{"id":214248,"date":"2025-10-15T07:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/214248\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T07:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:03:09","slug":"johnson-outlines-vision-for-driving-canadas-soccer-revenues-as-2026-looms-with-its-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/214248\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson outlines vision for driving Canada\u2019s soccer revenues as 2026 looms with its once-in-a-lifetime opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 14 \u2013 In May Football Australia CEO James Johnson announced he was changing country and continent to take on the role of CEO at Canadian Soccer Business (CSB), the independent sports rights agency that handles all commercial and media rights to Canada\u2019s men\u2019s and women\u2019s national team as well as the Canadian Premier League.<\/p>\n

Johnson had been the lead in delivering the 2023 Women\u2019s World Cup in Australia, an event that was the most successful Women\u2019s World Cup to date but has also stimulated the game in the country in terms of profile, playing base and international ambition.<\/p>\n

Moving to Canada sees Johnson swap an institutional federation role for a commercial one. Johnson has worked at FIFA in the past but has also worked in the private sector at City Football Group.<\/p>\n

But Canada is not as easy going when it comes to sports, nice as its citizens always seem to be.<\/p>\n

100 days into his new role Johnson says he has \u201casked a lot of questions and done a lot of listening\u201d, and before the current international window that saw Canada lose to Australia but draw with Colombia in friendlies, he launched his vision and strategy for driving the revenues of CSB for the Canadian game as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are challenges for us but also opportunities,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWe are open to be transparent around who we are and where we want to go. We are prepared to be measured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian soccer has got a lot of things right. It has developed star players and fields very competitive women\u2019s and men\u2019s national teams who have the ability to go toe-to-toe with the best in the world, but also the ability to do the same with their governing body over pay and conditions.
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Those disputes may be behind them but the scars and distrust went deep.<\/p>\n

Johnson arrives at the CSB to take over and breathe new life into a platform of centralised national team, league and club rights that will be the foundation for delivering volume content in a joined up way for commercial and media partners and fans.<\/p>\n

It is a good time to be arriving in a country that in less than 10 months will be co-hosting the greatest show on earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is a driver. It is not a once in a generation opportunity, it is a once in a lifetime one,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWe will use the World Cup to springboard Canadian soccer into the country\u2019s culture and daily life.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will only happen if the platform is right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of ideas to drive transformation and unify \u00a0the sport, bringing CPL and League One into the mainstream, using our stars like Olivia Shaw and Tajon Buchanan to help us turbo charge the football economy,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>\n

Johnson emphasises that this new vision is about more than just pooled rights but \u201cabout creating a first-of-its-kind model. CSB\u2019s integrated hub will unite the product on the pitch, the business behind it, and the media that tells its stories, to drive impact and legacy for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

To generate this unity requires investing more in Canada Soccer and in its national teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we make the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams better? How can we put Canada in a better place to develop?\u201d asks Johnson, before answering his own question. \u201cMore revenue builds unity and we are already doing this and starting with focussing on culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For players it is about developing pathways and opportunities, institutionally it is about \u201crepositioning now with a better relationship with Canada Soccer\u201d, commercially it starts with \u201cmaking soccer part of the discourse in a crowded environment and playing to our strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soccer has the biggest participation base of any sport in the country and Johnson says \u201cis positioned very differently from other sports\u201d.<\/p>\n

That repositioning will see changes to the brand at the same time accelerating conversations with government and partners, and a \u201cbuilding of capacities in certain areas\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship between CSB, CS and our players is changing. We have looked at how we can reconfigure commercial relationships and cultural relationships. Incentivisating parties to work together for the good of the sport,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are cutting through in the mainstream media with more linear broadcast coverage and greater social media presence. We are providing greater access to content and expanding our content.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will also see us where possible acquire league rights internationally who have players from Canada,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have expanded to Ottawa but we also want to focus on strengthening the capacity of existing CPL clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada to date has been an undersold market. While its national teams and players went from obscurity to worldwide recognition in a relatively short period of time, the commercial management of the national game did not match that pace of growth or requirements.<\/p>\n

There is a recognition that the players, present and future, are very much part of the solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will create as many pathways as possible starting with league One. We are focussed on player development and in time the development of transfer revenue where we believe there is a lot of leakage,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the ranking of our national teams \u2013 we are top 10 in the women\u2019s and ranked 26th in the men\u2019s \u2013 our annual amount of transfer fees is in the low millions. Looking at comparable nations they are often 10 times higher (in transfer fees). That has got to be a focus of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada still has work to do to join up all the dots from player development, to the national team, and government and institutional support for it to fulfil its potential. Johnson is tasked with doing that.<\/p>\n

A winning team and a deep run in the 2026 World Cup finals on home soil would be a massive boost in making that happen. Johnson has the plan and has been here before. Canada\u2019s national team manager Jesse Marsche gets twitchy if you ask him about his plans, but doubtless he will press on as only he knows how.<\/p>\n

An Aussie and an American have Canada\u2019s future in their hands.<\/p>\n

Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1760510763labto1760510763ofdlr1760510763owedi1760510763sni@n1760510763osloh1760510763cin.l1760510763uap1760510763<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 14 \u2013 In May Football Australia CEO James Johnson announced he was changing country and continent to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-214248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}