Calls For CPL To Support The French Language Are Rising

The Canadian Premier League describes itself as ‘By Canadians, For Canadians’, and it has taken great strides to establish itself in a stable, professional manner. It’s no small task to launch a brand new league with seven pro teams from coast-to-coast, and so far the CPL looks to have a started off on the right foot – though there are still evidently some growing pains.

One crucial missing piece has been support for the French language. Many had expected french communications to be included from the get-go, but several weeks into the inaugural season there’s still no french to be seen for both written league communications and the league’s official streams and broadcasts.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed, and now prominent french sports podcaster Kevin Laramee has penned an open letter to the league pleading for league-wide support of Canada’s other official language. He’s right in that there’s unrivaled growth in the sport thanks to the league – but its french-speaking residents might be feeling left behind.

A french option has appeared on the official Canadian Premier League website under the ‘more’ tab, but right now this just leads to a blank page. Still, it means that league commissioner David Clanachan has plans to translate the league’s written communications, and that’s a huge step for the CPL – albeit one fans may have assumed would start many months ago, prior to the league’s first season.

Alex Bunbury, the former Canadian international who is looking at establishing a club in Laval, has also chimed in on the subject. Beyond stating that a professional domestic league in Canada needs one (if not two or three) teams in Quebec, he states he’s working on getting the league to produce french broadcasts:

OneSoccer has established a very good roster of English-speaking commentators with the likes of Gareth Wheeler, Terry Dunfield, Peter Schaad, Clare Rustad, and former FC Edmonton head coach Colin Miller. While this is all good stuff for English speakers, the global streaming service doesn’t offer any support for Canada’s other official language.

With multiple ownership groups reportedly interested in Montreal and a potential Quebec City team to boot, the Canadian Premier League will certainly need to embrace the French language if it hopes to garner a good following in the province. It’s no small investment to include broadcasters from another language, but launching a french version of the official website would be a good first step.

The league has yet to make an official statement on the matter yet, but hopefully soon both of Canada’s official languages will be represented proudly. For a league built ‘By Canadians, For Canadians’, one hopes its only a matter of time. On y va!

Source: Kevin Laramee (via Twitter), Alex Bunbury (via Twitter)