RED NATION SPEAKS TO TONY WAITERS Canada - Feature | Posted on Oct 1/09 by Steven Bottjer

Tony Waiters, a player, manager and innovator, is a crucial piece of the Canadian football landscape and history. A Blackpool, Burnley and England goalkeeper, he was the manager of Plymouth Argyle, the 1979 NASL Champions Vancouver Whitecaps and Canadian National Team, and also an entrepreneur; creating World of Soccer, aimed at developing players and coaches. His dedication to the sport and impact on Canada cannot be overstated. He was an integral part of one of the National team’s few successful eras, culminating in a World Cup appearance, an achievement that has yet to be repeated.

Born February of 1937 in the Northwest of England, in the town of Southport, Merseyside, Waiters began his football career with Bishop Auckland. One of the most successful clubs in the Northern League, they own ten FA Amateur Cup wins and eight other final appearances. Other players of note to have developed in the Northern League were Raich Carter, Bob Paisley and Brian Clough. He then moved briefly to Macclesfield Town before signing on to First Division side Blackpool in October 1959.

Waiters spent eight seasons as a goalkeeper with The Seasiders, making nearly 300 appearances over this period. He would spend his entire time there under head coach Ron Suart, unfortunately never getting higher than eleventh in the First Division. Waiters developed a solid reputation as a keeper, earning him his first of five England caps in 1964 against the Republic of Ireland. He was named to the original 40 player squad for the 1966 World Cup, but did not play and was not called up again. His teammates, midfielder Alan Ball and defender Jimmy Armfield (voted best right back in Europe from 1962-1964) both were in the World Cup winning line-up. In 1967, Blackpool was relegated to the Second Division and Waiters retired from football to take up coaching.

His began his coaching career as a Regional Coach for the Football Association and for Liverpool’s youth development program before getting a call to return to football. Jimmy Adamson, Footballer of the Year in 1962, was in his first season as manager for Burnley and was struck with an incredible streak of bad luck. Before the season had even started, two players went down with broken legs and a dislocated shoulder to keeper Peter Mellor forced him to entice Waiters out of retirement. The season did not go well for the Clarets, finishing second last and being relegated to the Second Division. They were only able to score three goals in their first eight games, one of which was an own goal.

Their first win was on October 31st against Crystal Palace where reports had this to say about Burnley and Waiters:

"Burnley made Palace look the relegation strugglers. England international Coates and winger Kindon ran riot." The News of the World added, "And Geoff Nulty, preferred to Michael Docherty so that he and Colin Waldron could snuff out twin strikers Gerry Queen and Alan Birchenall, did just that. When the Palace strikers did escape the stranglehold they were foiled by a series of fine saves by Tony Waiters, which could not have been bettered by Gordon Banks."

Waiters would play for Burnley until 1972, retiring for good and taking up coaching. He had been working towards certifications as early as 1960, and had gained his full badge by 1964. His first post after Burnley was the England Youth Team, and shortly thereafter was brought in to manage Plymouth Argyle in the Third Division. His time at Plymouth was a successful one, reaching the League Cup semi-finals twice, defeating Pele’s Santos in 1973, and gaining promotion to the Second Division in 1975. Two years later, 1977, he was sacked.

That year saw Waiters begin his influence on football in Canada. After a first round playoff exit to Seattle in 1976, 1977 saw the Vancouver Whitecaps have two coaching changes – from Eckhard Krautzun to Holger Osieck then to Tony Waiters taking over before the end of the season. Waiters’ short stay as the manager of the Whitecaps would be an historical one. Already the top sports franchise in the city, Vancouver would get success to accompany their popularity, by winning the 1979 NASL Soccer Bowl. This playoff run, specifically their semi-final victory over the New York Cosmos, is seen as the best in NASL history. After defeating Johan Cryuff’s LA Aztecs, they took on and defeated the juggernaut Cosmos, a side including Vladislav Bogicevic, Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Neeskens. They would then go on to victory over Tampa Bay in the finals, winning the city’s first professional team championship.

Waiters’ next task was to take the managerial position of the Canadian Men’s National Team. A job he had originally scoffed at, he would lead the team to the highest level of achievement they would ever reach. The team’s first sign of true quality was the 1984 summer Olympics. After finishing second in their group with a modest 1-1-1 record, Canada would take eventual runners-up Brazil to a shootout. After Dale Mitchell opened the scoring, Brazil would equalize and win the game 5-3 on penalties.

After this encouraging tournament, his next task was to qualify Canada for the World Cup. This was achieved on September 14, 1985 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, when Canada beat Honduras 2-1 to win the CONCACAF Championship and gain entry to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Canada would put in a solid effort that summer, but would fail to progress out of the group stage. Waiters stepped down from coaching that year, and save for a brief return in 1990, that was the end of his professional coaching career.

Outside of coaching professionally, Waiters created the company World of Soccer. Dedicated to developing players and coaches, World of Soccer has evolved into a site called Byte Size Coaching that is used by clubs all over the world.

2001 saw Tony Waiters inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame.

Whitecaps win the 1979 NASL Soccerbowl championship in New York. 150,000 people crowd downtown Vancouver for the Parade to honour the team: