SoccerWise - Tim Bezbatchenko (Black Knight Football Club)

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

David sits down with Tim Bezbatchenko from over in England. They talk about his new role at Black Knight Football Club, what he would do as "Soccer Czar" in America for a day, the best teams he has ever worked with, and more.Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome to Soccer Wise, a nice Friday edition here as we head into a big weekend in action here in North America, the second last week of the season for NWSL before an international break and decision day in Major League Soccer. And what a week we have had here at SoccerWise as we attempt to fill in for the legend that is Tommy Scoops, Tom Bogert, who will be back with us finally returning from Italy as we recap and react to all things Decision Day and start previewing MLS playoffs as next week begins. This week, we talked to Patrice Bernier about the Canadian national team and CF Montreal's run towards the postseason.

Talked to Bobby Warshaw about youth development. Jordan Angeli, of course, breaking down all things NWSL with me. Talking to Andrea Yock at Minnesota Aurora about your potential to own and be a part owner of a community soccer team that is doing incredible things up in Minnesota. So go to their website and get involved if that interests you. We talked as well with Joe Larry of Backheel helping preview this decision day. So if that's what you're looking for right now, make sure to download our Thursday episode where we also had Will Koontz, general manager of the LA Galaxy, a team that is probably going to win the West. And even if they don't, they're going to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup because they already have, which I will talk about coming up for the mailbag segment after our interview.

But let's get to our interview first. It is with someone who I think is a fascinating person in the North American soccer scene. Tim Bezbachenko worked at the league office, played USL soccer back in the day himself, and then took over the sporting decisions at Toronto FC, built them into the club that they became with Smashing Jovinko and Josie Altidore, winning championships, hosting championships, going to CONCACAF Champions League finals and really one of the great MLS sides and one of the great stories Toronto's ability to be market relevant and be one of the big teams in Major League Soccer and then he went home an original Columbus crew season ticket holder with his family he went to help save the crew which we talked about in this interview he became the

president and sporting director of that club. So moving from the sporting side to overseeing both the business and sporting sides, and of course, helping build a two-time MLS cup champion, bringing Cucho in, bringing Diego Rossi in, locking up Darlington Nagby and doing so much more for that club before starting his new project where he is president of Black Knight Football Club. It is a multi-club ownership group owned by an American, Bill Foley, who owns the Las

Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL, now owns Bournemouth in the Premier League and four other clubs around the world. So enjoy my conversation here with Bez and I'll have some mailbag answers for you on the other side as well. All right, everybody. Well, the reason I started SoccerWise, the reason we love what we do is an opportunity to talk to some of the most interesting people across soccer or across football, if that's what you want to call it as well. We can go between both. We've had some fantastic interviews. Carter, GM and director of sporting at the Orlando Pride in their historic season. Ben Pierman last

week as well with the Charleston Battery, the GM working on that project. And now we have someone working on a completely unique and different project. Tim Bezbachenko, president of Black Night Football Club. It sits across multiple clubs around the world owned by Bill Foley, including, of course, Bournemouth, which, Tim, I believe is where you're sitting right now. That's right. That's right. I'm in Bournemouth right now. Do you know where Bournemouth is?

I just Googled it because you were like, oh, we're just, you know, at the training ground near Vitality Stadium. And I was like, I should check which of the joke that me and Weeby always had was, which of the English Bs is it? Birmingham City, Bournemouth, Brentford. But Bournemouth's my favorite. All very different places. All very different. Unlike the Cs, or excuse me, the Ss, the? Birmingham City, Bournemouth, Brentford. So, but Bournemouth's my favorite. All very different places. All very different.

Unlike the C's, or the, excuse me, the S's, the Sunderland, Southampton, which can throw you off as well, you know, South Pole. It fits with the Bezbachenko. You're, you know, all of it goes together. How is it so far? How are you doing? How are you enjoying it? You're about two months in to this new role.

