Following this year’s League1 Canada Converge, representatives from every club in League1 Ontario are looking ahead to the 2026 season and their potential impact in growing the game on home soil.

This year’s event included 13 different sessions and 28 speakers, with approximately 200 people in attendance, giving club leaders, staff, and coaches the chance to share and encourage the best on- and off-pitch methods at League1 level, taking learnings into the new year and beyond to grow the game in Canada. 

Shayne Griffin has played a key role at Scrosoppi since 2021, and has been part of overseeing the Milton-based club’s growth and success from youth to senior level. He was also a speaker at Converge, providing guidance around building livestreams on a budget as part of The Activation Engine session.

Following a successful weekend at Converge, he is looking forward to further improving the game with Scrosoppi and League1.

Firstly Shayne, how was Converge this year?

It was extremely beneficial. Being able to connect with other clubs, other executives, who are in the same roles in their clubs, discuss what their pain points are, share possible solutions, the best practices between clubs, and understand that most of our pain points are the exact same as the other clubs, so we’re not on an island.

If you had to choose your biggest takeaway from the event, what would it be?

The biggest takeaway for me is the immense potential that League1 has. There are a lot of brilliant minds involved in the league, from leadership to membership, and people with very unique experiences, talents and knowledge.

If we're able to share a lot of this information with each other, the league has incredible potential to really grow if everyone has the same collaborative mindset, and events like this really foster and encourage that.

You also presented at Converge. How was your panel?

It was well received. We had a lot of people come up after and commend us and ask how we came up with some ideas.

My presentation covered livestreaming on a budget, and it was about sharing resources to clubs that maybe can't afford to have a separate company come in and livestream. It was meant to help and share our reality, and maybe our reality is the same as someone else’s, so they can benefit from the same knowledge and experiences that we have.

Leading on from Converge, how can Scrosoppi help to grow the game in Canada?

We have some forward-thinking minds in the club. We have supportive ownership too, and with our future plans alongside leveraging our relationships and our affiliations with clubs across the world, especially in Europe and the Middle East, it’s a tremendous opportunity for us to focus on giving young players and high-potential players chances here in Canada and then springboarding them to our contacts.



We’ve seen the likes of Luka Juricic getting opportunities in the Canadian Premier League, and those are examples that we really want to drive home, emphasize, and repeat. We want to offer that to as many of our young players as possible. 

We’re the only League1 license holder in Milton, and it’s a growing population, so it's exciting for us to be able to provide that platform for young talent, and that’s going to be our major contribution.

The senior men’s FIFA World Cup heads to Canada in 2026. What was it like being around conversations about this event at Converge?

When you really take it in, I don't think it's going to hit most of us until it's here, but to understand the magnitude of this type of event, and to be involved somehow, even if it's a small part of it, it’s really exciting.