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History of Canadian Soccer
by Colin Jose
BRITISH COLUMBIA |
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Canada
Provinces |
British Columbia: The Early Years Given the impact that British Columbia has had on Canadian soccer down through the years, it is hard to imagine that the governing body of soccer on the west coast did not join the national soccer association until 1920, eight years after it was founded. Even then, B.C. did not send a delegate to the Annual General Meeting until 1921. The Dominion of Canada Football Association was founded in 1912 with Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan as members, while Alberta wired applying for membership. However, a governing body of soccer in all of B.C. first came into existence on December 28 of 1904, and remained in power until sometime in 1909. In 1909, a professional soccer league was formed in B.C., bringing the soccer association into direct conflict with the very powerful B.C. Amateur Athletic Union, and that seems to have led to the collapse of the provincial association. A second B.C. Football Association was formed on August 15, 1914. That association, still with strong ties to the BCAAU, chose not to join the DCFA, which by that time had joined FIFA. In turn, the DCFA, in joining FIFA, agreed to support both amateur and professional soccer, upsetting The Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. However, conflict arose in B.C. in the years just before 1920, which resulted in a rival group starting another B.C. provincial governing body, which sought affiliation with the DCFA. It was a bitter and complicated battle, with one faction led by David Leith, and the other by Con Jones. Eventually the Con Jones group prevailed, and BC joined the DCFA in 1920. From its earliest days, soccer in B.C. had strong ties to the neighbouring states south of the border, and this led to a team from California visiting B.C. as early as 1909. The Californians played six games in B.C. against Vancouver, Nanaimo, all B.C., Ladysmith and Victoria. Later that same year, a B.C. All-Star team visited California, while a second Vancouver All-Star team visited California in 1913. Then in 1910, professional soccer was introduced in B.C., with the first professional game ever played in Canada taking place at Recreation Park in Vancouver on March 25 between the Rovers and the Callies. In 1911, the first touring team from overseas played in B.C. when the famous English amateur team, the Corinthians, toured Canada and the U.S. They played in Vancouver on August 11 and beat the Vancouver All-Stars 5–1, before crossing the Georgia Strait to Nanaimo, where they tied with a powerful Nanaimo/Ladysmith combination 2–2. The Corinthians remained on the Island and beat Victoria 4–2 before returning to the Mainland to once again defeat Vancouver 4–1. Due to the generally mild winters on the coast, the B.C. soccer season has usually been played from September through to the spring, thus being out of step with the rest of Canada, where soccer can be played only during the summer months. No overseas touring team played in B.C. again until 1921, when the powerful Scottish Football Association team played teams representing the Mainland, Upper Island, Victoria and B.C. It was the start of many games played between B.C. All-Star teams and touring teams in the inter-war years. As a general rule, touring teams played two games on the Island and two on the Mainland, with the second game on the Mainland being a game against a B.C. All-Star team on occasion. This was the case in 1927, when the B.C. All-Stars were beaten 6–0 by the touring Scottish Football Association team. On that day, B.C. lined up with Andy Roots in goal, Bert Daggar and Vic Laven at full back, George Russell, Neil McFarlane and Jimmy Heaps in the half back line, while Alex Cameron, Bob McDougall, Duff Davies, Dickie Stobbart and Adam Kerr were the forwards.
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