What's been the experience? Yeah. first off, thanks for having me. Good to see you and hear you. And yeah, it's been a wild but productive two months. We started when I came on in mid-July. The team was actually in the U.S. for preseason out in Santa Barbara where we played Rexham and then the Galaxy. And so that was interesting because with the crew, we had done our preseason at the exact same place in the same hotel about six months before. So it was a smooth transition in because it was familiar until I took that plane ride over in late july early august when um you know really set foot here in southern england at bournemouth um and and started learning the culture of of this club and it's 125 year history they just had a celebration uh with harry redknapp who's one of the you know most famous coaches from bournemouth who's who's who's here regularly and just soaking it all in you know at

the same time starting to work with bill and the whole leadership team across Black Knight to formulate a vision for what this multi-club ownership strategy will be. So there's a lot to take in, but the transition has been good, not without its challenges when you're moving a family overseas but it's been uh i've really enjoyed it so far so you um for people who don't know worked in the major league soccer league office then went over and took over um sporting duties for toronto fc for a number of years through the mls cup victories and ccl finals we were both in guadalajara and it is still one of the great nights but i know you remember it a little bit differently and then you moved over to columbus uh and you were president across everything as well as in charge of sporting we're going to talk about all of that but take us into the behind the scenes for you of why you stepped away from Columbus for this role like what what interests you what is this project for you yeah so I you know I think

everyone at different stages of their career wants to experience something maybe different. And at this point, I had been in MLS essentially 15 years at the league office, which was a great start to learning everything about the league and the people and the leadership with the commissioner um and i learned a lot and then and made the step to the club which is which is obviously different than than the league perspective and you're you're operating club day-to-day you're trying to win games you're trying to build a culture um and in toronto was with that was this unique experience and build we renovated a stadium and and but it was really about taking a franchise that had done so well on the commercial side and really pushed MLS, frankly, maybe pulled it into the modern greg vanney and cory ray and a number of other people up at toronto um and then columbus was an opportunity to to one build a stadium training ground and really restart a club that that was close to my heart being from columbus

and and and being a you know my family being a day one season ticket holder and my parents still to go to the game. So that was a different experience where my kids could be close to their grandparents but at the same time be a part of this incredible project with great ownership in the Haslam's that were willing to take what was sort of one of the original franchises and invest in it in a way that reflected

what we felt it should be based on its soccer or football history. This project was one that came, you know, out of the blue in a way. And, and when I felt like it was going to challenge me in different ways, I was going to grow as, as a person, one, because you're living in a different country, but you're at the epicenter of all things football globally with the Premier League. But at the same time, you're trying to create a strategy across four or more clubs that whether or not that's in player development, player movement, selling players. It could be data. It could be scouting where I really find my, that's where my passion is, is sort of how do you at the higher level think sort of short-term, but long-term. So, so, you know, they were looking for someone that sort of in Matt seemed to match

with my background. And, and so like I said, it came out of kind of nowhere, but, but it, you know, you start having the conversations and then it turned into something and and i think that's how a lot of things happen in our industry which moves things move so quickly but i actually was connected through uh uh you know someone i played people asked me how this role happened and it wasn't through a headhunter it wasn't through some agent or it was through someone i played you know called soccer with and it was in the usl when I was in the USL. So funny how this world works and, and, and how you're, you stay connected.

It's, it's really small. I think we've all had the life experience of like, Oh, you're the soccer person. I know another soccer person. Let me connect you. And you guys should talk. And then all of a sudden your dad has you connected with some Georgian dude who wants to talk about soccer for you. It worked out though. It got you a job. It got you a new role. as you connected with some Georgian dude who wants to talk about soccer. For you, it worked out, though. It got you a job.

It got you a new role. So we have these multi-club models. A lot of them are owned by Americans or American consortiums and whatnot. What is the goal of a project like this? What is sort of the top-down sort of stated, this is what we're trying to accomplish, This is what we want it to look like. Yeah. And I think it's difficult to kind of, you know, label everything as just, you know, multi-club ownership and assume it's all similar. I liken it to walking into the grocery store and the produce section. It's not apples and oranges. There are apples, oranges, pears, celery, you know, all colors and varieties. And some of them are rotten and some of them are apples, oranges, pears, celery, you know, all colors and varieties.

