Month: February 2020

The tie isn’t over just yet, but last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners were introduced to typical themes in their first continental clash

Entering Tuesday’s match against Club Leon, it had been nearly four months since we’d seen Los Angeles FC take the field for an official match. It had been nearly four months since we’d seen a team widely heralded as one of the best MLS had been to offer. It had been nearly four months since that team came up short and ended their pursuit of an MLS Cup in the worst possible way.

And, when LAFC resurfaced in Mexico on Tuesday for their first ever Concacaf Champions League match, they very much looked like a team that hadn’t played in nearly four months.

On Tuesday, a team known for their creativity, their confidence and, ultimately, their quality didn’t display too much of any of those three chrachteristics.The end result was a 2-0 win for Club Leon, giving the Liga MX side the advantage heading towards the second leg while leaving the MLS side asking some all-too-familiar questions.

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Tuesday’s match was LAFC’s first ever continental match, but the themes that have defined MLS clubs’ experience in this tournament were all there. There was the more-fit Mexican team, as Leon entered the match third in Liga MX. There was the home atmosphere, as Estadio Leon rocked and roared from the start. And there was the clumsiness from the MLS side, one that was playing its first real game of the year in the most difficult circumstances this region has to offer.

From the start, the hosts looked like the team in control. There was a sense that Leon never truly felt in danger, even if there were moments that appeared like they were in trouble. It was like an older sibling toying with someone younger, giving them enough of a chance to keep coming back but never enough to worry them.

While Leon had the depth and quality to diversify their attacks, LAFC’s strategy was clear: give the ball to Carlos Vela or Diego Rossi and pray. It was a strategy that worked well enough last season, with Vela shattering goal and assist records while Rossi broke through as one of the league’s top stars.

Vela, in particular, played with a purpose, and for good reason. In his return to Mexico, Vela was the subject of taunts and cheers whenever he was on the ball. He looked dangerous, but lacked the sharpness that defined his record-breaking season last year. And, as a result, LAFC floundered. As Vela goes, so goes LAFC.

Leon, meanwhile, found plenty of joy attacking an LAFC defense that looked like a unit lacking chemistry. After trading defensive centerpiece Walker Zimmerman just last week, this was always going to be a massive test. They didn’t completely fail, but they certainly didn’t pass either.

The first goal came in the 21st minute, when Jean Meneses was left all alone on the left side. LAFC defender Tristan Blackmon, a player earmarked as one that will need to step up for LAFC this season, was late to get over and skipped past almost immediately once he did. Meneses’ near-post shot left new goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer with no chance, and it was 1-0 Leon.

But the second goal was the real backbreaker. Heading back home with a 1-0 loss would be easy to stomach. LAFC can score at home and, even without the away goal, they would have backed themselves to turn things around. But 2-0, that’s a totally different task.

What will hurt the most is that it was entirely preventable. It was a bad turnover from substitute Mohamed El-Munir, some shaky defending from Dejan Jakovic and, most importantly, a simple finish from Angel Mena. It’s was the late goal of nightmares, one that could end LAFC’s hopes of being the first MLS side to lift this trophy before they even got going.

It was the latest example of Liga MX dominance in a competition that is known for just that. LAFC isn’t the first team to struggle in Mexico and last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners aren’t the only team to ever fail to find a rhythm in this tournament. Tuesday’s match is just the latest in a long list of letdowns and missed opportunities, with LAFC becoming the CCL’s latest MLS victim on Mexican soil.

LAFC won’t have to wait another four months to right Tuesday’s wrongs. That wait will only last nine days. But, barring a stunning result back in the U.S., LAFC will have plenty of what-ifs and what-happeneds to mull over in the weeks and months to come.

President Donald Trump reactivated a feud with singer John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen on Sunday night, as the president watched an NBC special on criminal justice reform.

Trump ripped Legend for taking credit on the issue, despite doing very little to work with Trump to get the First Step Act passed in December.

“Guys like boring musician John Legend and his filthy-mouthed wife, are talking now about how great it is – but I didn’t see them around when we needed help getting it passed,” he wrote.

