CF Montreal | The end of a difficult presidency

When Kevin Gilmore replaced Joey Saputo as President of the Montreal Impact in January 2019, it was first to put the lid on the pot.

Remember the context. The crises followed one another. The baffles too. The club’s big star, Nacho Piatti, even took the microphone at Saputo Stadium, after a two-goal performance, to publicly negotiate his new contract.

Scenes worthy of the commedia dell’arte.

Kevin Gilmore promised to clean up. To put the kitchen back in order. To “change the culture” of the company. To make the Impact “a big club, of a big city”.

Thirty months later, when he left, what condition is the house in?

The pot exploded. The fire caught. In the oven. In the curtains. Throughout the kitchen. The walls have collapsed. And from the hot ashes a new club was born. The CFMTL. Or CF Montreal. Or Montreal Football Club. Or the Flakes. Depending on your mood.

This jumble is no accident. It is the result of a series of bad decisions. From a persistent, harmful corporate culture marked by confrontation. During his short tenure, Kevin Gilmore had clashes with:

– his head trainer, Rémi Garde;

– team legend Nick De Santis;

– journalists ;

– important partners, in particular Cogeco Media, which learned of the end of its broadcasting agreement by email on December 31 at 4 p.m. The big class.

The end of Nacho Piatti’s stay in Montreal was also a painful episode.

It’s a lot ?

Yes. And we haven’t even talked about the supporters yet.

Kevin Gilmore has alienated hundreds of team fans. Sometimes with good reason. It was justified to ban from Saputo stadium people who had committed acts of violence or intimidation. Even to temporarily close section 132, the time to identify the unwanted. Except that this measure has become permanent. And people who had nothing to be ashamed of are always waiting for a solution… which does not come.

Another point of confrontation: the change of identity of the club. A battle that the organization could easily have avoided. No one, but absolutely no one was calling for a new name. The team’s fans were all proud of the Impact. With its fleurdelized logo. They proudly wore the jersey, in the stadium as in the streets, in victory as in defeat.

Kevin Gilmore has unilaterally decided to take away this source of pride from supporters in order to impose his project on them. An incomprehensible marketing patent. A concept so absurd that one wonders how it survived the storm of ideas stage.

A team with a generic name.

The Montreal Football Club.

You didn’t need a master’s degree at HEC to guess that no one was going to call the club that. Moreover, at the launch of the new identity, the journalist Frédérique Guay, of TVA Sports, had asked Kevin Gilmore: “practical”, what should we call you?

Answer: “It will come with time. With the supporters. With the media. How you are going to decide to call us. ”

I couldn’t believe it. All this trouble for… this? Was it really worth it? Of course not !

And how to qualify his attempt to impose the term “foot”, rather than soccer, commonly used here for more than 100 years? What other team leader not only wanted to rename their team, but also the sport they play?

At this level, it is no longer commedia dell’arte.

It’s vaudeville.

***

On the day Kevin Gilmore was appointed, I asked people who worked or had worked for the Impact to identify the major challenges facing the new president. I compiled their answers and grouped them into a list of 10 major projects:

1. Sell ​​more subscriptions
2. Caring for supporters
3. Bring people to the Saputo stadium
4. Target regions
5. Review the away game schedule
6. Review the home game schedule
7. Hire stars
8. Stabilize the workforce
9. Lobby for international places
10. Do not confuse the Impact and the Canadian

Almost three years later, little has changed.

The sale of subscriptions remains problematic. Okay, the pandemic didn’t help. But even before the break, it was complicated. Relations with supporters are difficult. The ratings are dire, a symptom of widespread disinterest.

The stars ? There was Thierry Henry behind the bench. An excellent grip for the visibility of the team. Kevin Gilmore’s best shot, with the hiring of sports director Olivier Renard. Sadly, fans were unlikely to see him in person, as the team had to go into exile in the United States for most of their time in Montreal.

In the field ? The Impact hired Victor Wanyama of Tottenham. A good player. But not a superstar who, like Didier Drogba, moves the crowds. Kevin Gilmore opted for a different strategy instead: recruiting and developing young players. It defends itself. Especially for a low budget club. Except that this status of training club has drawbacks. The membership is constantly changing, and the lack of big names makes it difficult to sell memberships.

All in all, CF Montreal finds itself in a more fragile position today than in January 2019. The person who will succeed Kevin Gilmore will face great challenges. In particular, it will have to repair the broken pieces, and put a definitive end to the culture of confrontation. Good thing, there is a perfect solution that would allow him to kill two birds with one stone.

Bring back the Impact.