And some of them are rotten and some of them are healthy. And you've got to find the ones that are not past the expiration date. I feel like it's such a new industry and segment of the footballing world over the last 10 plus years, you know, with Red Bull and Man City on kind of one end doing it one way. And at the other end, now what you're seeing are these financial institutions, these private equity groups coming in and investing and trying to run multiple clubs and do it, you know, profitably. And then, you know, you would assume that they're looking to exit like most all private equity groups. And I think there's so many different purposes with the MCO that I think people don't know what it is and they label it all as one thing. And I think that's the first thing I've learned and I'm trying to understand is where do we fit into this

ecosystem and be laser focused on our vision and our strategy. And it sort of has three pillars. First is shared resources, right? Just the idea sounds boring, but centralized resources so that you're helping all clubs do what they do. And you're helping them think short term, long term. You're providing more names for scouting. You're providing possibly leveraging various data providers. There's so many things you can do in that space here, you know, across departmental work and performance and medical. So I think that's sort of number one is how can you just make all the clubs better through best practices and through communication.

The second is player development and player optimization right this idea that you're part of this global uh ecosystem and economy where um most clubs need uh transfer fees and acquisition fees on on a revenue line in order to be profitable or even break even and but at the same time how can you help a player develop quicker or or um reach his or you know in her i guess in women's football potential and i think that's that's that's really important and i'm not sure anyone has really cracked the nut on that in the mco world and has done it really well for a variety of reasons and then the last one is you're really trying to at the end of the day trying to win games it's a competitive advantage how do you innovate how do

you think about the global community and within your um within your um within your own mco to to win games and win trophies get maybe it's getting promoted each club in our multi-club ownership has its own it's it's part of its own different trajectory right so lorient was relegated and so their goal their championship would be okay getting promoted back to liga and you know hibs hibernian fc in scotland it is you know making sure they're not only top six before the the split which happens at the end of the Scottish Premiership, but then to be in top three or four to get into Europe. And so each club, you have to respect the league, the domestic league that they're in.

And I think that's really important that some MCOs don't seem to, but you also have to respect the culture of the people in the club. Hibernian is 150 years old, you know, and it is something you have to you have to honor and respect that tradition and not try to assume that you're gonna it's it assimilate or or be a melting pot of black knight this isn't about black knight this is about hibs this is about bournemouth and their culture and how do they uh do we respect their culture to then lead them to be successful. And the other team in this group is Auckland over in New Zealand. How do you as an individual,

what's your day-to-day look like? How do you work across multiple continents, multiple time zones, multiple clubs to try and be a part of all of it? You have to tap into your flexibility and adaptability uh genes um no this is you know auckland's an exciting um club because it's an expansion team come it's the second team in new zealand that'll be a part of the a league you know there's wellington that has been um in the league for a few years but auckland is one of the largest cities without a football club in the world. Over 2 million people and beautiful city and it deserves a team. And, you know, Bill Foley, our owner, felt the same way. And there's an opportunity there. And a similar way to MLS is it's a growing league to be a part of something that gives back to a community and someone who

understands the importance of the sport and a professional team in the community, I think he saw an opportunity. And so you have, you know, Terry McFlynn is sporting director there. I work with him and Nick on the business side. And we speak weekly or biweekly, sort of every other week, on various aspects as they launch. You know, I'm coming in late because, you know, I've only joined two months ago, and they've been probably doing this for well over a year. They have, like I said, their first game this weekend. But what you're talking about is what you would expect.

