TTwo years after receiving an 18-month prison sentence for sexually abusing players under his care, former Canada The women's national team coach has not yet appeared on any public sanction list published by Canada Soccer or BC Soccer, the regional soccer governing body in British Columbia where the crimes occurred.
The revelation prompted the chief executive of the Canadian organization recently appointed to handle reports of abuse and misconduct to call for the creation of an international offender registry to track individuals banned from the sport for misconduct.
Bob Birarda, former Vancouver Whitecaps women's national team and Canada U-20 women's national team coach pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual assault and one charge of forcible touching in 2022. In November of that year he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Following Birarda's sentencing in November 2022, current Vancouver Whitecaps CEO Axel Schuster promised that the club's response to the allegations would “reach a higher standard today” than when Birarda committed his crimes (Schuster was not yet employed by Whitecaps at the time).
“We recognize and understand the deep pain that our football community is experiencing,” Schuster. says the statement. “We are truly sorry to everyone who was hurt.”
Canada Soccer, one of the organizers of the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and the United States, confirmed to the Guardian that it had banned Birarde from coaching, but did not respond to a request for clarification on when the suspension was applied or whether Canada Soccer had published a list of those the organization had sanctioned.
“Canada Soccer can confirm that Mr. Birarda has been suspended for life from coaching registration with no opportunity to undergo retraining, recertification or reassessment of his coaching license in Canada,” wrote Paulo Senra, a spokesperson for Canada Soccer, in an email to the Guardian.
Coaching licenses in North America are primarily used to indicate the level of coaching education and are not generally required for employment unless mandated by a specific league or organization.
When asked why Birarda was absent from BC Soccer's public list of sanctioned personsCEO Gabriel Alessio said in an emailed statement that the published database only reflects individuals banned by the provincial governing body.
“The list of BC Soccer Disciplines and Sanctions provided on our website reflects the sanctions imposed by BC Soccer. only [original emphasis]”,” Alessio wrote. “While we do not publish sanctions imposed by other governing bodies or tribunals, BC Soccer fully respects these decisions and enforces them within our jurisdiction. It is our policy to permanently exclude individuals convicted of criminal offenses, including sexual assault, from participating in all soccer-related activities within BC Soccer.”
BC Soccer did not respond to a follow-up request for clarification regarding when it received notification of Birarda's ban and from whom, whether any communication was made public, whether BC Soccer could issue a simultaneous ban and why Birarda, whose crimes occurred in the Vancouver area while he worked for organizations under the auspices of BC Soccer, was not sanctioned by local soccer authorities. There is currently no information available from Canadian soccer's governing bodies regarding any sanctions imposed against Birarda.
The Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport, a government organization that works on doping issues in Canada, took over management of abuse complaints in the country earlier this year. Signy Arnason, CCES executive director for safe sport, described Birarda's absence from the public database as “a perfect example of a serious gap that needs to be addressed – no question.”
“We need a unified national registry, and you can also look into [historical] serious case registries that may also involve sex crimes,” Arnason said.
Both Canada Soccer and the Vancouver Whitecaps have been widely criticized for the organizations' failure to adequately respond to complaints about Birarda's behavior over the years. Allegations against Birarda surfaced in 2008 and led to more than a decade of former players fighting for justice. The Birarda case was a prime example of how sports leaders failed to take authoritative action in the face of allegations and concerns about misconduct.
In 2019 14 Former Team Canada Players Sign Letter alleging that Canada Soccer and the Vancouver Whitecaps failed to protect players from abusive behavior by coaches after it was revealed that Birarda coached high-level youth soccer in Vancouver even after he was released from his national team and Whitecaps contracts several years ago.
Andrea Neal, Canadian women's soccer icon, said: in the statement during the investigation, a lawyer hired by Canada Soccer and the Whitecaps failed to interview many players about allegations of the coach's conduct. Neal said the attorney leading the investigation told her that Birarde would be recommended for a coaching ban.
At a team meeting before leaving for the World Cup, the U-20 players remembered Canadian Soccer Council member Victor Montaglan, now president of Concacaf, and announced that Birarda would abruptly leave his coaching position. The press release stated that the departure was by mutual consent, but did not provide any reasons. However, Birarda accepted and served for several years as a young women's coach for a prominent Vancouver club team.
A police investigation was eventually opened in 2020 amid media reports of inaction by Canadian soccer authorities. Birarda ultimately pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual assault and one charge of sexual touching.
Subsequently, the Canadian government has conducted numerous investigations into abuses in sports over the past few years. Victor Montagliani, former president of Canada Soccer, and Peter Montopoli, the organization's former CEO, were called to answer questions from elected officials. Montagliani is now president of Concacaf, the confederation hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Montopoli is the chief operating officer of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada.
Requests from the Canadian government have led to a restructuring of the country's grievance procedures. CCES took over the complaint process against federally funded sports organizations in April 2025.
“We heard that a more trauma-informed approach was needed,” Arnason said. “There has been a call in this process for better and more transparent communication so people don't feel lost, filing reports and not being listened to for months. We make decisions about violations and sanctions.
“Oftentimes you create these programs and bring in people with athletic backgrounds. This is not an area where that's what you need. But you also need to have education, training and experience specific to the abuse areas.”
The new CCES Safe Sport Register lists those who have been sanctioned by the organization since April. Automatic sanctions apply to any sports participant “convicted of an offense under the Criminal Code for conduct considered prohibited.”
In the US, the US Center for SafeSport publishes centralized disciplinary database in many sports regulated by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), including football, tennis, hockey, boxing and track and field. The database identifies individuals who have been subject to sanctions, including suspensions, restrictions and bans.
Recent reasons for sanctions in the United States have included sexual misconduct and crimes involving minors, intimate relationships involving an imbalance of power, physical misconduct, retaliation, sexual harassment, and the broader description of simple “misconduct.”
Arnason said she wants to create a registry that tracks misconduct nationally and internationally: “We know that people move through systems and through provincial and club levels.”
“At one level they may be sanctioned, but at another level there is no awareness that this person is a danger to participate in sport. We also know that people not only move within their own country, but also move abroad, and there needs to be better information sharing between countries.”
“The question now is how do we start putting more pressure on the system to be more transparent about people who, frankly, should never play sports again? They are a danger. This absolutely needs to be part of the national dialogue here in Canada and also internationally.”
