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MLS Club de Foot Montreal

Impact Unveils Future Plans for the Club

September 4, 2014 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Club de Foot Montreal News Release


MONTREAL - With its third season in MLS almost concluded, the Montreal Impact unveiled its plans for the future on Thursday, at Stade Saputo, making a number of important announcements in order to consolidate the club's structure, both on the technical and administrative levels.

Three new vice-presidents

The Impact recruited three new members to its management team: Marc Bourassa, Chief Revenue Officer; Hugues Léger, Chief Marketing Officer, and André Côté, Chief Strategic Officer.

"We decided to add experience and depth to our administration," said Impact President Joey Saputo. "These are three new positions in vital areas within the company. They will all be mandated to help grow the club, through transparency and accessibility."

Marc Bourassa was Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Sun Media and Le Journal de Montréal, as well as Director General of Advertising with La Presse. Hugues Léger worked recently at Brad as a Vice-President. He has also worked internationally as a Brand Manager and Director of Development for Inbev (brewing company) and Imperial Tobacco. Finally, André Côté has contributed to the success of the Cirque du Soleil at all levels for nearly 20 years, including as Vice-President of Marketing and Communications.

A new training centre

The Montreal Impact is currently finalizing a project to create a new training centre, close to Stade Saputo on Notre-Dame Street, in the old historic building of the Caserne Letourneux. The objective is to accommodate four fields, two natural and two synthetic, with the centre operational in 2015.

Through a unique partnership with the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, the Academy and the first team will be installed permanently in this location. Synthetic fields will also be available to local soccer organizations.

The purchase offer for the building has been accepted and discussions are advanced to finalize the agreement protocol with the borough.

The investment for the building, upgrading and redesign of the fields will be fully supported by the Montreal Impact.

A new USL Pro team

The Impact will add a second professional team in Quebec with the creation of a new team in USL Pro called FC Montreal for the 2015 season. The new team will be composed predominantly of young Quebec players from our U18 and U23 teams.

"It is a major change in our structure and the development of soccer in Quebec," added Joey Saputo. "This new team will serve as the final step and transition for our young players before joining MLS. We believe that it is the best way to prepare them for the top league in North American soccer."

The agreement with USL Pro will be finalized in the coming weeks.

New roles for Richard Legendre and Nick De Santis

The Impact also announced that Richard Legendre will become the new Executive Vice-President of Soccer Operations and Stade Saputo. He will oversee soccer operations, the construction of the new training centre, the launch of the new USL team and the administrative management of the technical department. He will also be the club representative at the Fédération de Soccer du Québec, the Canadian Soccer Association and the US Soccer Federation.

Nick De Santis has been appointed as the Director of International Business Development. He will be responsible for establishing and maintaining contacts, while forging partnerships with clubs targeted around the world.

In this new structure, Frank Klopas will remain head coach and Director of Player Personnel in MLS, while Matt Jordan will remain as Technical Director and Philippe Eullaffroy will retain his role as Director of the Academy.

"Due to the growth and success of the Academy, we want to establish a more coherent philosophy at all levels and a better defined identity," said Joey Saputo. "We want to offer better guidance to our young players, becoming the leader of Quebec soccer here and around the world."

Finally, the club will implement various technical partnerships with amateur clubs across the province to help them progress, but also to better track the best young local talent.

"Today, we are making a firm commitment to continue our growth, both on the field and off of it," concluded Joey Saputo. "We will continue to build this club in order to bring it to the highest level."

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