CSA and DFB Announce Bilateral Agreement on Women’s Soccer

Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Soccer Association today announced a bilateral agreement with the FIFA World Champion Deutscher Fussball-Bund (DFB) covering all aspects of programming in the area of Women’s Soccer.
The highlight of the agreement calls for each National Team to play 4 full A international matches in 2005 as follows;
1.tTwo matches in Germany in spring 2005
2.tThursday, September 1, 2005 at Vancouver’s Swangard Stadium
3.tSunday, September 4, 2005 at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium
At the youth level, both countries will play each other twice in USA in March, 2004 when the DFB squad travels to USA for a series of U-17 international matches. In addition, both countries have agreed to an exchange of their National U-17 Women’s Teams with the Germans coming to Canada in 2005 and Canada returning to Germany in 2006.
The first visit by a German team to Canada under the terms of this accord will take place this coming spring when the German U-19 squad will play Canada in a two match series in Montreal and Ottawa on May 11 and 13, 2004 respectively. These matches for Canada will represent the final tune up for the National U-19 team in preparation for the CONCACAF U-19 Women’s Qualification Championships also set for the same two cities from May 28 to June 6 in advance of the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championships set for Thailand in November, 2004.
Likewise, the DFB U-15 National Girls team will travel to Atlantic Canada for 2-3 matches September 1-6, 2004 with the Canadian squad returning the favour in 2005.
Furthermore, both countries will explore the opportunity of selected young National Team players playing club soccer in each other’s country following the conclusion of the Olympic Games in Athens in August with certain Canadians playing in the Women’s Bundesliga next fall/winter with potentially some German players playing in the summer W League season with selected Canadian W League clubs in 2005.
“We were most pleased during our visit to Frankfurt last month at the time of the Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup Draw to meet extensively with our DFB counterparts,” stated CSA President Andy Sharpe. “Two days of extensive discussions resulted in what we are calling ‘The Frankfurt Accord’. This covers the broad spectrum of all operations of our Women’s National team program from now until the next FIFA Women’s World Cup and I wish to pay tribute to our friends at the DFB for their efforts in bringing this agreement to fruition.”
“Women’s soccer in Canada has made a great leap forward in the past five years. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Canadian Under-19 team finished as runners-up at the 2002 FIFA Women’s U-19 World Championship, and that the women’s senior squad came forth at last year’s World Cup in the USA,” stated DFB President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder. “Obviously, Canadian women’ soccer has arrived at the top, and we are more than happy to have entered into a partnership agreement that both parties will benefit from in the next few years.”
“I am absolutely delighted with this package of opportunities,” claimed National Women’s Coach Even Pellerud. “Four International A matches, plus multiple youth international games at home and abroad as well as potential selected inter-changes of players at club level is going to give a further long term boost to our program as we begin to look beyond Athens and get ready for China 2007 and Beijing 2008. A wonderful day for our overall program.”
“The Canadian teams rightly rank among the top teams in the world,” stated German National Women’s Team Coach Tina Theune-Meyer. “Their players always can play a fast paced game and have all had a sound tactical education as well. We are greatly looking forward to the series of forthcoming matches that will surely include some exciting and attractive encounters.”
A special focus of this agreement will be the staging of the match Canada vs Germany at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, on Labour Day Sunday, September 4, 2005. This match with the defending FIFA World Champions is certain to attract special interest and will mark the third time in four years that a major international women’s match will be staged at this stadium on this holiday weekend. Canada played USA in the FIFA Women’s U-19 Final in 2002 in front of 48,000 fans and this past year, played Mexico in front of almost 30,000 spectators.
More details will be released in due course.