Published: December 1, 2022

THE RISE AND FALL

In 1980, there weren’t a lot of Canadian kids playing soccer – just shy of 167,000. However, the 80’s into the early 90’s saw gradual but consistent growth in registered kids playing soccer in Canada. During the period from 1980 – 1993, 125,000 additional kids took up the sport; a 74% increase, almost doubling youth soccer registrations with year over year growth of about 5.7%. While more boys than girls were playing the game, the growth rate was comparable between genders.

Then something happened after 1993, the popularity of soccer took off like a rocket ship! The following decade brought exponential growth in youth soccer registrations. Almost half-a-million (416,000) new players joined the game more than doubling player registrations from 291,000 up 143% to 611,000. This represented a staggering 14.3% year over year increase in player registrations. For perspective, this compares to Canada’s national population growth rate of approximately 1.0% during this same time period. Growth was massive for both genders but it was during this time the gap between male and female registrations significantly widened.

But it didn’t stop there. A sharp increase continued, peaking in 2008 at an all-time high of 740,000 registered youth soccer players! This growth was largely driven by continued growth in female registrations while male registrations began to stabilize and level off after 2003.

Unfortunately this feel good story comes to an abrupt end after 2008 and a decade of steady, year over year player registration declines follow; largely driven by a mass exodus of girls leaving the game. The gain of 35,000 female players in the previous five years is wiped away with a loss of over 100,000 or 3x as many females in the following 10 years. Male youth registrations, while still relatively stable, experienced a loss of almost 50,000 players over the same period. Combined, Canada lost over 149,000 registered youth soccer players between 2008 – 2019 representing the equivalent of a large urban centre in Canada and for this, we can’t even blame Covid-19.

The Covid-19 Pandemic

Just when we thought the decade-long decline in youth soccer registrations couldn’t get any worse, Covid-19 sweeps across the globe in the spring of 2020 decimating youth sports participation. How bad was it? In a single year from 2019-20 youth soccer registrations in Canada plummeted 365,770 or 62%.

That’s the equivalent of 18 years of growth from 1980 – 1998! Gone, wiped out in a single year!

Male and female participation dropped 61% and 63% respectively. Compound this with the previous decade of continual declines and Canadian youth soccer registrations have dropped by an unfathomable half-million (514,980) players. Forget about a large urban centre, if these players represented a Canadian city in 2021, they would be the 11th largest city in Canada; dwarfing the entire size of Canadian Premier League markets Victoria (BC) and Halifax (NS) while rivaling the likes of Kitchener (ON)!

Pandemic aside, the grassroots youth soccer community in Canada has over two decades of documented history in player growth and retention issues. Male youth registrations have been stagnant for 23 years, since 1999 and female registrations have been in year over year decline for 14 years, since 2008.

LET’S TALK

So why at the height of our Men’s and Women’s National Team success and during the most progressive era in Canadian youth soccer history are we seeing people leave the game rather than join? Simply put, we don’t know. If we did there would be no need for Project #growthegame and we wouldn’t be here today canvassing you, the community, for solutions.

What we do know is we’re dealing with an extremely complex, multivariate issue. We also know some of the broad strokes issues and factors, openly discussed within Canadian soccer circles for decades, include:

• Domestic changes within the Canadian soccer landscape

• Global changes and events

• Governance at all levels

• Rising cost to play the game

• Professionalization of the grassroots

• Competing social and recreational activities

• Personal experiences

• Lack of opportunity / Incomplete player pathway

This non-exhaustive list is just the beginning of a badly needed national conversation. For too long youth soccer in Canada has and continues to operate in silos, held together by a patchwork of policy. While there are many possible reasons for the player decline we’re witnessing, it is incumbent upon us all in the soccer community to do what we can to reverse this troubling trend. Despite the oft used hashtag #growthegame, with rapidly declining participation, the lack of basic equality among members, openness, transparency, player choice mandates and the absence of strong leadership to enact and enforce these, 15 years has shown we have done many things but #growthegame may not be one of them.

#GROWTHEGAME

Grow the game will mean different things to different people. What’s important to supporters or fans of the game is likely very different to what’s important to coaches, players and administrators.

Some will point to the growth of the professional level in Canada with a new men’s professional league and improved men’s and women’s national team performances. They may even do so without realizing this represents only a fraction of a percentage point of soccer players in this country and is predicated on a strong, vibrant grassroots foundation.

Others will point to improved technical player development programs, a record number of trained coaches and referees or club licensing and league standards.

At project #growthegame, it literally means reversing two decades of stagnation and declining youth soccer participation trends by building a strong grassroots base. But do we really need more youth players or simply better youth players? It’s the classic “quality” versus “quantity” debate and frankly it's not an either or scenario. Why exchange one for the other when the reality is both are major issues in Canadian youth soccer and both must be addressed simultaneously.

With your help, Project #growthegame will examine the issues that have both helped and hindered the growth of our youth grassroots base, the life blood of this sport in Canada. Through our website, social media and blog we will strive to raise awareness of declining youth soccer participation in Canada, work collaboratively to find solutions and move beyond a cliché hashtag to actually help #growthegame.

REFERENCES

1. Canada Soccer Association. (n.d.). Canada Soccer Pathway. Canada Soccer. Retrieved February 11, 2022, from https://canadasoccer.com/play-landing/canada-soccer-pathway/

2. Wikipedia. (n.d.). 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 11, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_Women%27s_World_Cup

3. Canada Soccer Association. (n.d.). Coach Education & Certification. Canada Soccer. Retrieved February 11, 2022, from https://canadasoccer.com/coach/coach-education-and-certification/

4. Canada Soccer Association. (n.d.). Club Licensing Program. Canada Soccer. Retrieved February 11, 2022, from https://canadasoccer.com/play-landing/club-licensing-program/

5. Wikipedia. (n.d.). List of Largest Population Centres in Canada. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 11, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_population_centres_in_Canada