Two years after former Canada women’s national team coach Bob Birarda was sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting players under his care, his name remains notably absent from any public sanctions list maintained by Canada Soccer or BC Soccer, the provincial governing body overseeing soccer in British Columbia, where the offenses occurred. This omission has drawn serious criticism and sparked calls for greater transparency and systemic reform in how sports organizations handle misconduct, including proposals for an international registry of banned coaches to prevent offenders from slipping through jurisdictional cracks.
Bob Birarda’s case is a stark example of longstanding failures within Canadian soccer’s leadership to adequately address abuse allegations. Birarda, who coached the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team and Canada’s under-20 women’s women’s team, pleaded guilty in 2022 to three counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible touching. His sentencing in November 2022 marked a legal reckoning, but the administrative response has been less clear. Despite Canada Soccer confirming that Birarda received a lifetime ban from coaching registration within Canada, his name does not appear on any publicly accessible list of sanctioned individuals, nor does it appear on BC Soccer’s database, raising questions about transparency and accountability.
Canada Soccer spokesperson Paulo Senra stated that Birarda’s lifetime suspension prohibits him from re-certification or re-training to regain any coaching licence in Canada. However, coaching licenses in North America primarily reflect educational qualifications and are not always mandatory for employment unless required by specific leagues or organizations. This technicality may contribute to confusion about the practical implications of such bans and the visibility of sanctioned individuals.
BC Soccer CEO Gabriel Assis explained that the provincial body’s public sanctions list only includes individuals banned directly by BC Soccer itself, not those sanctioned by other bodies such as Canada Soccer or courts. Assis emphasized that BC Soccer enforces bans imposed elsewhere and permanently excludes individuals convicted of criminal offenses, including sexual abuse, from participating in soccer activities under its jurisdiction. Nevertheless, BC Soccer has not clarified when or if it was formally notified of Birarda’s ban or why he was not explicitly listed, despite the fact that his offenses occurred within its geographical scope, and he coached for organizations under its umbrella.
This lack of a centralized, publicly accessible register of banned coaches has been identified as a significant systemic gap by Signy Arnason, the Executive Director of Safe Sport at the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport (CCES). The CCES, a government agency responsible for overseeing doping and abuse complaints in Canadian sports, assumed management of abuse and misconduct reports in federally funded sports organizations in April 2025. Arnason described Birarda’s absence from any public sanction list as “a perfect example of a serious gap that needs to be fixed—no question.” She advocates for creating a national registry that consolidates information on individuals who have been banned, including historical cases involving sexual offenses, to better protect athletes.
The Birarda saga has highlighted broader institutional failures spanning more than a decade. Allegations about his abusive behavior surfaced as early as 2008, but it took years of struggle by former players and media scrutiny to prompt meaningful legal and organizational action. In 2019, 14 former Canada national team players publicly accused Canada Soccer and the Vancouver Whitecaps of neglecting their responsibility to protect players from abusive coaches, revealing that Birarda continued coaching high-level youth soccer in Vancouver years after his national team and club contracts ended. This raised serious concerns about the oversight mechanisms within Canadian soccer.
Andrea Neil, a revered figure in Canadian women’s soccer, criticized an internal investigation commissioned by Canada Soccer and the Whitecaps for failing to interview many players who had allegations against Birarda. Neil revealed that the investigating lawyer had recommended a ban on Birarda’s coaching, but this did not translate into immediate or publicly known action. Moreover, Canada Soccer board member Victor Montagliani, now president of Concacaf (the confederation hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside Canada, Mexico, and the United States), announced Birarda’s departure from his coaching role under the guise of “mutual consent,” without providing reasons. Despite this, Birarda secured coaching roles with prominent Vancouver-area clubs for several years after leaving the national team setup.
A turning point came in 2020 when media reports on Canadian soccer authorities’ inaction prompted a police investigation, eventually leading to Birarda’s guilty plea. The case triggered multiple government inquiries into abuse in sport, during which past leaders of Canada Soccer, including Montagliani and former