Teigen has a history of criticizing Trump on Twitter long before he ran for president. She spoke about being a “hater” of Trump in a 2017 interview:

Teigen immediately took the bait after Trump called her “filthy-mouthed.”

“Lol what a pussy ass bitch,” she wrote. “Tagged everyone but me. An honor, mister president.”

As her followers rallied to her defense, Teigen wrote, “No guys no please do not make this trend, for it is my fight with #PresidentPussyAssBitch, not yours!!!!!!”

Trump appeared incredulous the NBC special on criminal justice reform hosted by Lester Holt did not even mention his successful effort signing an important bill on the subject in 2018.

“I got it done with a group of Senators & others who would never have gone for it,” he wrote. “Obama couldn’t come close … I SIGNED IT INTO LAW, no one else did, & Republicans deserve much credit.”

Trump noted activists like Van Jones gave him credit, but that many celebrities were pretending they also had something to do with it.

“But now that it is passed, people that had virtually nothing to do with it are taking the praise,” he said.

He ridiculed Holt for not even mentioning his work pushing on the issue of criminal justice reform.

“‘Anchor Lester Holt doesn’t even bring up the subject of President Trump or the Republicans when talking about the importance or passage of Criminal Justice Reform,” he wrote. “They only talk about the minor players, or people that had nothing to do with it.”

He also appeared angry that Hollywood celebrities only demanded his impeachment, despite his work to sign the criminal justice bill that was important to them.

“The people that so desperately sought my help when everyone else had failed, all they talk about now is Impeaching President Trump!” he wrote.

The U.K. government should be prepared to request an extension of the March 29, 2019 Brexit deadline, and should also consider prolonging any transition period, according to a report by an influential group of British MPs.

Aspects of the report are certain to infuriate the most ardent supporters of Brexit. And its findings underscore the continuing deep divisions within the British government over the best ways to manage the country’s departure from the EU.

The report is the third by the Commons Brexit select committee, which compromises 21 MPs. And the committee itself is apparently sharply divided over the findings, with a narrow majority voting to approve the document.

Among the most controversial points is the suggestion that the U.K. might request an extension of the two-year deadline for exiting the EU, which could only be granted by unanimous agreement of the remaining 27 EU countries.

“If more time were needed to negotiate the Future EU-UK Partnership, the Government could seek an extension to the Article 50 period,” the committee writes in the report, which is to be published Sunday.

“This would require unanimous agreement amongst the EU27. It would allow more time to negotiate a detailed Political Declaration and potentially more time to negotiate the treaties/agreements that will establish the Future Partnership before the start of the transition/implementation period, depending on the length of the extension.”

The committee also notes it could make sense to extend the transition period, which the EU envisions lasting until December 31, 2020. Prime Minister Theresa May has referred to those roughly 21 months following withdrawal as an “implementation period” — but there is no indication that a sweeping trade agreement and other aspects of the future relationship between Britain and the EU will be ready for implementation at that time.

“If a 21-month transition/implementation period is insufficient time to conclude and ratify the treaties/agreements that will establish the Future Partnership or to implement the necessary technical and administrative measures along with any necessary infrastructure at the UK border, the only prudent action would be for the Government to seek a limited prolongation to avoid unnecessary disruption,” the committee writes.

“It would, for example, be unacceptable for business to have to adapt their import and export processes twice. We therefore recommend that the Withdrawal Agreement include a provision to allow for the extension of the transition/implementation period, if necessary, and with the approval of Parliament.”

The contents of the report, which are already proving highly divisive within the U.K., were first reported by the Huffington Post.

The U.K. and the EU are hoping to finalize the transition agreement this week, for approval by EU27 leaders at a summit in Brussels on Friday. So far, however, there has been reluctance to include any reference in the transition agreement to a possible extension, even though both sides know that ultimately it may be needed.

The committee report said it agrees with May’s outright rejection of a proposal by the EU, put forward in its draft withdrawal treaty, that would keep Northern Ireland within the EU’s customs union, and effectively impose a trade border in the middle of the Irish Sea, as a way of avoiding any restoration of a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

However, the committee also has some tough words for May’s government, noting that she has not yet put forward any proposal of her own on how to solve the conundrum of the Northern Ireland border.

