Why CF Montreal Fans, MLS Have No Reason To Trust Joey Saputo And Sons

Chairman of the Montreal Impact Joey Saputo looks on ahead of the game against New England Revolution at Olympic Stadium on February 29, 2020 in Montreal.

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It hasn’t gotten all that much attention during a busy transfer season, but the abrupt departure of CF Montreal Sporting Director Corey Wray should send alarm bells to the club’s supporters and Major League Soccer’s front office.

Wray’s departure this week comes after a somewhat cryptic message from the club posted on social media last month pleading to rebuild the team following one of its worst seasons since the club began MLS play in 2012.

It ends a tenure of only 10 months in the role, following the departure of Olivier Renard, who was the club’s top sporting executive for a stretch shorter than five years. And maybe most troublingly, two of the three top sporting executives remaining appear to have, as their biggest qualification, being the owner’s sons.

“The sporting direction of CF Montréal will continue to be spearheaded by Managing Director, Recruitment and Sporting Methodology Luca Saputo, Managing Director, Academy Strategy and Roster Management Simone Saputo and President and CEO Gabriel Gervais,” read a club statement issued last week.

To be clear, this isn’t about getting the Saputo kin getting involved in the business operations of the team, which is often typical of children of ownership. (The Hunt family in Dallas and the Krafts in New England are two examples.) This is the highly unusual step of making the two 20-something recent business school grads two of the club’s three highest-ranking executives in charge of soccer-related strategy.

Look, theoretically it’s possible that Luca Saputo, three-plus years removed from graduating the University of Miami’s International MBA program, is a brilliant football mind who will one day be known as Quebec’s answer to Ralf Ragnick. Sure, there’s a puncher’s chance that Simone Saputo, an even more recent MBA grad from “The U,” is the best North American talent evaluator since a cat named Bruce Arena transitioned from college to pro soccer in the 1990s.

But given the pattern of haphazardness under Joey Saputo’s ownership since CF Montreal made the transition from second-tier club to MLS franchise in 2012, Joey Saputo deserves zero trust from fans that he is making the right call here, and every suspicion that this is a reckless promotion of his sons to roles for which they are unqualified, when that is the obvious assumption a reasonable person would make from their respective resumes.

The duo have 22 months of experience working on the sports side of any pro soccer club combined. All of those in the CF Montreal-Bologna FC family.

The CF Montreal Coaching Carousel

Let’s review some of the recent history that gives fans every right to be skeptical of the latest developments under Joey Saputo’s guidance.

First there’s the constant coaching carousel. According to data from Transfermarkt, the average managerial tenure at the club is about 52 games across all competitions (not factoring in the 28 games current manager Marco Donadel has taken charge of.) For good contending in multiple competitions, that’s about a season’s worth. For teams like Montreal, it’s closer to a season and a half.

Those numbers become more maddening when you realize that two of the coaches Montreal let walk were Jesse Marsch (after one season) and Wilfried Nancy (after two). Neither man was fired, per se, though Nancy left amid a supposed dispute with the senior Saputo. But it’s an awful look when the only two coaches in your history who weren’t fired each go on to win two major trophies and one MLS Coach of the Year award elsewhere.

Then there’s extremely unusual tone to recent communications from the club that gives fans very little explanation of Saputo and the club’s thinking.

First came a mea culpa letter to fans, published online early in the morning of July 23, signed by the Saputo brothers and Gervais, but with Wray’s name conspicuously absent.

Then came the extraordinarily brief missive about Wray’s departure less than a month later. No boilerplate quote thanking him for his service to the club. No disclosure suggesting how the decision was made. And not much in the way of explanation from club leadership afterward.

In fairness, Montreal has not been the worst club in MLS under Saputo’s stewardship. They’ve reached the postseason in six of 13 previous MLS seasons; not good given the forgiving playoff qualification standards, but not as bad as the San Jose Earthquakes, D.C. United or the Chicago Fire, among others.

They’ve also won four Canadian Championships over that span, a less impressive feat than it sounds when you realize there have never been more than three MLS teams competing for the honor at once.

Similarly, Joey Saputo has overseen a decade of Serie A security at Bologna FC, his other soccer holding, including a return to UEFA Champions League football for the first time in six decades last season.

But it’s impossible to recall another time an MLS team has held two executives inheriting such a high position with so little previous experience helping to make sporting decisions. Let alone two executives who do so in a club where all the history suggests a lack of stability.

Implications Beyond Montreal?

The fact that Montreal’s defining MLS traits have been impatience and inconsistency give fans every reason to suspect incompetence and nepotism until proven otherwise. And for a city that has enormous potential as an MLS market, given its size, diversity and cosmopolitan sensibility, hopefully that proof arrives, most likely in the appointment of a more seasoned executive to oversee what currently seems to be a directionless technical staff.

But Joey Saputo should no longer feel like his place in MLS is secure simply because he footed the bill for his club and his stadium. And if his approach is as unserious or ill-advised as it appears, there may come a day when MLS could try to shepherd the club from his ownership and his city.

With MLS expected to transition to a fall-to-spring schedule eventually, removing Canada’s coldest market could solve some schedule issues related to the calendar flip. There are other rumored markets potentially interested in joining MLS either through expansion or relocation. And the league has proven itself capable of ushering problematic ownership out the door before, including former Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen and Chivas USA founder Jorge Vergara.

With Salt Lake, the league assumed control of the club in January 2021 after Hansen, following a controversy regarding alleged racist remarks made to team employees, put the team up for sale himself in 2020 and failed to find a buyer. With Chivas, the league’s board of governors voted to dissolve the club after MLS bought the team back from Vergara.

There has been no indication from MLS of wanting to relocate or contract CF Montreal. And while support has lagged at the club, it’s still far better than anything that existed in the latter stages of Chivas USA’s decade-long existence.

Even so, there are hints of similarities between Saputo and Vergara, two men who meddled in their MLS teams but also had more prized soccer holdings in other leagues. And if the rise of his sons up the technical staff hierarchy is as undeserved as it appears, this may get a lot worse before it gets better.