Why Is The CSA Interested In Establishing A New Canadian Football League? In Canada, the game of football has experienced substantial growth and increased popularity over the past three decades and it is now the number one participation sport in the country. Canada currently ranks 37th in the world in total population while numbering 10th in the world in youth football participation. However, while football at the grassroots level is thriving, the same cannot be said about the elite level of the men’s game. When we first began this study in November of 2011, Canada’s men’s national team sat 72nd in the FIFA World Ranking between Austria and the People’s Republic of China, and lay eighth in CONCACAF. For most followers of international football however, the real measure of a national team’s success is its achievement in continental championships and World Cup competition. In football’s modern era, Canada’s success in international football amounts to a coin-flip-aided top place finish at the 2000 Gold Cup, and a three-game group stage appearance at the World Cup Finals in Mexico, 1986, where Canada failed to earn a point or score a single goal. Irrespective of the measure used, it is widely agreed that Canada’s men’s team is falling short of its potential, relative to the country’s wealth, population and levels of football participation. Commentators have posited a number of reasons for Canada’s record of underachievement in international football, including the country’s size and harsh winter climate, insufficient investment in facilities, lack of a coordinated approach to youth development, and a sports governance structure that is rooted in an amateur ethos. Undoubtedly there is a grain of truth to all of these observations; however, many believe the dominant cause of Canada’s failure is the lack of a sustainable, national professional league.
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