“If the Government is unhappy with sections of the draft withdrawal agreement then it should produce its own suggested legal text,” the Committee writes.

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The 21-year-old returns to the United States in March, where she spent four years at university becoming the excellent young goalkeeper she is today

When Sandy MacIver returned home last month after four years at college, she probably wasn’t expecting to go back to the United States so soon – least of all as part of England’s SheBelieves Cup squad.

But when Phil Neville’s selection was announced on Tuesday, the Clemson University graduate, who won the Golden Glove at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2018, was among the three goalkeepers.

“This is a vital time to expose Sandy and Ellie [Roebuck] to the exposure of playing in one of the best tournaments outside of the major tournaments,” the England head coach said, handing 21-year-old MacIver just her second senior call-up.

“If we get to Euro 2021 and people like Sandy and Ellie haven’t had that kind of experience, then we would have failed as coaches in terms of our planning of their development.”

The call-up is in keeping with how thick and fast things have come since MacIver returned to her home country.

“I didn’t expect it to fall like it did, but it was good. I enjoyed it,” she tells Goal of her Women’s Super League debut, which came in Everton’s 3-1 win over Reading in January.

The game saw her take the place of the in-form Tinja-Riikka Korpela, just a couple of weeks after signing for the Toffees.

“My mum and dad were more nervous than I was for the game,” she laughs. “I don’t think they could speak to each other in the car!

“[Being with England] is just a completely different environment, especially comparing it to the youth teams.

“Everything on the pitch is quicker, and it’s just like trying to step up to that level.

“Since being back at Everton, this environment kind of replicates that environment. You didn’t really get that in America.

“I think for a while I knew I wanted to come back to England – it was just a matter of where.

“To be honest, I think anywhere in England, [my mum and dad] were happy. It’s closer than 3000 miles away in America!”

That hardly stopped MacIver’s biggest fans from going across the pond to watch their daughter, who became Clemson Tigers’ starting goalkeeper during her time in South Carolina.

And when they did, it gave a young student away from home some home comforts.

Biscuits and teabags were among the necessities brought over – “In America, they just have naff biscuits. Nothing really beats a hobnob or a digestive in your tea does it?” – while the family visits were always appreciated too.

“My mum came out [for my graduation too] and my boyfriend,” she explains.

“You have a ceremony where they celebrate the athletes and I had to do a speech. It was nerve-wracking! But I got through it.

“It was like four or five minutes. I’m just rubbish at that. I got my boyfriend to write it and people laughed so it was alright.”

When it comes to the football pitch, though, there’s certainly no show of nerves and very few weaknesses.

“She has huge potential – an England No.1 in my eyes,” Everton boss Willie Kirk tells Goal. “She’s fantastic with her feet, left and right, she’s got great distribution.

“She’s got a lot of great attributes,” adds Gabby George. The Toffees defender knows plenty about her new team-mate having spent time with MacIver both at Everton six years ago, before her move abroad, and in England youth camps.

“She’s come back a completely different goalkeeper. Her all-round game is great – her feet, distribution, handling.

“I think it’s a great signing for us and will only make the competition for the No.1 spot better.”

Before MacIver can focus on England, there is the small matter of facing Manchester United.

Casey Stoney’s side, who sit one place and one point above the Toffees in the WSL table, will be the first visitor to Everton’s new Walton Hall Park home this weekend.

Then, it’s back across the pond, where MacIver has so many fond memories.

It’s where she was when she earned her first senior call-up and it’s where she grew up as a player and a person.

“Our coach emphasised playing out from the back, so it was taking that aspect of my game to another level,” she says, reflecting on her development in the USA.

“[I was] away from home for the first time too.

“A lot of people had the support that they could go back home and they weren’t too far away, whereas if I was ever in that situation, I couldn’t just fly home.

“I think it was just kind of growing up in fast mode really.”

Asked what she missed the most about England during her four years, she doesn’t hesitate to reel things off, with a good curry and supermarket meal deals top of the list.

