Wizards won't play in Canada Cup final
By MORRIS DALLA COSTA -- London Free Press
The Canadian Professional Soccer League has given the Ottawa Wizard the red card.
It's the latest episode in what is taking shape as a pretty good farce, not exactly the kind of publicity soccer needs in this country.
"Last year's CPSL champion Ottawa Wizards have been removed from the final round of the Open Canada Cup following a decision handed down by the league's board of governors," said a CPSL news release. "The league has been plagued for several weeks now by the Wizards' expressed dissatisfaction of the CPSL's handling of the competition, the pairing of the teams and the locations being considered for the final games.
"The Wizards also threatened to boycott the finals and to seek a court injunction to prevent the games being played. Due to the uncertainty of the Ottawa team's intentions while facing a busy promotional campaign, the league asked Ottawa to confirm its place in the finals by 3 p.m. (Thursday.)
"Ottawa failed to meet the deadline and the team was removed from the schedule."
The Canada Cup tournament, a $10,000 winner-take-all tournament, will take place in London next weekend. The city also was awarded the league's playoff tournament, the Rogers Cup in October.
The Wizards won everything there was to win in the CPSL last year. They felt they were entitled to host at least the Canada Cup. When both events were awarded to London, the Wizards threatened legal action, including an injunction to prevent the Canada Cup tournament from being played in London and another suit against the CPSL, its owner and the league's competition committee.
Now the league has given the boot to the Wizards for the tournament. It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
Couple that with comments made by London City coach and general manager Harry Gauss in The Free Press about Wizard owner Omur Sezerman, calling him "obnoxious," and you'll probably be able to paper a fair-sized room with the number of lawsuits he's promising.
"We proved a point last year when we beat anyone, anywhere on the field," Sezerman said from Ottawa. "They challenged us again and now we're going to beat them on the legal field.
"I challenge anyone in the CPSL to a public debate how the decisions were made. But now they brought all this on by personally insulting me. To be called obnoxious, a megalomaniac . . . I can take it but it hurts my family and it hurts my kids. Now I'm going to go on the offensive.
"As for Harry Gauss calling me obnoxious . . . I don't remember having a personal conversation with him so I don't know how can he call me obnoxious."
Not only is Sezerman upset about the location of the tournament and the "personal attacks" but also about the way decisions were made, the scheduling of the tournament, which he says would have some teams playing four games in four days and, of course, the decision that left his team out of the tournament.
"It's ridiculous that we would have to let them know if we are in the tournament or not," said Sezerman. "We qualified, didn't we? We qualified last year and no one called us to ask us if we were coming.
"The decision was shortsighted. The decision made was great for London and London City but terrible for soccer and a disaster for the league. Obviously, the ownership is trying to make money regardless of what's good for the game. As long as these types of decision are made, soccer will go nowhere in this country.
Gauss is just happy he has both tournaments, even though the six-team Canada Cup is down to five teams.
As for Sezerman, "most of the information he gives is wrong anyway," says Gauss.
Isn't co-operation grand?
If only the fireworks on the field matched those in the boardroom, soccer wouldn't be such a tough sell.
