The new president of the Canadian Soccer Association has promised a more open organization, telling a House of Commons committee that Canada Soccer is preparing to publish its financial records and board minutes for the public to see.
"Our team is working on making sure that all of our financial records and our minutes are posted publicly," Charmaine Crooks told the committee, testifying by videoconference. She did not say when those documents would be released.
Crooks, a five-time Olympian who won silver in the 4x400-metre relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, took over the CSA presidency after Nick Bontis resigned in February and will serve the remainder of his term. She joined the CSA board in 2013, sat on the International Olympic Committee's athletes' commission and later served as a full IOC member, and sits on FIFA's committee for competitions, according to Vancouver Is Awesome.
"Trust, transparency and open communication, those are the things that I believe in," Crooks told the committee, adding that she wants to be a president who "listens and truly engages all the partners."
Committee members pressed her on several fronts, including whether her company, NGU Consultants Inc., had received contracts from FIFA — she denied it — and whether FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani had campaigned for her presidency, which she rejected as a "real disservice." She was also questioned about the long-term sale of the CSA's broadcast and marketing rights to Canadian Soccer Business, saying the organization is "currently looking at ways to modernize this agreement."
Crooks was also asked about the era of coach Bob Birarda, who left the organization in 2008 amid sexual harassment allegations and was jailed for 16 months last year after pleading guilty to sexual assaults dating back decades. She said she was not part of that board and pointed to steps taken in 2019, telling the committee that Canada Soccer is still working through the recommendations of a 2022 report by sports law professor Richard McLaren.
"Our goal is to make this sport the safest in Canada," she said.
On finances, Crooks acknowledged the CSA swung from a $5.3-million surplus in 2021, when the women's team won Olympic gold, to a $6.3-million deficit last year, when the men returned to the World Cup for the first time since 1986. She attributed the shortfall partly to a board decision to adopt retroactive pay equity for the women's team, along with the costs of recent men's matches, COVID-19 recovery and extensive team travel.
Skepticism from players was on full display during the hearings. In March, national team captain Christine Sinclair told the committee that Crooks had shown "nothing to the women's national team that proves that she's there fighting for us."
Conservative MP Kevin Waugh was blunter in his exchange with the new president. "The national teams are absolutely pissed off with you and your organization," the Saskatoon-Grasswood MP said.
Crooks conceded that "what happened in the past was not perfect."
"I acknowledge a lot of the historic hurts that have happened in the past with our athletes, but we are working to make it a better place," she said. "All of us want to make Canada Soccer a better place. We've had challenges and we will continue to work through that."
The same day, Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge announced measures meant to answer athletes' calls for a judicial inquiry into abuse and corruption in Canadian sport, including a public registry of banned coaches, a prohibition on non-disclosure agreements in sport and greater oversight of national sport organizations.
