1-ON-1 🎙️ CSME Group CEO James Johnson on planning the future of Canadian soccer 🇨🇦 ⚽️

Andi Petrillo welcomed Canadian Soccer Media & Entertainment (formerly Canadian Soccer Business) Group CEO James Johnson to the OneSoccer studio this week, to discuss the future of the beautiful game in this country. 

In the wake of the recent unveiling of CSME's rebrand and the subsequent announcement of a new agreement reached with Canada Soccer, Johnson touched on a handful of topics, starting with a brief overview of his first six months in charge.

In late 2025, CSME published a new Vision document, outlining some of the organization's values and over-arching goals for the future of soccer in Canada. The Vision, a product of a thorough process where stakeholders from across the Canadian soccer landscape were consulted, laid some groundwork ahead of the recent announcements in February.

"It's been a really complex number of issues we've had to look at and deal with," Johnson said of his first few months at CSME. "With complexity, I like to simplify, and if I break the six months into two different halves, so to speak, the first three months was really a lot of learning, a lot of listening, a lot of examining, a lot of asking questions, so we could really define what the challenges were and also understand the nuance of those challenges."

Johnson went on to point out some highlights of the new Canada Soccer agreement, explaining that the new structure provides more incentive for both parties to work together, in order to get as much out of it as possible — especially as Canada gears up to host the World Cup.

"What we've tried to do in this new agreement that we've signed is modernize, on one hand, but just make sure that the vision and the overall structure is the same, and the mechanics work on the ground, and they're set up to help soccer grow in Canada in 2026," Johnson said. "I think we've achieved that through the deal that we've struck."

He added: "If we think about where we can be at the end of the World Cup, in August 2026 looking backwards — higher participation, more people watching the CPL, more people watching the national teams, more revenue in the sport so we can re-invest — this is really the handbrake that needed to be lifted in order to achieve that."

Other topics Johnson touched on included the recent rebrand of League1 Canada to Premier Soccer Leagues Canada, which helps align the sport across the country. He also hinted that CSME, which recently acquired broadcast rights for competitions like the Bundesliga and NWSL, will be looking to add to that portfolio over the next few months.

Johnson also touched on the CPL's planned World Cup group stage break in mid-June, mentioning that the idea — in principle — is to pause the league, but that if an opportunity arises to play "a match or two" during that period, it'll be seriously considered.

"In principle we'll stop for a little bit," he said, "but everything we do, all of our communications, all of our strategies and our strategies within strategies, as they relate to the CPL for 2026, are all connected and all hard-wired to the World Cup."