“You can’t go to the shop in America and get a sandwich, it just doesn’t exist. You have to get like a six-foot subway,” she laughs.

Fortunately, this trip across the pond will just be for a couple of weeks, not four years, so MacIver shouldn’t miss home too much.

However, it’s a trip likely to be just as memorable for the 21-year-old – “the future Everton No.1 as well as England’s No.1”, according to Kirk.

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After his former midfielder got the better of him in December’s reverse fixture, Mourinho is eager to make amends and believes he has a head start

Jose Mourinho says he already knows the team Frank Lampard is going to put out when Chelsea host Tottenham in Saturday’s lunchtime Premier League game.

While he refused to reveal the source of his inside knowledge, Mourinho seemed keen to engage in some mind games with his former midfielder.

Chelsea got the better of Spurs earlier in the season after switching to a back three, and Mourinho is sure Lampard will stick to the same system despite not using it consistently

“I was told they were back to a back five which is what they normally do when their results are not the best,” he told reporters, though he wouldn’t be drawn on where his information came from.

“The same way you have a lot of news and you don’t tell the sources,” he said.

Chelsea will start the day in fourth, just one place and one point ahead of Mourinho’s Spurs.

Tenth-placed Arsenal are only six points behind Spurs, illustrating the congested nature of the top half of the table.

Fifth would be enough for Champions League qualification if Manchester City’s UEFA ban is upheld but, true to form, Mourinho was keen to place his side among the outsiders for continental football.

“At the moment, Tottenham, Manchester United, Arsenal, Sheffield United, Wolverhampton, Everton – we are the underdogs,” he said.

“We have ambitions to go there, but we are one, two, three points behind Chelsea. Chelsea have an advantage over all of us. That is obvious. It is not a big advantage, but it is an advantage.

“Chelsea at the moment are favourites for fourth position considering Leicester has nine or 10 points more at this stage of the season. But of course, Chelsea are favourites for fourth at this moment.”

Mourinho may well be expecting a colourful reception from the Chelsea fans, but he says he harbours no ill will toward the Blues and feels the respect is mutual.

“That’s football. One thing is the way I am treated in the stadium, another is the way I’m treated on the street,” he said.

“On the street, every time I am approached by fans from all different clubs – not just the clubs where I’ve been working before, even clubs that I have no connection with – Palace, West Ham.

“Every time I am approached on the street in London, I am approached with care, respect, great feelings and the Chelsea fans they find me in the street – full of respect.”

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The Catalan says he will discuss the possibility of signing a new deal with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, but there are numerous factors in play

Pep Guardiola says all he is looking for is happiness – and that could mean he stays at Manchester City beyond the end of his current contract.

Guardiola’s deal expires at the end of the 2020-21 season, by which point he will have been in the Premier League for five years.

Given he spent four seasons in charge of Barcelona and just three at Bayern Munich, plenty are expecting Guardiola to leave at that point – but he isn’t sure.

“I don’t know,” he told reporters. “I want to stay one more year and after that it depends. It also depends on the results.

“When I said a month ago, that in the future we’ll have been together for five seasons, I don’t exclude it at all if the club is happy with me and our group to extend the contract.

“Now I want to be focused on these three months, we have to do game-by-game the best as possible, winning games and after we have time to think.”

When asked what he was looking for in the future, Guardiola’s response was simple.

“My happiness,” he said. “I’m looking for my happiness. That’s the only thing I’m looking for.”

And, when asked what it was about Manchester that made him happy, he replied: “For the weather! I have to take care of my skin; people say the sun is not good. Everyone is looking for that to be happy.

“I’m working with exceptional players and I have the feeling that they follow us 100 per cent. I know it’s not easy working with us and with me, but I’m happy.

“That is the only reason why – when I move on always it’s because I am thinking I can be happier than the place that I was before. That is the only reason.

“But I feel I am with a club where we have got incredible owners and a good relationship so I think it will not be a problem to understand both sides if we decide to stay three more years or stay in the time we are together.

“With Khaldoon [Al Mubarak, City’s chairman] we are going to talk at the end of the season or in the middle of next season and we will see.”

