reported by La Presse.

The provincial hockey body also decided to keep the portion of registration fees normally handed over to the national organization, which amounts to $3 per sign-up.

Also, Tim Hortons announced Wednesday it won’t sponsor any Hockey Canada men’s programming this season, including the world junior men’s championship in Halifax and Moncton.

The company, which first suspended its sponsorship in June, says it will continue to fund national women’s and para hockey programs, as well as youth hockey.

Media reports said Scotiabank followed suit Wednesday night, announcing in a statement that it will extend its pause of sponsoring the organization through the 2022-2023 season, including the world junior tournament.

“In our open letter in June, we publicly called on Hockey Canada to hold the game to a higher standard and we are disappointed with the lack of progress to date,” the bank said.

“From Hockey Canada, we expect a tangible commitment to transparency with Canadians, strong leadership, accountability with their stakeholders and the hockey community, and improved safety both on and off the ice. Our position hasn’t wavered: the time for change is long overdue.”

The Ontario Hockey Federation, the largest of Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial hockey associations, has asked Hockey Canada a second time to not collect the $3 participant assessment fee from its members for the 2022-23 season.

OHF executive director Phillip McKee told CP his federation made the same request in July to Hockey Canada’s former board chair Michael Brind’Amour.

“It is our understanding now that this request was never directed to the board before his departure,” the OHF said in a statement.

Brind’Amour resigned from his position Aug. 6. Andrea Skinner took over as interim board chair.

The Canadian Press reached out to provincial hockey associations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba for reaction to Hockey Quebec’s resolution. B.C. Hockey said it would “continue to monitor” the situation, while Hockey Saskatchewan responded with a “no comment” reply.  Hockey Alberta and Hockey Manitoba did not respond.

Hockey Canada continues to vigorously defend its leadership amid criticism over the handling of alleged sexual assaults and the way money was paid out in lawsuits.

Two recent allegations involve players from the 2018 and 2003 Canadian junior men’s teams. Those allegations have not been tested in court.

Revelations also included Hockey Canada’s admission that it drew on minor hockey registration fees to pay for uninsured liabilities, including sexual abuse claims.

Brind’Amour and Skinner were grilled Tuesday by members of Parliament on why wholesale changes haven’t been made to Hockey Canada’s leadership. Both continued to back chief executive officer and president Scott Smith.

Hockey Quebec’s move was applauded by Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge, who has called for a leadership change at Hockey Canada.

“It also sends the message to the leaders at the organization that are holding on to their jobs that Hockey Canada doesn’t belong to them,” St-Onge told reporters in Ottawa. “It also belongs to their members, and they want change. They want a change of culture and they want to fight against sexual violence.

“Since the leaders of Hockey Canada are holding on to their jobs, the voting members need to clean the house.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it “boggles the mind that Hockey Canada is continuing to dig in its heels” as more Canadians lose faith in it.

“It’s no surprise that provincial organizations are questioning whether or not they want to continue supporting an organization that doesn’t understand how serious a situation it has contributed to causing,” Trudeau said Wednesday.

Hockey Canada has been under fire since May when it was revealed it settled a lawsuit with a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight players from the 2018 junior men’s hockey team at a June gala event in London, Ont., that year.

The allegation is the subject of three investigations being conducted by London police, the National Hockey League and Hockey Canada.

Ontario Conservative MP John Nater said Smith and Hockey Canada’s upper management need to go in order to see meaningful change in the organization.

“Right now, we need to put pressure on the organization,” Nater said Wednesday before entering his party’s weekly caucus meeting.

“Put pressure on the 13 voting members to ensure that there’s a board in place that’s going to make those meaningful changes at the top.”

Conservative MP Kevin Waugh added Hockey Canada has the money to weather the current scandal for years to come.

“It will be up to the sponsors, I believe now,” Waugh said.

Sports marketing expert Tom Mayenknecht said Hockey Canada’s defensive posture makes it harder for the national body to retain public and corporate trust.

“This is such a series of bad decisions and bad handling, in my view, that I’m not sure if Hockey Canada hasn’t already crossed that line, again, given some of the public sentiment and even membership sentiment that I’m hearing at the grassroots level,” Mayenknecht told The Canadian Press.

“I’m not so sure that they can fully regain the trust without doing a lot more than they already have.”

It was revealed in July that Hockey Canada paid out $7.6 million in nine settlements related to sexual assault and sexual abuse claims since 1989.

The figure didn’t include this year’s payout of an undisclosed sum to the London plaintiff, who had sued for more than $3.5 million.

