Ontario Soccer – London announced as the 2019 host city for the Ontario Soccer Summit 

Vaughan, ON – The Ontario Soccer Summit, presented by Respect in Sport, was another rousing success in 2018.  

The Ontario Soccer Summit, which provides development opportunities for coaches, match officials and soccer leaders across Ontario, attracted nearly 500 delegates from across the province and Canada to hear from luminary speakers in the sporting world such as John Furlong, Andrea Shaw and Dr. Stephen Norris.   

“I think 2018 is going to be difficult to top for the Ontario Soccer Summit legacy. The personal and professional development our delegates received here this weekend was world class” said Johnny Misley, Ontario Soccer Chief Executive Officer. “From the quality of the speakers – who came from all of the world for this event – to the uniqueness of the development opportunities and the feedback we’ve already received, this was easily our best event to date.”

Ontario Soccer also announced the date and location of the host city for the 2019 Ontario Soccer Summit and for the first time the event will be hosted outside the Greater Toronto Area.

London, supported by the host district of Elgin Middlesex Soccer Association (EMSA), will be the location for the 2019 Ontario Soccer Summit on March 1-3, 2019.

The Ontario Soccer Summit 2018 featured three days of on-field and in-class sessions and included speakers from esteemed organizations such as FC Bayern Munich, Feyenoord Rotterdam FC, FIFA, Canada Soccer, Twitter and many more.

“It can be difficult to be everything to everyone but I’m confident that this year’s Ontario Soccer Summit delivered just that,” said Gary Miller, Ontario Soccer Technical Director. “Our technical leaders, match officials and administrators received original programming that covered a vast variety of topics, from subject matter experts in their fields.”

The weekend was highlighted by a special screening of the documentary Swift Current – which details the abuse former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy and others received as  youth athletes.

Kennedy was on hand to share his cautionary tale and engaged the audience with an intimate question and answer session following the screening.

“Respect in Sport, our presenting partners for the Ontario Soccer Summit, along with one of its co-founders, Sheldon Kennedy, continue to deliver an important message to our community and that point was emphasized here this weekend,” said Bjorn Osieck, Ontario Soccer Director of Business Development. “The Ontario Soccer Summit is an event unlike any other, in that we give our partners the ability to engage our attendees throughout the weekend and create powerful brand awareness.”

Check back on OntarioSoccer.net regularly as Ontario Soccer Summit content is released publicly. 

About Ontario Soccer

Founded in 1901, Ontario Soccer is the largest provincial sports organization in Canada. Its members include more than 650 Clubs servicing over 24,000 teams with 380,000 registered players, 70,000 coaches and managers, and 10,000 match officials. Ontario Soccer develops and delivers exceptional and sustainable programs and services throughout Ontario with the mission of providing leadership and support for the advancement of soccer in collaboration and cooperation with our membership, partners and other stakeholders. Ontario Soccer also operates League1 Ontario, a provincial professional-amateur men’s and women’s league as well as the Ontario Player Development League (OPDL).

Media Contact 

Ben Rycroft | Communications Manager | Ontario Soccer | brycroft@ontariosoccer.net | 905-264-9390 x 255