Costa Smyrniotis, who helped build Forge FC into a championship franchise, is joining the Canadian Premier League as executive vice-president, soccer.
Smyrniotis, who served as director of football and business at Forge, and his brother Bobby Smyrniotis, Forge’s head coach and technical director, built the CPL club from the ground up.
Forge won the CPL championship in 2019, ’20 and ’22 and was runner-up to Pacific FC in 2021. Forge was the first CPL team to reach the Canadian Championship final in 2020 and the CONCACAF League semifinal in 2021, and became the first CPL team to compete in the CONCACAF Champions League in 2022.
“Costa is one of the most accomplished soccer executives in Canada, on and off the field of play,” CPL commissioner Mark Noonan said in a statement. “He has a long track record of success at every level of the sport, bringing with him a unique understanding of the landscape and, importantly, how to tap into the vast opportunity in front of us.”
The league said Smyrniotis will head up the CPL football operations, working with Noonan “to create and implement a long-term vision for the league’s on-field product and off-field business.”
Costa Smyrniotis founded Sigma FC, a renowned academy that has served as a pipeline for such Canadian talent as Cyle Larin, Tajon Buchanan, Richie Laryea and Kyle Bekker.
“While we will miss Costa tremendously, the soccer culture he has established within Hamilton and Forge FC will endure,” Scott Mitchell, managing partner and CEO of Hamilton Sports Group which owns both Forge and the CFL’s Tiger-Cats, said in a statement.
Mitchell is also chairman of the CPL and Canadian Soccer Business.
Smyrniotis joins a CPL hierarchy that includes executive vice-president Glen Johnson and James Easton, vice-president of football operations.