(Toronto) Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) has parted ways with Bill Manning, who was chairman of Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts.
MLSE, which owns both teams, said the divorce was a mutual decision.
After making a change of coach and general manager, Mr. Manning found himself in the hot seat.
Toronto FC (7-13-3) is sinking in the MLS Eastern Conference standings this season after losing six straight league games and going winless in its last nine (0-7-2).
The news of Bill Manning’s departure comes the morning after a 2-1 loss to Canadian Premier League champions Forge FC in the first leg of the Canadian Championship semi-final.
“Today is a very difficult day,” Keith Pelley, president and CEO of MLSE, told The Canadian Press. “Bill has been a leader and a significant contributor to our organization for almost nine years. He is an accomplished president and, above all, a good man. So days like today are difficult for all of us.”
“We made a promise to our organization and our fans that we would make sure our teams had all the resources they needed to win,” he added. “And we felt that making a change at this time would give us the best opportunity to do that.”
The move comes on the eve of the summer transfer window, with head coach John Herdman saying the struggling club would look to sign talented players.
“The timing was right,” Pelley said. “There’s a lot of work to do.”
As part of the transition, MLSE says Toronto FC general manager Jason Hernandez and Argonauts general manager Michael Clemons will report directly to Keith Pelley.
Bill Manning was named president of Toronto FC in October 2015 and became president of the Argonauts when the Canadian Football League franchise was acquired by MLSE in January 2018.
MLSE also owns the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.
Toronto FC won the treble – MLS Cup, Canadian Championship and Supporters’ Shield – in 2017 and reached the MLS Cup final in 2019. But it never quite recovered from moving its operations south of the border during the pandemic.
At head coach, since Greg Vanney’s departure in December 2020, the club has tried Chris Armas, Javier Perez and Bob Bradley before falling back on former Canada coach John Herdman last August.
Herdman is struggling to rebuild a team that lacks depth and has spent heavily recently.
Toronto FC has dug deep into MLSE’s pockets. Italian stars Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi are the second and sixth highest-paid MLS players this season, with salaries of $15.4 million and $6.295 million, respectively.
At the time of their signing, Bill Manning made headlines after revealing that his search for players began on the internet.
“I actually went to the Transfermarkt website and looked up which players in the Italian national team were coming out of contract,” Manning told reporters.
“And Lorenzo was one of the few players who came out of contract. I started noting players who I thought were world class, who I thought would have commercial value in this market.”
The Toronto Argonauts, who have a 2-2 record this season, won the 2022 Grey Cup under Manning, beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24-23.
Bill Manning won the Executive of the Year award twice with Real Salt Lake before joining Toronto FC.