It's not secret. You know, talking about our roster, what their needs are, talking about their roster rules. And that's really interesting because we think that MLS rules are, you know, are complex. But, you know, the A-League had their own rules in terms of, you know, the inability to trade players or sell players within the league. And so that's been exciting. And to the extent that I can help them make a successful launch, that's our goal. But yeah, the time zones, it's 11 hour difference. So thankfully, they're willing to do it at night and I can wake up more of an early morning person. So I'll wake up early when they're, they're, you know, they're post dinner. I appreciate you joining us 47 hours into your day today. Yeah. Working

across all the time zones for you for this role for this opportunity. Obviously, you know, we started Bournemouth being the head of this in the Premier League. Is this like when we talk about players saying they want to challenge themselves in overseas and now we're seeing coaches right jesse did it bob bradley has done it like was that what you thought about in all of this of saying like where is the sport globally and how can i continue to push up and challenge myself um yes i know i would say more less in the lens and challenge myself more in the lens of growth and experience, you know, and just have a different variety of experiences. You know, MLS is growing and with each new club, with each new rule, with new levels

of player that come into the league each year, it's very exciting to be a part of that as it sort of rockets higher and higher each year it's very exciting to be a part of uh that as it sort of rockets higher and higher each year that said there are clubs you know around the world in this group which is part of leagues that have different challenges and are not in the growth mode they're not in trying to achieve and and kind of climb the ladder to be in the you know among the best in the world which is what mls is is striving to be and i think is is on it well on its way to achieving but the premier league is the best and you know that that experience where the challenges day-to-day are just different as a club and as a league when you are already there uh in some ways bigger and there's some ways smaller, but they're just, it's just, or less bigger, smaller, just different. And then, and then, um, at the same

time, tapping into the other leagues that are literally next door. So the premiership in Scotland, um, is a 45 minute flight from Bournemouth all the way up to Edinburgh, Scotland, the whole length of the country is, you know, I guess it's just under an hour. And that's, that's exciting to be a part of the proximity that, that is created with, with English and Scottish and Scottish football. So, so yeah, it was about the ability to grow and just, and learn. Um, I think I'm a person who's, who's typically as attracted to growth projects, build projects, you know, Toronto and Columbus were both build projects in their own way. This one, I was employee or am employee number one at black night. Bill had invested in these clubs,

uh, but, but hadn't gotten to the step of how is it going to be integrated? Who's going to pull it all together to make sure there's a common theme and thread across the clubs? And so this seemed to lend to some things I like doing on a day-to-day and month-to-month basis. And so far, it's to be true so far so for people who don't know bill foley an american businessman and uh i believe was at army went to university at army so very american grad yeah the black knights yes exactly um also owns the golden knights in las vegas nhl team um and has been quoted as well talking about in the past conversations between him and Major League Soccer in Las Vegas about an expansion team as well as recently was quoted about opening

up an academy in Las Vegas so how does American soccer fit into your portfolio and sort of what the the Black Knight football group wants to be you You know, that's a great question. I think that's something that we're going to explore over the next six to 12 months. Right now, we're focused on contributing and investing in the four clubs that we do have and bringing them together. That's what I would call sort of stage one of our plan is what happens in the winter window

and then the summer window, both on the business, sort of the sporting side and the business side, to bring these clubs together. At the same time, we're also thinking about, you know, whether or not we need to add additional clubs in Europe to sort of, to kind of complete the pyramid that allows and facilitates those those pillars i talked about before and then you know there's there's clearly the future of the game includes the western hemisphere um certainly mls um is is at the top of the list in terms of my experiences and then with bill being in the u.s and it would make sense to have a strategy that we would, you know, do we partner with NMLS Club?

Do we invest in the youth side of the game? I think everything would be on the table. I think it's just too early to tell. But we can't ignore that opportunity. And I think business or an organization like us can actually help be a different source of growth for the league. You know, I think we look at the women's side. We're looking at the deeper echelons of the USL and MLS Next Pro and all the leagues that go underneath. We're starting to mature as a country at all layers.

And I think organizations outside are also investing. And that would be something that we would be looking to do is how do we invest? How do we contribute? How can we help develop players that, that need an experience that they could get with Black Knight? So you obviously been around the game for a long time. Now a few months looking at it from the outside as well, not related to your role or any of the roles you've had.

