Toronto FC keeper Sutton: Canadian soccer in crisis

Toronto FC goalkeeper Greg Sutton says Canadian soccer is at the crossroads.

Sutton has added his voice to the call for change after Jim Brennan and Dwayne DeRosario spoke out about dissatisfaction with the ailing men's national team program.

"They're only allowed to bring in a certain amount of guys because they can only pay a certain number of players fees per game," he said. "Whereas you look at the U.S., they have a player pool, each training camp, they'll have 30 guys, where we'll have 20 if we're lucky. It just gives them a better opportunity, a better advantage. ...

"We have some very good talent in Canada but we just can't bring them all together at times just because of budget reasons."

Unless matters are taken care of, Sutton also fears players who have played for Canada will say no to national call-ups and stick with their clubs - like Brennan.

"Listen, as a player we all want to play for our country. If it's set up the right way, then we're all for it," Sutton said. "And there's tons of guys on this team that may not be for it right now just because the way things were handled in the last little while.

"But I can guarantee you there's a lot of guys that hope and wish that there's some changes that's can be made and you're going to have all of those guys back. Guys like a Dwayne, guys like Jimmy. Those are guys that want to play for their country and we love our country. ... But there needs to be some things that need to be taken care of before we can really go forward in the right direction."