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The Bayern Munich star had an offer from Manchester during his Borussia Dortmund days and he was keen on the move

Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandowski says he considered joining Manchester United when he received a call from Sir Alex Ferguson.

Lewandowski got the call in 2012, when he was 23 and had just scored 30 goals in all competitions in his second season at former club Borussia Dortmund.

The Poland international, now 31, says Ferguson’s reputation meant he had to consider the move – but Dortmund quickly snuffed it out.

“I was speaking with him [Ferguson] after two years at Dortmund and at that time I was really thinking about a move to Manchester United,” Lewandowski told the Guardian.

“Because of Ferguson and because of Manchester United.

“Borussia Dortmund said: ‘No, that’s that.’ That was the first time I was thinking about the move because if you get a phone call from Sir Alex Ferguson, for a young player it was something amazing. That was a special day for me.”

Lewandowski eventually moved to Bayern two years later where, having left the tutelage of Jurgen Klopp, he worked under Pep Guardiola – a pair he says would be ‘perfection’ if their talents were combined.

He has also been linked with moves away throughout his stay at Bayern, most frequently with Real Madrid.

Now he is settled and enjoying his football. At 31, he is set for his most prolific season ever, and he says he wants to stay at the top level for as long as he can.

“I want to play for a long time,” he added.

“I don’t feel 31 years old and everything I am doing now is working to keep me in top for the next five, six years.

“I don’t want to be a striker who spends 90 minutes in the box waiting for the ball. I don’t like just getting the ball 10 times during a game. It’s not enough for me; I find those games difficult.

“Sometimes you have to be there waiting for the ball and if you get it once in the 90 minutes you have to be ready.

“But I say: ‘I want to be part of the team, of the game, I want to move and pass and not just wait for the ball.’

“That’s why I am always looking for space to get the ball and find my teammates. I can work on everything still. But one thing? Maybe to shoot from distance.”

GATINEAU, Que. ― The CEO of Telus Corp. says it could cut about $1 billion of spending and 5,000 jobs over the next five years if the CRTC mandates Canada’s wireless companies to open their facilities to virtual network operators.

Telus chief executive Darren Entwistle revealed those estimates in the final minutes of nearly four hours of public hearings before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in Gatineau, Que.

Most of the morning and early afternoon hearing was spent with Entwistle and his team of executives and consultants repeatedly saying Canada doesn’t need mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).

Watch: Canadians’ top complaints about telecoms. Story continues below.

 

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The Telus position is that Canada’s wireless market is already extremely competitive, prices are actually quite affordable contrary to popular belief and the arrival of MVNOs would set back the deployment of 5G networks.

“This is a brutal bullying tactic, and further evidence of how Big Telecom holds way too much power in our wireless market – and they know it,” said Laura Tribe, OpenMedia’s executive director, in a statement released Thursday.

Tribe added that “facilities-based competition hasn’t worked, and MVNOs are the solution.”

Executives from some of Canada’s largest national and regional wireless service providers been united in their rejection of mandated MVNOs, which would be given the right to tap into their facilities.

Entwistle emphasized his position by volunteering to submit, confidentially, the Telus board’s instructions for managers to start making plans for cutting spending and jobs if the CRTC chooses MVNOs over facilities-based carriers.

― With a file from HuffPost Canada

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MONTREAL ― Despite a strong economy that has churned out a record number of jobs in recent years and a housing market that has fattened many households’ assets, Canadians have serious doubts about their financial future and the economy as a whole.

Those are the key findings in the latest edition of the annual “trust barometer” from public relations firm Edelman, which measures public trust in “the system” ― government, business, non-governmental organizations and the media.

Watch: It’s easier to get rich in Canada than in the U.S., but it comes at a cost. Story continues below.

 

The survey of 1,500 Canadians was carried out from Oct. 19 to Nov. 18, 2019, well before the coronavirus outbreak and the Wet’suwet’en solidarity protests placed large question marks on the economic outlook.

It found that 76 per cent of Canadians are worried about losing their jobs, with the gig economy, a lack of training or skills, and fears of a recession the top reasons for the concern.

