World Footy News

Canada is getting serious about investing in it's representive teams. Both men and women players across Canada have been invited to participate in provincial teams to compete for national places.

Today I talked to Tristan Waldock's successor in Jason Arnold and his wife Danah in Calgary at the spacous grounds of the Sir Winston Churchill Centre.

Jason and his colleagues were running the first outing of an Alberta women's provincial team consisting of players coming from the Edmonton Emus and Calgary Kookaburras. Later a team will be selected to play against other provincial teams to provide players for two national sides.

Yes, it has been confirmed that Canada again will send the Northern Lights and the Midnight Suns to the 2017 International Cup. Jason is aiming for the Northern Lights to retain their world champion status and for the Midnight Suns to improve on their previous competitve standing. It's probably lucky for him that his wife has adopted and plays football. Danah plays at full forward.

This was the first formal hit-out for these players but it was quite impressive. With the 2017 International Cup more than a year away and this being only a provincial squad I'm predicting a very professional Canadian women's team, even awesome.

The men are duplicating the process with selections from West and East meeting in Vancouver in a month's time. Usually Canada looks to the 49th Parallel Cup to test it's rivalry against it's arch rival USA but both countries have agreed to to suspend this contest in 2016 to concentrate on selections for 2017.