Canada men’s national team head coach John Herdman has called out Canada Soccer for its lack of investment, saying the federation is “not serious” about winning a World Cup.
Herdman’s side fell 2-0 to the United States in Sunday’s CONCACAF Nations League final, failing to win its first trophy since 2000.
Part of the reason for Canada’s loss, in Herdman’s eyes, was an inadequate amount of time spent preparing for the game. In contrast to the USMNT, Herdman said his side was only given the funds for four days of preparation — three of which were spent on semifinal opponent Panama.
“There’s no time,” Herdman said at his post-game press conference. “We need the resources where we can actually put a camp together, where I can work for six days on the things that will make the biggest difference moving forward.”
“You could see the preparation the U.S. have had, those set pieces made a big difference. Those extra five, six, seven days they had makes a difference.”
Canada Soccer’s financial troubles have been well documented. The Olympic champion women’s team moved to strike during February’s SheBelieves Cup over cuts to funding, only to be forced onto the field after being threatened with a lawsuit by its own federation.
Amid the turmoil, Canada Soccer president Nick Bontis was forced out and replaced on an interim basis by Charmaine Crooks.
But the federation’s financial problems are still very much an issue. Herdman challenged Canada Soccer to do more ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which it will co-host.
“I think it’s not a secret the organization has been suffering financially even through the [2022] World Cup qualification. You had coaches raising money to make sure we’ve got charter flights, security on those charter flights.
“We’ve got the best generation of players we’ve had. And there’s more coming, you can see it. [Ismaël] Koné just dropped out the sky. Tajon Buchanan just dropped out the sky, Alistair Johnson, like it’s coming,” he said.
“We’ve got to figure this out financially. We’ve got to get serious about winning a World Cup. When you play at home, you get a chance to win it. You get a chance to get to a quarterfinal, a semifinal, and then get on that roll to win it. And we’re not serious,” the coach added.
“We brought a World Cup to our country and we’re not serious about winning it.”
[lawrence-related id=21428,15336,21880]