It found that barely more than a third of Canadians ― 35 per cent ― expect they will be better off in five years’ time. That’s lower than the U.S., where 43 per cent expect to be better off, but higher than in some developed countries, such as the U.K. and Japan.

“There is a narrative in Canada that while there are indicators of a strong-performing economy, there are some underlying issues,” said Lisa Kimmel, CEO of Edelman’s  Canada and Latin America operations.

She listed off the country’s high household debt levels, the still-unratified new North American free trade deal, trade tensions with China and “obviously the whole pipeline issue” in a conversation with HuffPost Canada.

“The reality is we are a resource-based economy still, our future economic prosperity to a large degree is dependent on our ability to get oil out of the country. Those are issues that cause great anxiety.

“And there seems to be an inability ― we’re seeing it play out around these [pipeline] protests ― in coming to an agreement as to what we’re going to do as a country about that issue,” Kimmel said in a phone interview.

Elites turning pessimistic faster than others

Edelman’s survey breaks down respondents into two groups: The “informed public” ― those who tend to consume a lot of news and who tend to have higher incomes and education ― and the “mass public,” which is everyone else.

One use of this breakdown is that it offers an insight into how the country’s elites are thinking, and it’s among this group that pessimism is particularly on the rise in Canada ― a trend that Kimmel describes as “concerning.”

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As in most other countries, Canada’s “informed public” has more faith in institutions such as government, business and media than the mass public, but that faith dropped sharply among Canadians in the latest survey. 

Faith in government, business and media fell by eight percentage points each, and the share of “informed public” who believe they will be better off five years from now dropped to 47 per cent from 53 per cent a year earlier ― though that’s still more optimistic than the public as a whole.

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Kimmel thinks that may have had to do with last year’s federal election.

“For many people among the informed public ― and this extends to the mass public as well ― we didn’t have great options to choose from,” she said. “You had to choose the best of not great options. That to me demonstrates there is not a lot of confidence and trust that’s being placed in political leaders today in Canada.”

What people demand from leaders is changing, Kimmel acknowledged.

“Expectations of leadership have evolved. The characteristics that defined leaders in the past ― [for example] delivering strong financial results ― aren’t necessarily going to be the qualities that make a good leader in the future.”

Business leaders, for instance, are expected not only to deliver financial results, but to prioritize the well-being of the communities in which they operate. And more than ever, politicians need to be “collaborative, [to] lead with purpose and understand the issues that are most concerning to their stakeholders,” Kimmel said.

“The expectations are greater than they once were.”

TORONTO — Tim Hortons is overhauling its popular Roll Up the Rim to Win campaign after 35 years, leaving some customers with a bitter taste in their mouth. 

The coffee and doughnut chain says it’s trying to keep up with the times by modernizing the program with a new focus on being environmentally friendly while appealing to younger consumers. 

But people were left scratching their heads after the plans went public Wednesday, accusing the company of being out of touch with Canadians.

“Stupid change to the contest,” HuffPost Canada reader Scott McGaghey wrote on Facebook.

“Thank you Tim Hortons for saving me money,” Alexandria Brown chimed in. “I used to be a sucker for Roll Up The Rim season.”

“Why do they keep changing things?” Carlye Logue asked. “They were so much better when I was a kid.”

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Back then, the contest was simple: Buy a beverage and roll up the rim. Win or lose, it was a fun way to reward loyal users in the middle of winter.

“You know you win right away, and that was the beauty of the program,” Susan Weaver, managing director at Pearl Strategy and Innovation Design, told HuffPost.

But now, drastic changes have gutted much of what Canadians loved about it. Tim Hortons says it is rewarding digital and sustainable ways to play by pushing customers online, but marketing experts say the program is way too confusing, especially since it changes half way through the contest.

“It’s super complicated. There’s so many layers to it,” Weaver said. “Simplicity is always a core principle when it comes to promotions.”

Ryerson University marketing Prof. Joanne McNeish agrees, saying the company has so much more work to do.

“I shook my head,” McNeish told HuffPost. “Once again, it’s like, who is running their marketing department? This is insanity.”

