Canada Soccer Annual Meeting celebrates soccer community

Canada Soccer convened its membership for its Annual Meeting of the Members this 1-2 May weekend in Ottawa, ON. Representatives from all 13 Provincial and Territorial Member Associations have a chance to participate in best practices workshops on strategic areas of focus like governance, technical programming and risk management, before casting the required votes in the Board of Director elections. The event concluded on Saturday night with the Annual Banquet and Award Ceremony celebrating the Canadian soccer community.

Up for election this year were two elected positions with the Board of Directors, for which the membership proceeded with the selection of representatives for Quebec and British Columbia.

The Canada Soccer Board of Directors is composed of 12 Directors and two Officers (Vice-President and President).

Representing British Columbia, Charlie Cuzzetto was re-conducted for another mandate, while Paul-Claude Bérubé was elected to the Director position for Quebec. Bérubé replaces Martial Prud’homme whose service to the Board was also recognized by President Montagliani.

The members of the Board of Directors, following these elections, are Victor Montagliani (President), Steve Reed (Vice-President), Wendy Bedingfield, Paul-Claude Bérubé, Nick Bontis, Brian Burden, Charmaine Crooks, Charlie Cuzzetto, Ryan Fequet, Gerald MacDonald, Robert Richardson, Amélia Salehabadi-Fouques, and Don Story.

The Annual Meeting of the Members concluded with the Annual Banquet marking the celebration of Canadian soccer and the achievements of its participants over the previous year. The 2015 edition honoured six recipients with Awards.

The 2015 Ray Morgan Award, presented to the referee whose performance at the national and international level is the most deserving of recognition for the year, was presented to Marie-Josée Charbonneau. In 2010, she made her debut on the National List of Officials. Within two years, she had been appointed to the FIFA International list of Officials. During her rookie year, she officiated at the London 2012 Olympic Games. In only a short period of 5 years officiating nationally and internationally, she has been appointed to three CONCACAF tournaments and one FIFA competition, including the finals at three of those four events. Charbonneau will also represent Canada on the international stage again this summer as part of the Canadian quartet to officiate at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™.

The 2015 International Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding work as an active referee or assistant referee within his/her provincial/territorial and/or national association and become a leader and an example to his/her fellow referees prior to as well as during the five years that his/her name appeared on FIFA’s List of Match Officials, was presented to Joe Fletcher. While officiating at the London Olympics would be the pinnacle of most referees’ careers, for this CA, a soccer official who has done high-level competition since receiving his FIFA assistant referee’s badge in 2007, London represented a stepping stone to his ultimate goal: working the pitch in Brazil at the 2014 World Cup. From refereeing house league soccer in Niagara Falls, ON, when he was a teenager to working at some of the largest stages in the game, including the 2013 FIFA Under-20 World Cup final in Colombia. In 2014, he participated in the FIFA World Cup™ and closed out the year by being appointed to the MLS Cup Final.

The Awards Ceremony concluded with the introduction of three new Life Members recognised for their outstanding service, commitment and overall contribution to Canadian soccer: Sonia Denoncourt, Colin Jose and Janine Helland.

Since 1978, Sonia Denoncourt has been a pioneer in the field of refereeing and has written her name into Quebec, Canadian and international soccer history. She was the first female referee to obtain her FIFA international badge, as well as the first female referee to officiate an A-League game in 1991. She became FIFA’s first female referee and was the first woman to referee men’s first division matches, in El Salvador in 1996, and then in Brazil in 1997. Before her retirement in July 2004, Denoncourt was the only referee in Canada, either male or female, to have officiated in 100 international matches. She later went on to become FIFA referee instructor, Head of FIFA women’s referee development and has recently came back to the region as CONCACAF’s Director of Refereeing.

For more than a decade, Colin Jose was Canada Soccer’s leading writer, serving as a press officer for Canada’s national teams and contributing regularly for the Association’s bi-monthly Canadian Soccer News publication throughout the 1970s. He has accordingly been presented with the Canada Soccer Award of Merit (1992), the Canada Soccer’s President’s Award (2007), and been inducted as an honoured member of The Soccer Hall of Fame (2009).

Janine Helland has had an outstanding playing career. She has played 47 times for Canada and was a member of the FIFA Women’s World Cup team at Sweden 1995 and USA 1999. In 1995 in Sweden she played in the centre of the defence against England, Nigeria and Norway; in 1999 in the United States against Japan, Norway and Russia. Over the years, she has been a member on the Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, has served on the Organising Committee for the FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007, FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup New Zealand 2008 and FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011. She is currently a member of the National Organising Committee for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015.

Finally, the President’s Award, presented in recognition and appreciation of outstanding and unique efforts for an extended period of time and resulting in positive and constructive development across Canada, was awarded posthumously to Richard Labrom. Labrom spent 30 years as a coach and builder of soccer in Québec, where he was long-time president of the Lac St-Louis Lakers soccer club. He served as director of the Lac St-Louis regional soccer association and he was an executive committee member of the Fédération de soccer du Québec. He also served on numerous Canada Soccer committees and on its Board of Directors. He had received the Canada Soccer Award of Merit in 2011. 

While the Board of Directors will continue its work throughout the year, the next Annual Meeting of the Members is set for 6-7 May 2016 in Saskatoon, SK.

The Canada Soccer 2014 Annual Report is now available for download on canadasccer.com.