If I made you soccer czar in America for a day or for as long as you want, by the way, Tim, I would give you that role if you want it. What would be the big changes you would make or what would be the first thing you would do? It could be as simple as renting vans for every kid to get to practice across the country or something bigger like as you think about these things and now in your new

role i'm sure you're thinking about it from a different angle what would be your you know your magic wand you know um that's a lot of power and no person should have that magic wand but thank you spider-man you know the easy answer is is now having been over here is pro-rel, right? You see the benefit of having that. And everyone always says, oh, well, it costs so much to be in the league. And I understand that, but that's not the question, right? The question is if you could wave your wand. And I always think that there's people saying possible,

but then what happens is they don't talk about it and they don't dive deeper into that. Well, how would that look? Or what are the challenges that we could face if we would face if we did it? So I think it is a question worth exploring. You know, I also think what I alluded to earlier, like a major wave of magic wand,

you know, I would say I want every community that has over 200, 300,000 people to have a professional team in it. You know, meaning you just have soccer everywhere and it's a decent level and there's more kids playing. There's more coaches contributing. There's more people learning. I think our the world is still too small in a way. And I know we are one of the largest, if not the largest, participatory sport in the U.S. But I think it stops at certain levels. And so if we can make Magic 1, how can we give more players, coaches, staff more opportunities so they could have a career. And I think that would feed in and make the domestic player, well, would that be more competition and there'd be more numbers. So it would make the country better. Interesting. So have you changed your mind on some of that as you've gone along or over the last few

months specifically, or is this something you've always really? Yeah. I mean, I think I've always known to a degree that, you know, in England, they have 11 division. I mean, right.

Where my kids go to school, just North of Bournemouth is a small town called Wimborne. There's a club, a professional club in Wimborne that is effectively the eighth division. Right. It's a regional in the national league, and it could climb up to be in the EFL. And then from the EFL to, you know, the high end of the championship, which would be to Premier League, and it probably

will never happen, but it's not impossible, and that, I went on their website, and I saw their whole staff, and I just thought how beautiful that was, and neat that there were so many people that can be in the game, and make a life of it. So that would be something as of late. It's one of those things you know, but until you experience, you don't really know. It's like having kids. Everyone will say it, but until you wake up every day and experience it and the beautiful side and the ugly sides of it you don't really know well one of the things i say to people which is stuff is is building the culture which you can't just invest in aka

my understanding a lot of people in england the coaches they play for are volunteers or roughly volunteers for long times or their entire life if you don't go into the professional ranks because the game is ever you know so evasive or all across the culture, right? And in the U.S., that's the case with basketball. A lot of people, the great basketball coaches they learn from are just people who love basketball and that's something part of their life. And I think having more professional club touch points around the country allows it sort of to drip down and trickle down into more communities at a higher level, right?

There are a lot of people who are passionate about having their kids be outside and playing and being part of team sports, which is great, but not knowing the sport enough to maybe help those kids really understand it or develop in ways. And we're getting there slowly, but it seems like your idea would be more professional clubs across the country, more touch points to that might be able to accelerate that. Yeah, exactly. And look, again, to give a shout out to Charles Alcheck and Ollie Curtis, you know, at MLS Next Pro, I think they're trying to, I mean, there's people who are actively working on this, who are speaking to investors and educating people on the game and how can we fit into

communities and do it the right way. Because you don't want to do it, You don't want to expand too quickly. But certainly that is an area where I think the country will be drastically different 20 years from now because of this growth. Just the layers beneath, you know, MLS. Yeah. Expectation is a lot of the energy and momentum could come in the next two years, obviously, with the World Cup coming.