When the contest begins on March 11, it will come in two phases. Customers who buy hot beverages will get to roll up their rims for the first two weeks, and those with a Tims Rewards will get an extra roll online. For the final two weeks, the only opportunity to win will be online through digital play. 

“We listened to the feedback from our guests, who wanted us to modernize the program,” Hope Bagozzi, Tim Hortons’ chief marketing officer, said in a news release. “The contest will allow for a combination of paper, digital and sustainable play.”

Customers who buy hot beverages with a reusable cup will also receive three bonus digital plays, which can be redeemed online or through the Tim Hortons app. To encourage this, they’re handing out 1.8 million free cups on March 10. They’re also getting rid of “Please Play Again” by giving every cup a chance to win $100,000, but only if you have the Tims app.

“We intentionally designed the contest this year to reward behaviours that are digital and sustainable – something guests told us was a priority and Greenpeace has applauded us for,” a Tim Hortons spokesperson told HuffPost via email. “To ensure all Tim Hortons guests could participate in the contest, we have approximately 2 weeks of paper Roll Up The Rim cups as well.”

But because there’s so many facets to the contest now, McNeish predicts there will be plenty of confusion in stores when it rolls out.

“It’s a contest that’s going to build a lot of backlash and resistance rather than being the fun, joyous campaign that it always was,” she said. “They’ve got all sorts of places where they’re going to disappoint people.” 

The changes are meant to appeal to a younger demographic, but for those less tech-savvy, it’s going to be a lot harder for them, says Weaver.

“It’ll piss the older people off, especially in the last two weeks,” she said. “If it is really difficult for people to understand, then they’re going to have to do some work.”

One of the biggest changes to the contest is the reduction in the number of weeks, down from 10 to four, which could give the perception of fewer opportunities to win.

However, Tim Hortons says it is offering $30 million in prizes during this year’s Roll Up the Rim contest, and rewarding registered Tims Rewards members all year long.

The sustainability play through reusable cups could attract Gen-Z and millennial consumers who are environmentally conscious, but McNeish feels it would’ve been better to avoid this angle entirely. 

“You can’t attract people by saying you’re sustainable. You have to be sustainable,” the marketing professor said. “It’s another misstep.”  

Marketing experts agree it makes sense for Tims to push customers toward their app. It’s something competitors like Starbucks and McDonald’s have been doing for years now. But after a series blunders, including a highly publicized battle over the minimum wage in Ontario, this move could be more salt on the wound for the iconic brand.

McNeish says Tims “destroyed” their image over the years with too many products and not enough quality, and now they’re in recovery mode.

“It’s too bad people can’t get together and buy it back because it’s really a shame,” she added.

Kenneth Wong, a marketing professor at Queen’s University, says there’s more to this than Roll Up the Rim. 

“It is wrong to suppose that this contest is the root of Tim Hortons’ problems,” he told HuffPost via email. “Unspectacular products, weak service infrastructure, inconsistent menus across outlets, franchisee disruptions and employee frustrations are the problem.”

Down but not out

In 2014, Tim Hortons was purchased by Burger King for US$11.4 billion, becoming Restaurant Brands International (RBI), which now also owns Popeyes. Many changes have followed since then, but experts say the company still has a robust presence in Canada that dates back to 1964.

After all, Tim Hortons is the largest restaurant chain in Canada with more than 4,800 locations worldwide. 

Earlier this month, RBI reported a 4.6-per-cent drop in Canadian sales at Tim Hortons locations in the last quarter of 2019, nearly double what analysts had predicted. RBI said the numbers didn’t reflect the brand and it would work towards returning to its “founding values.”

Experts say that’s exactly what Tim Hortons should be doing.

“If there was real intent to bring it back, it’s absolutely possible to recover,” McNeish said. 

“They need to stay true to their roots. They’re not fast food,” Weaver said. “They need to know who they are.”

That starts with a renewed focus on what made them famous: coffee, doughnuts and baked goods. 

“I think they’re still a fantastic brand,” Weaver added. “I don’t think that people will stop going to Tim Hortons.”

This story has been updated with additional comments from Tim Hortons.