Since Hockey Canada’s settlement became public in the spring, Halifax police were asked to investigate an alleged sexual assault by members of the 2003 junior men’s team.

The federal government froze Hockey Canada’s federal funding and several companies paused their sponsorship in June.

Brind’Amour stated Tuesday that Smith has “the necessary qualities to do something positive for the organization.” Skinner, meanwhile, said culture change can happen while maintaining leadership stability.

Western University school of kinesiology director Laura Misener says Hockey Canada’s reluctance to alter its organizational structure shows a lack of understanding for what’s needed while attempting to shield the sport.

“I think there’s two things going on there: one, there is a level of protectionism. Wanting to protect the sport that they believe in, that they really strongly, truly value, that there is something important about protecting that sport,” Misener said. “I think that that’s happening on one hand and why they want to stay in their positions.

“Two, I think there’s a real misunderstanding of what culture shifting (and) culture change requires.”

— With files from Frederic Daigle in Montreal, Stephanie Taylor in Ottawa, and Abdulhamid Ibrahim in Toronto.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2022.

 

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Soccer legend Christine Sinclair says goodbye in Vancouver |

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Christine Sinclair scored one final goal at B.C. Place, helping the Portland Thorns to a 6-0 victory over the Whitecaps Girls Elite team. The soccer legend has announced she’ll retire from professional soccer at the end of the National Women’s Soccer League season. (Oct. 16, 2024)

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A German in charge of England? Nationality matters less than it used to in international soccer

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The question was inevitable.

At his first news conference as England’s newly appointed head coach, Thomas Tuchel – a German – was asked on Wednesday what message he had for fans who would have preferred an Englishman in charge of their beloved national team.

“I’m sorry, I just have a German passport,” he said, laughing, and went on to profess his love for English football and the country itself. “I will do everything to show respect to this role and to this country.”

The soccer rivalry between England and Germany runs deep and it’s likely Tuchel’s passport will be used against him if he doesn’t deliver results for a nation that hasn’t lifted a men’s trophy since 1966. But his appointment as England’s third foreign coach shows that, increasingly, even the top countries in the sport are abandoning the long-held belief that the national team must be led by one of their own.

Four of the top nine teams in the FIFA world rankings now have foreign coaches. Even in Germany, a four-time World Cup winner which has never had a foreign coach, candidates such as Dutchman Louis van Gaal and Austrian Oliver Glasner were considered serious contenders for the top job before the country’s soccer federation last year settled on Julian Nagelsmann, who is German.

“The coaching methods are universal and there for everyone to apply,” said German soccer researcher and author Christoph Wagner, whose recent book “Crossing the Line?” historically addresses Anglo-German rivalry. “It’s more the personality that counts and not the nationality. You could be a great coach, and work with a group of players who aren’t perceptive enough to get your methods.”

Not everyone agrees.

English soccer author and journalist Jonathan Wilson said it was “an admission of failure” for a major soccer nation to have a coach from a different country.

“Personally, I think it should be the best of one country versus the best of another country, and that would probably extend to coaches as well as players,” said Wilson, whose books include “Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics.”

“To say we can’t find anyone in our country who is good enough to coach our players,” he said, “I think there is something slightly embarrassing, slightly distasteful about that.”

That sentiment was echoed by British tabloid The Daily Mail, which reported on Tuchel’s appointment with the provocative headline “A Dark Day for England.”

While foreign coaches are often found in smaller countries and those further down the world rankings, they are still a rarity among the traditional powers of the game. Italy, another four-time world champion, has only had Italians in charge. All of Spain’s coaches in its modern-day history have been Spanish nationals. Five-time World Cup winner Brazil has had only Brazilians in charge since 1965, and two-time world champion France only Frenchmen since 1975.

And it remains the case that every World Cup-winning team, since the first tournament in 1930, has been coached by a native of that country. The situation is similar for the women’s World Cup, which has never been won by a team with a foreign coach, though Jill Ellis, who led the U.S. to two trophies, is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in England.

Some coaches have made a career out of jumping from one national team to the next. Lars Lagerbäck, 76, coached his native Sweden between 2000-09 and went on to lead the national teams of Nigeria, Iceland and Norway.

“I couldn’t say I felt any big difference,” Lagerbäck told The Associated Press. “I felt they were my teams and the people’s teams.”

For Lagerbäck, the obvious disadvantages of coaching a foreign country were any language difficulties and having to adapt to a new culture, which he particularly felt during his brief time with Nigeria in 2010 when he led the African country at the World Cup.