And the hope is the Women's World Cup after that. But I want to go into some of your past with the sport, because you said it, your family was an original Columbus Crew season ticket holder club. And I think I saw you a little bit right around when the Save the Crew movement started and remembered how upset you were about it knowing i believe at the time at toronto right yeah you were there yeah i was in toronto if you we actually played them in the in the playoffs in 2017 kind of right after it had been announced you remember in the semi which was a great series josie great series joe joe yeah but we had if you remembered seba and josie were out for uh you know or at least josie was for that for the semifinals in columbus yeah uh for the for the for the for the first leg but yes um i was i was in

toronto watching that unfold you know with no with no ability to impact it. You know, I wasn't – I was just talking to my parents, texting them and following along. And really, I didn't see a lot of hope there. And I thought it was sort of inevitable that this team was going to leave because I feel like when you look at precedent, you know, being my law background, that that's a good predictor of the future in terms of how things happen but um through the work of dr pete edwards who's you know the longtime doctor incredible story this is by the way it did long the team doctor for 25 years at the time he was able to get involved with the city, county, and the now governor state to delay the process to really understand why the team was leaving. And then clearly the fans stepped up to make their opinion heard in a very vociferous and powerful way, an organized way, until the Haslam's were able to step in and truly save

it along with Dr. Pete. So, you know, I wasn't, you know, I got to experience the aftermath, which, you know, had all its glory and also some ugliness as well to help to kind of climb out of the chaos and rubble of both emotional experiences, but also literally the physical facilities that were kind of left, you know, when we arrived. How much was it talked about? How much was Save the Crew as a term or concept mentioned inside the organization and throughout ownership and all of that

once you came on board and, you know, after it had happened. But as you said, it was this, you know, high intensity, borderline tragic moment that everyone was sort of trying to move on from. Yeah, yeah. No, the Save the Crew, while it's, you know, certainly a movement, it was a group of people who are organized as lawyers and marketers and accountants and creative, smart, you know, people who've done something that no one's ever done before. we move the club forward but also respect what these individuals in the community did and then respect the history and tradition of the columbus crew in years past since 1996 but at the same time understand that you can't run this club in the same way it had been run we need new partners or we need to reinvigorate the partnerships that we had in the community and the corporate community

um and we had to chart a new path forward. So I think, but it was talk to answer your question. Save the Crew was a daily conversation, certainly on the commercial and administrative side. And it was exciting. You know, we had challenges, no doubt, as we tried to move forward. But I think our fans understood deep down at the end of the day what we were trying to do. And they appreciated that, obviously not beyond it just being saved, because I think they knew it.

It wasn't just going to they weren't going to just save it or the ownership. And then you just stay in historic stadium. And, you know, we, you know, we hang TIFOs from the stage, you know, that was built in MLS sort of one, well, 2.0, I guess I would say. It started 2.0. So that was, again, going back to a very incredible experience, challenging, but fun, a lot of fun. What do you think of in terms of markets and market size in Major League Soccer?

Because I think if we went back to 2012 and we sat down and had this conversation, right, the Red Bulls and Galaxy are connected to the big players that think they want to come to MLS, mainly players towards the end of their career. And then maybe you add in a DC or something like that. You brought Jovinko to Toronto FC. I've said there's been a few moments in my life where it's been like, wow, Major League Soccer. One was when I went to 2016 MLS Cup and saw the city genuinely treat TFC like a big team. Then you go to Columbus, which is not a traditional large market. And

that was part of the conversation around the movement of the team and the potentially not. But you've put together trophies. Many would argue it's the best team in MLS history. Cucho Hernandez was a game changing signing. What do you make of sort of the ability for any market to compete and what the future is as Major League Soccer grows as we look at leagues like the NBA and NFL that so often have those few coastal cities that end up dominating? Yeah, it's a great question. I think about it a lot. Obviously, being in Toronto, we were the highest spending team in one of the largest markets in North America and growing city, very international. Columbus, when I came in, at least, was literally the bottom in discretionary spending

or near the bottom. And, you know, and some would say that's natural given the size of the markets. But what's great about our league is that's not true because of the rules and regulations around the roster. And beyond that, you know know at the time homegrown territories or the commercial regulations i think the league has done a very good job of creating an environment where anyone can be competitive and i i think you know i'm not a

