Ciara McCormack: the Canadian soccer whistleblower turned soccer CEO

WWhen Ciara McCormack was wrapping up her testimony before a Canadian parliamentary committee hearing on safe sports last April, she decided to buy a soccer team. It wasn’t a hasty decision. For more than a decade, the former Vancouver Whitecaps player and Republic of Ireland international has fought to highlight abuse and cover-up at the highest level of Canadian soccer.

Some people listened to McCormack and her co-stars. Others don’t. Or if they did listen, they decided everything was fine. Whether private institutions should be protected above the well-being of people. With the exception of the reopening of a police investigation into former Vancouver Whitecaps and Canadian national youth coach Bob Birarda, which led to multiple sex offense charges, guilty plea and imprisonment, not much has changed. The system remained intact and the actors evaded responsibility.

“After going to Ottawa for the hearing in April, I realized that if we want change, we have to be involved in making decisions for everything,” McCormack said. “It’s easy to complain about the way things should be, but I decided to do something about it. It all unfolded quite quickly.”

After a playing career that included time with the Vancouver Whitecaps, Fortuna Hjorring in Denmark and the Newcastle Jets in Australia – becoming the first North American to play in a Uefa Champions League final along the way – McCormack activated ‘veteran status’ on her game. ticket earlier this year to play for Limerick-based Treaty United in League of Ireland. Although born in Canada, eight caps for the Republic of Ireland had strengthened ties with her ancestral homeland a decade earlier.

“I saw that Treaty had great volunteers, but the club was underfunded,” McCormack said. “I could see that Ireland was moving towards professionalising club football and that the Professional-Amateur Treaty was sticking.”

This past summer, McCormack had some discreet – and candid – conversations in Ireland and Canada. A bold idea became a reality when Vancouver-based investment group Tricor Pacific Capital financed the purchase of the club. McCormack was this month installed as co-owner and CEO of a revamped organization featuring Limerick’s only professional men’s and women’s football teams, with a focus on youth development. The acquisition makes McCormack the first female CEO in the League of Ireland.

“It’s about creating a blueprint for what a player-centric situation looks like,” said McCormack, who also sits on the board of PFACan, Canada’s players’ union. “It won’t be perfect because nothing ever is – and it would be foolish to promise that – but as a player who has been through some pretty horrific things, the best for the player will always come first. It’s important to put players first.”

Treaty FC’s men’s team will kick off their League of Ireland season in February next year, marking five years since McCormack wrote an explosive blog post revealing coach Bob Birarda was still coaching young women in Vancouver despite being released by Vancouver Whitecaps and Canada Soccer following allegations of sexual misconduct. Reporting by the Guardian exposed a toxic Canadian football system devoid of accountability. Senior officials at both club and national levels had for years downplayed or ignored multiple complaints about Birarda from players and kept the reasons why he was dismissed secret.

Last April was McCormack’s second appearance before Canadian politicians in Ottawa. She was questioned about the need for a government investigation into abuse in all Canadian sports. In an occasional poignant testimonyMcCormack said she left Canada in 2007 after reporting abuse by Birarda. A year later, Birarda left his role with the Whitecaps and Canada Soccer under what was publicly described at the time as a “mutual agreement.”

“Inexplicably, he was allowed by Canada Soccer to continue coaching teenage girls,” McCormack said during the committee hearing in April. “For 12 years, I and others have repeatedly reported this known predator to no avail.”

McCormack has consistently highlighted the leadership roles that Concacaf president and Fifa vice-president Victor Montagliani, a former president of Canada Soccer, and Peter Montopoli, former general secretary of Canada Soccer, have played over time.

“Victor Montagliani was also identified in the July 2022 McLaren report “to have been directly involved in the cover-up of a now-convicted sex offender, along with Peter Montopoli, someone who should also be held accountable for his despicable conduct during his time with Canada Soccer,” McCormack told the committee hearing. “Both continue unchallenged in their high-profile roles at FIFA… I’m honestly just ashamed to be Canadian – ashamed that this is the reality of what it means and the reaction to being a Canadian athlete.”

The McLaren Independent Canada Soccer Review was commissioned by Canada Soccer and published by McLaren Global Sports Solutions in 2022. The report was intended to assess Canada Soccer’s response to 2008 harassment allegations against Bob Birarda in his role as coach of the U-20 women’s team. .

Birarda’s departure was characterized by Canada Soccer at the time as a mutual parting of ways. No mention was made of the allegations against him and he was given “best wishes” by Canada Soccer. In his role as vice-president of Canada Soccer, Montagliani was a central figure in how the departure was managed and Peter Montopoli, now responsible for hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, was the organization’s general secretary .

The McLaren report found that Canada Soccer: “misled players and obscured the true reason for his departure: his continued intimidation of players and abuse of power… (Canada Soccer’s failure to terminate Birarda and impose disciplinary sanctions gave him the opportunity to continue coaching, endangering other players.”

A Concacaf spokesperson, speaking on behalf of Montagliani about his time with Canada Soccer, previously told the Guardian that “the subsequent handling of Mr. Birarda’s departure, including communications, was led by Canada Soccer’s legal counsel.”

“I’ve had a wide range of experiences and there’s good and bad everywhere,” McCormack told the Guardian. “What happened in Vancouver was the worst and elsewhere there have been clubs that didn’t have the resources, but the people involved really cared about making sure the players felt safe. The Canadian abuse situation is a huge problem and everything that happened with Spain after the World Cup showed the reality we are still battling.”

Canada Soccer announced late last year that it plans to launch its own professional women’s league in 2025, currently called Project 8. Three teams have been announced: Toronto City, Calgary Foothills and Vancouver Whitecaps. Given McCormack’s strong ties to Vancouver and Treaty investors Tricor Pacific Capital, also based in the city (Vancouver is also the birthplace of Concacaf president Montagliani), wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in Canada?

“I fully support any opportunity for Canadian women to continue playing and I believe a professional league in Canada is long overdue,” said McCormack. But after everything that happened in Vancouver and the fact that the same owners (Vancouver Whitecaps) who have really hurt us for over a decade are going to be involved in this new league, it doesn’t feel like the right thing for me to do like this are. involved.

Alongside Canada Soccer, Vancouver Whitecaps failed to publicly acknowledge the reasons for the departure of Birarda and his successor Hubert Busby Jr, who also left the club under controversial circumstances. Greg Kerfoot, a majority shareholder of Vancouver Whitecaps, a software millionaire, and executives Bob and Dan Lenarduzzi, were all in decision-making positions at the club and remain with the Whitecaps.

“Ireland was the country that gave me an international opportunity and it lives up to the standards of the country that rescued me from a terrible situation,” says McCormack. “Entering roles where women have not traditionally been involved is one way to make a positive impact on the landscape. We need to open the doors so that leadership in football is more diverse and other voices are heard. If we want to change things on a global scale, this has to happen.”

Rather than being exhausted by Canadian Football administration, for now, McCormack is excited about her new Treaty adventure in Limerick. According to her, good people can make great things.

“There are so many incredible people involved in Treaty, from volunteers to coaches, and I am really impressed by the quality of the people around the club,” she says. “This is a long-term project, both on and off the pitch, and we need to put money into the infrastructure. The aim is to be a winning club and we want to be competitive in Ireland and build from there. There hasn’t been a men’s international from Limerick for about 40 years, so we want to change that too.”

“The one thing I’ve always been is authentic, for better or for worse,” McCormack adds. “I can’t erase the experiences I’ve had and they’ve made me the person I am. I will forever advocate for players. Players are the lifeblood of the sport. If I lost that part of me, it would mean losing my soul.”