Otherwise, he said, “it depends on the results” — and Lagerbäck is remembered with fondness in Iceland, especially, after leading the country to Euro 2016 for its first ever international tournament, where it knocked out England in the round of 16.

Lagerbäck pointed to the strong education and sheer number of coaches available in soccer powers like Spain and Italy to explain why they haven’t needed to turn to an overseas coach. At this year’s European Championship, five of the coaches were from Italy and the winning coach was Luis de la Fuente, who was promoted to Spain’s senior team after being in charge of the youth teams.

Portugal for the first time looked outside its own borders or Brazil, with which it has historical ties, when it appointed Spaniard Roberto Martinez as national team coach last year. Also last year, Brazil tried — and ultimately failed — to court Real Madrid’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, with Brazilian soccer federation president Ednaldo Rodrigues saying: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a foreigner or a Brazilian, there’s no prejudice about the nationality.”

The United States has had a long list of foreign coaches before Mauricio Pochettino, the Argentine former Chelsea manager who took over as the men’s head coach this year.

The English Football Association certainly had no qualms making Tuchel the national team’s third foreign-born coach, after Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson (2001-06) and Italian Fabio Capello (2008-12), simply believing he was the best available coach on the market.

Unlike Eriksson and Capello, Tuchel at least had previous experience of working in English soccer — he won the Champions League in an 18-month spell with Chelsea — and he also speaks better English.

That won’t satisfy all the nay-sayers, though.

“Hopefully I can convince them and show them and prove to them that I’m proud to be the English manager,” Tuchel said.

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AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire in Paris contributed to this story.

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Maple Leafs winger Bobby McMann finding game after opening-night scratch

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TORONTO – Bobby McMann watched from the press box on opening night.

Just over a week later, the Maple Leafs winger took a twirl as the first star.

McMann went from healthy scratch to unlikely offensive focal point in just eight days, putting up two goals in Toronto’s 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.

The odd man out at the Bell Centre against the Montreal Canadiens, he’s slowly earning the trust of first-year head coach Craig Berube.

“There’s a lot of good players on this team,” McMann said of his reaction to sitting out Game 1. “Maybe some guys fit better in certain scenarios than others … just knowing that my opportunity would come.”

The Wainwright, Alta., product skated on the second line with William Nylander and Max Domi against Los Angeles, finishing with those two goals, three hits and a plus-3 rating in just over 14 minutes of work.

“He’s been unbelievable,” said Nylander, who’s tied with McMann for the team lead with three goals. “It’s great when a player like that comes in.”

The 28-year-old burst onto the scene last February when he went from projected scratch to hat-trick hero in a single day after then-captain John Tavares fell ill.

McMann would finish 2023-24 with 15 goals and 24 points in 56 games before a knee injury ruled him out of Toronto’s first-round playoff loss to the Boston Bruins.

“Any time you have success, it helps the confidence,” he said. “But I always trust the abilities and trust that they’re there whether things are going in or (I’m not) getting points. Just trying to play my game and trust that doing the little things right will pay off.”

McMann was among the Leafs’ best players against the Kings — and not just because of what he did on the scoresheet. The forward got into a scuffle with Phillip Danault in the second period before crushing Mikey Anderson with a clean hit in the third.

“He’s a power forward,” Berube said. “That’s how he should think the game, night in and night out, as being a power forward with his skating and his size. He doesn’t have to complicate the game.”

Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz knew nothing about McMann before joining Toronto in free agency over the summer.

“Great two-way player,” said the netminder. “Extremely physical and moves really well, has a good shot. He’s a key player for us in our depth. I was really happy for him to get those two goals.

“Works his butt off.”

ON TARGET

Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who scored 69 times last season, ripped his first goal of 2024-25 after going without a point through the first three games.

“It’s not going to go in every night,” said Matthews, who added two assists against the Kings. “It’s good to see one fall … a little bit of the weight lifted off your shoulders.”

WAKE-UP CALL

Berube was animated on the bench during a third-period timeout after the Kings cut a 5-0 deficit to 5-2.

“Taking care of the puck, being harder in our zone,” Matthews said of the message. “There were times in the game, early in the second, in the third period, where the momentum shifted and we needed to grab it back.”

PATCHES SITS

Toronto winger Max Pacioretty was a healthy scratch after dressing the first three games.

“There’s no message,” Berube said of the 35-year-old’s omission. “We have extra players and not everybody can play every night. That’s the bottom line. He’s been fine when he’s played, but I’ve got to make decisions as a coach, and I’m going to make those decisions — what I think is best for the team.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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