sports historian but i would believe it's it ties it kind of ties back to the NFL and the Green Bay Packers and their ability to compete. And they saw how any fan can believe that their team can win a trophy. And to contrast that with here, Bournemouth, we can. But I would say a few years ago when Bournemouth was in the championship, you're thinking that's so far away. And so what it means to be successful and win over here is different, whereas in MLS, everyone can dream. Every season starts anew. And I think that's powerful and very good for the growth of the league. denying that even with those regs in place and those rules the larger cities have an advantage i mean um they do you know even if it's the size of of their ability to attract players to their academy um their ability to you know when we're when we're signing jovinko my conversation about toronto like it or not is much different than when i fly over to meet with Cucho because I had to tell him where Columbus was.

You know, and I don't love that because I want Columbus. You know, it is growing. It's a fantastic city. It's becoming a global city. But people don't. And, you know, and Colombians living in Watford, you know, hadn't heard of, you know, they weren't extremely familiar with all the benefits of living in a city like Columbus. So you have to talk to these players about it. And so I do think our league, that's one of the biggest challenges it faces is how to deal with those inequities and differences between markets and whether or not you want the big market teams. Certainly you want them to be successful. You want everyone to be successful commercially as viable enterprises. And that means, you know, how do you do that? Well,

you put a good product on the field, at least try to be competitive, show that you have ambition. And I think that there are some teams that do it well and then there are others in the big markets in theory that aren't living up to that standard. And that's probably not unlike every league and every sport in the world. There's, you know, people are operating and doing a good job and people aren't. I'm a Mets, Jets, and Knicks fan, so I can attest to that. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I think that's a big challenge for the league. But I'm also a big believer in it in that if you operate a club well

and you get good people together from sporting to commercial ops, you can do special things and you can win things and you can develop people that grow as individuals. And so, yeah, so that's why I just love the league. I want to let you go because you've got 37 time zones to work in and all the clubs to work on. So let me close you with this, which was a mailbag question that I got last week from one of our listeners.

And they said, basically the question was, is it nostalgia or am I crazy? But could 2017 TFC actually compete with Inter Miami and Columbus today? Because the points record has been reset over and over again. So Toronto won the treble, as you know. And then you go on and Atlanta sets records

and LAFC sets records and then the Revs. And now we're potentially a few days away from Inter-Miami resetting it. You have a unique perspective. You put together two of the teams we're talking about. So I have my answer, which I'll give you after. But I'm curious your thoughts on specifically those teams. Not the way the league has changed, but could toronto in 2017 come in and compete with the best teams right now yeah yeah i'm obviously i'm biased um but well we're pitting

your children against each other so it's okay yeah i love them love them you know i love them both equally um there's no doubt in my mind just having seen all the clubs not just like you get a window into all the clubs operate and the talent. The league has gotten better and grown, but that team in 2017 could compete at the highest level as we are currently operating in. Clearly, the roster, maybe you have more resources now in some ways to have deeper with what we've done.

At that time, I think TFC2 had only just begun. You hadn't seen the fruits of the Jason Russell rows coming through. But the combination of Josie Altidore, Michael Bradley, and Jovinko with Ben Washaru, Justin Moros, and Drew Moores, I mean, those players at that age right now on a roster, I think I would, I think every single team would put in a discovery claim right now to sign that, to sign those players. And I'm missing, you know, a number of data store. You can, you go through the, go through the list, Osorio, you know? So yes, I, I hands down believe they'd still compete. But, but, you know, that's,

that's, we're living in in that's a hypothetical world that's just fun to play around and endow them but that's what i would tell your listener yeah that's what i said as well i said the profile of those players at their positions is similar to what people identify now i said chris mavinga at his age his profile same as what mls teams are looking for at center backs obviously the stars you named as well but what's fun is there's enough history now for us to do this. Now we can start to get into the, was Bobby Cousy playing against Barbers or is he equally as good as Magic Johnson and John Morant now? So we're getting into it. I'm very excited to and appreciative of you taking the time. Auckland FC kicking off this weekend against the Brisbane Roar. I'm sure you have your calendar

with Bournemouth and Lorient and your whole day matches up around that. But thank you for taking the time. I'm Tim Bezbachenko, president of Black Knight Football Club. And hopefully we'll talk to you again very soon. Absolutely. Thanks for having me, guys. Thanks so much once again to Tim Bezbachenko.

