A quick refresher course on Canadian withdrawals from major soccer competitions.
Talk of a potential boycott of the upcoming Cyprus Cup and World Cup by the Canadian women's team calls to mind a time when the Canadian Soccer Association actually withdrew from the 1962 World Cup in Chile.
In actual fact, they hadn't even started the qualification process when the CSA pulled out. With a great deal of help from Colin Jose who is the foremost soccer historian in North America, we've been able to piece together much of the story.
Here's what happened. Back in those days only 16 teams qualified for the finals, and only one spot was allocated to Concacaf. It would come as no surprise that Mexico was almost always that country.
Back to the Canadian team. According to an article written by the legendary soccer expert George Gross in 1960, Canada withdrew from the competition after entering it, and forfeited the $250 entrance fee. They also risked a $100 fine for doing so. The reason for the withdrawal was that the CSA was afraid they would not be able to afford the trip to Chile if they managed to beat the U.S. and Mexico along the way. How's that for forward thinking?
It's unclear if the CSA was actually fined the $100. They might have had to take up a collection for it.
The history before this escapade is interesting as well. For 30 years between 1927 and 1957 Canada did not play a single World Cup qualifying match, and rarely played at all. That was primarily because Canada was not even a member of FIFA from 1928-1950. They played four qualifying games in 1957 for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, withdrew from 1962 and did not even enter the competition in 1966.
Apparently, money problems have always plagued the CSA but it was small potatoes back then, to the point of being somewhat quaint and almost comical. There's nothing even remotely funny about what's happening now.
