Vincent Ursini (born September 19, 1960) is a Canadian

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

, former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

executive, and

stage actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...

. Originally a soccer player Ursini drifted to the administrative duties of soccer. Initially serving at the regional association levels he ultimately was elected to the

Ontario Soccer Association The Ontario Soccer Association, founded in 1901, is one of the oldest and largest sport organizations in Canada. The OSA currently has more than 500,000 registered participants and provides development opportunities for players, coaches, refere ...

board of directors. During his tenure with the Ontario Soccer Association he became involved with the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL). In 2000, he was named the chairman/president of the CPSL, and firmly established the league within the Ontario soccer structure. In 2005, he was elected to the

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (Canada Soccer) is the governing body of soccer in Canada. It is a national organization that oversees the Canadian men's and women's national teams for international play, as well as the respective junior sides ( ...

board of directors as the director of finance. He returned to the CPSL in 2011 under the re-branded name

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

(CSL) under the same capacity of chairman/president. After his resignation from the CSL in 2017 he became involved with the Blackhorse Village Players Theater in

Caledon, Ontario Caledon (; Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population 76,581) is a town in the Regional Municipality of Peel in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. From a shortened form of Caledonia, the Roman name for North Britain; Caledon is a developing u ...

as a

Soccer administrator

Ontario Soccer Association

Ursini graduated from

Ivey Business School Ivey Business School is a constituent unit of the University of Western Ontario, located in London, Ontario, Canada. Ivey offers full-time undergraduate (HBA), MBA, MSc, MFE and PhD programs and also maintains two teaching facilities in Toronto ...

at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

in 1983 with a

bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

. He found employment in the financial services as an

and

consultant A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

. He originally played soccer before transitioning to an administrative capacity in the North York and York Region soccer districts. He played at the college level with the

Western Mustangs The Western Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. The school's athletic program supports 46 varsity teams. Their mascot is a Mustang named J.W. and the school colours are purple and white. ...

, where he received the Duncan A. McLarty award in 1982. He became involved with the

(OSA) as the association's treasurer, and served on the executive committee. During his tenure with the OSA he contributed in the planning and construction of the

Ontario Soccer Centre The Soccer Centre, also known as the Ontario Soccer Centre, is a Canadian competition, training, education, and exposition soccer facility. It is located in Vaughan, Ontario, 20 km north-west of downtown Toronto. Details The centre featur ...

Vaughan, Ontario Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

. When the Canadian Professional Soccer League was sanctioned by the OSA in 1998 he served in the capacity of a league director, and later as the league's treasurer.

Canadian Professional Soccer League

In 2000, he was appointed the president/chairman of the CPSL. Throughout his incumbency he was able to acquire a television deal with

Rogers TV Rogers TV (stylized as Rogers tv) is a group of English-language community channels owned by Rogers Communications. Many of these channels share common programs. Rogers TV broadcasts in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and ...

, which enabled the launch of the CPSL Soccer Show which garnered the highest ratings of any other Sunday program shown on the channel. Sponsorship agreements were made with

Primus Canada Primus (Latin, 'first') may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Primus (DC Comics), a character in the Omega Men team * Primus (Marvel Comics), a character created by Arnim Zola * Primus, a character in the novel ''Stard ...

, and the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

. In 2001, the

(CSA) initiated a task force named the Canadian United Soccer League (CUSL), which formed a working partnership with the CPSL and the Canadian franchises in the

USL A-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

to forge a unified professional structure in the hopes of forming a Canadian first and second division domestic league. A player agreement was conducted with the

Toronto Lynx Toronto Lynx was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1997, the team last played in the 2014 season of the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes ...

of the USL A-League, which provided the Lynx access to any CPSL talent upon request. Another notable achievement was the opening of their domestic cup the

Open Canada Cup The Open Canada Cup was an annual knock-out cup competition in Canadian Soccer. The competition was first held during the 1998 season as the CPSL League Cup. It was organized by the Canadian Soccer League (formerly the Canadian Professional So ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

to all Canadian professional and amateur clubs in order to provide a potential candidate for the

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

Canadian Soccer Association

In 2005 at the CPSL Annual General Meeting he announced his resignation in order to fully delegate his time to his OSA obligations, and to seek election to the CSA board of directors. In May 2005, he was elected to the CSA executive committee as director of finance. He served as the head of delegation for the

Canada men's national soccer team The Canada men's national soccer team (french: Équipe du Canada de soccer masculin) represents Canada in international soccer competitions since 1924. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association, the governing body for soccer in Cana ...

during the

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF) The CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football) 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, qualification stage for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa consisted of 35 national teams competing for the three ...

. He was a member on the local organizing committee for the

2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the score ...

. In 2009, he was awarded the Aubrey Sanford Meritorious Award and shortly after resigned from the committee. When he returned as chairman of the board to the CSL in 2011 he was granted a seat on the CSA Professional Soccer Committee as it was sanctioned by the CSA.

Canadian Soccer League

In 2011, he returned to his previous occupation as the chairman of the

(CSL) renamed from the CPSL in 2006. The league's membership under Ursini's second administration expanded to a record amount of 28 teams in 2012 with 16 in the First division and 12 in the Second division. Their media coverage was broaden with a television agreement with CogecoTV, and the reintroduction of their weekly television program was picked up by Rogers TV. In 2013, the CSA unexpectedly de-sanctioned the CSL without due process. The decision was made in order to implement the James Easton Report (Rethink Management Group Report) for the adoption of a new professional soccer structure. As a member in good standing Ursini represented the CSL in their appeal to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC). The sport arbitrator ruled that the CSA had the right to de-sanction the CSL, but ruled that the immediate decisions conducted by the CSA were unreasonable and coercive. The sport arbitrator forced them to reinstate sanctioning to the CSL until the next season in order for the CSA to fairly implement the Easton Report. In 2014, CSA expelled the CSL from its membership which forced the league to operate as a private league for the first time since the 1997 season in its predecessor league, and became a member of the Soccer Federation of Canada. Since the CSA de-certification of the CSL several reforms and achievements were made under Ursini as the restrictions on import players were lifted, and a working relationship was formed with the American Soccer League (ASL). A television agreement was made with Ethnic Channels Group, and

beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...

to broadcast their television program, and revived their sponsorship deal with

Givova Givova is an Italian manufacturing company located in Scafati. The company, founded in 2008 by Giovanni Acanfora, produces a wide range of sports equipment (mainly focused on the association football market but also covering other sports) that incl ...

in 2016. Affiliations were formed with the Ontario Youth Soccer Association in order to establish a YSA Division to house the CSL academy teams, and with the Canadian Corporate Soccer League in developing a structure of competition for the city's

corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...

clubs in Toronto.

Actor

Ursini is also involved with the Blackhorse Village Players as a

, where he has appeared in plays such as ''A Red Plaid Shirt'', ''The Psychic'', ''Office Hours'', and ''the'' ''Red Velvet Cake War''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ursini, Vince Living people Canadian soccer players Association football executives Canadian Soccer Association Canadian male stage actors Canadian accountants Soccer people from Ontario People from Caledon, Ontario Canadian sports executives and administrators 1960 births Association footballers not categorized by position