Just always good to pick someone's brain who's been around, who's been in a lot of these rooms, who lives their life thinking about the things we talk about on this show. How can you make clubs better? How can you create championship winning sides? How can you change youth development and pathways and win World Cups and all these types of things? He's always really good to talk to. One of the good people in the sport. Excited to see his success in his new place and i like that

he backed up my answer saying that that 2017 tfc squad top line starters could compete with the best teams in the league today uh only one mailbag question here because i pulled a lot of the mailbag and we've answered it over the course of the week but we got a really good one here and it says from captain 214 the media is saying decision day will decide ccc qualifying for three teams cincinnati seattle and rsl when i read the regulations through and flow charted out it seems that one as long as the galaxy clinched the west which is almost certain and two as long as the MLS Cup winner is one of the following teams, Miami, Galaxy, Columbus, LAFC, Cincinnati, Seattle, RSL, Vancouver, or Colorado, which is almost certain unless, say, an Orlando or Portland wins Cup, then all three teams, Cincinnati, Seattle,

and RSL, qualify for CCC regardless of what happens on decision day. The result on decision day for these three clubs will only come into play if the Galaxy don't clinch the West or a team like Orlando not in the list of nine above wins MLS Cup. And if that is the case, since he holds the tiebreaker if things are tied after decision day with those three teams, the tiebreaker is wins. Do you agree with this? is there anyone else who can confirm this reading so we had some answers i believe in the mailbag after this um which i appreciate people helping out uh first of all captain 214 goes on to say i'm former fan of nfl mlb and nba soccer is a new sport for me just in the past two years and i'm digging the deep

dive into something new uh and then says forgive me if i'm overdoing it I'm a newbie you are not overdoing it that's what we are here for and that's what fandom is about and I love to hear that it's FC Cincinnati and TQL Stadium that has created this inspiration and this passion I think I'm gonna have to do something a little bit more about fandom in in North America of MLS and NWSL. So on your question, you are pretty much correct. It's actually even simpler than you said, because the LA Galaxy have already clinched their spot in the CONCACAF Champions Cup as the highest seeded team left that doesn't have a spot, because they are already better than all the other teams that can get in. So whether they win the West or not is not super relevant for them because they

are this Supporters Shield standings team because Inter-Miami are the number one team and LA Galaxy are going to be the number two team that qualify via the Supporters Shield standings. And so to your point, there is no drama to this really for those three teams. And what they are saying in this question is that basically if these three teams win MLS Cup or any team that has already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which is already seven teams, so that gives you 10 teams that can win MLS Cup that all three of these teams will qualify via. The only way that they can't is if a different team wins. And the odds of that are very low because Cincinnati, Seattle, and RSL have already clinched a higher standing spot based on the standings ahead of Orlando or NYCFC or any other

team that could try and chase them that isn't already qualified via US Open Cup, Canadian Championship, League's Cup, or the standings as they sit. So for the most part, it feels pretty safe to say these three teams will all be in. Cincinnati, almost assured because the odds, it doesn't even matter if another team jumps up and takes the spot in MLS Cup. If Portland wins MLS Cup, Cincinnati would still qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The problem here, Captain 214, not you or your reading, is the fact that 900 teams qualify for this competition. And so you've got to run down all of the tracks and all of that. Well, that's all for us here this week. What a weekend we've got to run down all of the tracks and all of that well that's all for

us here this week what a weekend we've got coming up be in the discord join if you haven't already to our patreon so that you can hang out and chat about all these games uh enjoy the soccer this weekend and we will be back bright and early to bring you all of your coverage going through the next week here at soccer wiseWise. Talk to you again very, very soon.