Players, parents raise concerns about West Island soccer club after semi-pro women’s team cut

Several players and parents are upset that the Pierrefonds Soccer Association has eliminated the semi-professional women's team for the 2025 season. (Submitted)

Several athletes and parents are raising questions about the governance of a West Island soccer club after two coaches were suddenly terminated and teams, including the semi-professional women’s team, were abruptly cancelled.

Parents whose children play for the Pierrefonds Soccer Association (PSA) were told by the club that the cuts were necessary due to financial difficulties since 2023, but are questioning why — amid the deficit — the club created new, paid administrative roles they claim were unjustified.

One of those roles is executive director, a position created in 2023 and filled by a longtime volunteer and head of the club. Parents only learned about the role at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Dec. 18, 2024.

The minutes of the meeting, obtained by CTV News, acknowledged “the investment in the Executive Director position and a few part-time hires” contributed to an increase in the club’s expenses.

However, the position of executive director is not one that is recommended by Soccer Canada — the body that governs the sport — for clubs with fewer than 3,000 members. The PSA, which has been around in Pierrefonds for almost 50 years, has approximately 1,600 members.

The elimination of the semi-pro Ligue 1 Québec women’s team has particularly outraged parents, who say it’s widely viewed as a launching pad for aspiring athletes to enter professional soccer.

“When you take that away from kids, well, there’s no path for you anymore. There’s no way up to make it to a pro level because the pro level is basically the next step,” one father said in an interview Tuesday.

Following the cuts, more than 60 parents requested a special general meeting on Jan. 23 to question administration staff about the decisions taken. The club has yet to grant the request. Its own bylaws state a special meeting “may be held … at the written request of at least fifteen (15) members.”

About a month after the AGM, parents were told the club’s beloved technical director, who also acted in a coaching role, was terminated as a cost-saving measure, just nine days before the deadline to register their children for the 2025 season. Some parents have decided to pull their kids from the club or told the administration they were registering them “under protest.”

An interim technical director is now being filled by an existing employee without a salary.

“I think the majority of people at the club felt fortunate to have a technical director of such skill and somebody who’s so qualified and has so much experience that can continue to move the club forward. And now everybody became upset by the fact that the wrong position, basically, was eliminated,” the father said, in reference to the executive director.

“Our feelings are that the club is doing whatever it can to ignore and overcome, to just ignore the legitimate request from the members [for] our meeting and just wait for this to go away.”

Mayor requests meeting with soccer club

On Wednesday, Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis told CTV News that the borough has requested a meeting with the soccer club next week to discuss the parents' concerns and the next course of action. According to the minutes of the December AGM, the borough placed the PSA in a recovery plan for 2025, which the club acknowledged will be a “decisive” year for the association.

The mayor’s office confirmed in an email that the soccer association received $12,000 in city funding in 2024. The approved funding for 2025 was reduced to $10,200 “due to the decrease in membership and the evaluation of the group.”

Parents who spoke to CTV News did so on the condition that they would not be identified due to fear of reprisals since they felt they were threatened with being kicked out of the club for speaking out.

In an email on Feb. 1 in response to the request for the special meeting, the club’s general manager accused some members of the club of spreading “false and misleading” information and “derogatory, defamatory” language that contravened the club’s code of conduct for parents.

“The club will avail itself of its right to suspend or dismiss any member who continues to cause further harm to its operations or reputation. Legal counsel will be copied on all communications going forwards,” the general manager wrote.

Executive director position was necessary, club says

As the parents wait for answers on the future of the club, they also say they have not received any meaningful help from the provincial governing body, Soccer Quebec.

The PSA and Soccer Quebec declined to be interviewed for this story.

In an email, the PSA’s general manager said it is not unusual for organizations to undergo restructuring in the face of financial strains and that it has provided “ample and extensive information” to parents, including financial statements for 2023, the minutes of the 2024 AGM, and a summary of a restructuring plan.

The email said the executive director, Oscar Tellechea, was a volunteer at the club for about 30 years “and was investing almost a full time position’s hours in his last role” as president. His move to the executive director role was necessary “to support the structure at the time and to allow the club to grow,” the written statement said.

“The Association will always look first at internal resources before searching outside as this allows for a much easier transition. Having the experience and skills required by the club, Mr. Tellechea was the ideal candidate for the club lead position and the role continues to be a most important and necessary one for the club.”

After seeking legal counsel, the club said it was advised that it was not legally required to hold a special meeting for the parents, adding, “We may very well hold an informal meeting for informational purposes, but it would not be a Special General Meeting.”

In an email last week, Soccer Quebec spokesperson Elom Defly said, “We are concerned about this situation. We understand that parents have taken steps with the club, and we are following the situation closely.”

Concerns raised by mayor, Soccer Quebec

Parents say they still have many unanswered questions about the firing of the technical director, the hiring of the executive director, and the financial statements for 2024.

“So, it’s all fine to cut, but to penalize children when, actually, there’s other ways of doing this, it is difficult to understand,” one mother said in an interview Monday.

“And ultimately, the reason why we’re here today is it’s been a month that we’ve been asking for a meeting so we can discuss those and that meeting was called lawfully, and we’re still not having a forum to discuss this.”

The situation, according to Mayor Beis, is “concerning,” which is why he called the meeting next week. He said if the club isn’t meeting the policy requirements in place for associations that get funding, the city could withhold services.

“That means that if they don’t meet their end of their requirements, well, then a borough, a city, can take the necessary action to stop them from using any fields, for example. That could be one of the scenarios. We certainly don’t want to go there. And this is why we’ve been following this very closely,” he said in an interview.

Beis added that if he were in charge of the soccer club, he would have held a special meeting at the parents' request because “these types of situations are better resolved when you have everybody around the table talking about it openly.”

“When an association makes a decision, an internal decision, to hire, to fire, to create a program or to dismiss a program, that’s within their jurisdiction to be able to do that. Without going any further, this is why we’re involved in the communication process with all the stakeholders to make sure that we better understand what the reasoning behind this was, and then, if necessary, intervene thereafter,” he said.

Meanwhile, parents are waiting for answers and wondering what the impact will be on the players ahead of the 2025 season.

“It’s not an environment where children feel like everything is good and we’re just working towards improving our talents and our sport. Nobody knows if the teams will be around, the lack of a technical director, coaches just being fired … the kids have a very unsettled feeling, like, you know, where are we going?” the father said.

“There’s no stability in this club. And you know, when you combine that with the fact that the semi professional team has been eliminated, well, you know, there’s no stability and there’s no upward movement. There’s no place to grow.”

On Wednesday, 25 current and former PSA players, including five professional players, published an open letter denouncing the elimination semi-pro women’s team. In it, they argue the decision “sends a clear and unequivocal message that the promotion of women’s sport is not important enough.”

- Read the open letter here