President: Laurie McIvor
Commissioner: Rocco LoFranco
Vice-president: Armando DiFruscio
Directors: Harry Paul Gauss and Tony Fontana
Annual general meeting
The NSL opened what it called its 71st season with two new teams joining from the defunct Canadian Soccer League. These franchises were the North York Rockets and Winnipeg Fury. After the annual general meeting held in Winnipeg on January 6, 1993, the league changed its name to the Canadian National Soccer League to symbolize this as a merger. At the meeting Laurie McIvor was elected as president, Rocco LoFranco league commissioner, Armando DiFruscio as vice-president and Harry Paul Gauss and Tony Fontana as directors.
Clubs and players
North York Rockets changed their name to Toronto Rockets. They continued to play their matches at Esther Shiner Stadium in North York.
With Toronto/North York Rockets joining the league, North York Argentina decided to move their matches to Scarborough and change their name to Scarborough Astros. The Astros played their home games at Birchmount Stadium. Owner and general manager of the team was Bruno Ierullo.
The Brampton Jets changed their name to the Toronto Jets, but played their home games at Esther Shiner Stadium in North York. They were strengthened by the signing of Sante Cesario, formerly of Toronto Italia and the North York Rockets.
Richmond Hill Kick of York played their home games at Richmond Green Sports Centre. The team was coached by Peter Pinizzotto. The Kick of York made international headlines when they posed naked for an Adidas advertisement that was rejected by the Canadian edition of Sports Illustrated. In the middle of July they were suspended by the league for failure to turn up for a pair of games the previous weekend and for failure to pay $2,000 for the final instalment of the league’s operational fee.
In May 1993 former Rutgers coach Peter Paglioti replaced Osvaldo Rizzo as Windsor Wheels’ head coach. After the season the Wheels moved to Detroit to become the Detroit Wheels. They joined the Midwest section of the United States Interregional Soccer League. This came about as their owners were frustrated with commissioner LoFranco and that the league still was heavily influenced by ethnic teams.
The season kicked off on May 23, 1993 at Windsor Stadium with the Windsor Wheels beating Toronto Croatia 2-0.
After the season Winnipeg Fury ceased operations. They owed approximately $160,000 to its creditors, including salaries and bonus money to many former players. It was said that none of their players got paid during the 1993 season.
Eastern Division
The league also operated with an eastern division. Members of the eastern division were Corfinium St-Leonard, Cosmos de LaSalle, Croatia de Montreal, Luso Stars Mont-Royal and Ramblers de Montreal. Croatia won the league championship, Zoran Petkovic was voted as CNSL eastern division MVP and Simon Demo as Coach of the Year. Dwayne Dear of LaSalle was the easern division leading goalscorer, Charlie Mohamed of Ramblers was Goaltender of the Year and Rookie of the Year was Palu Dacobert of the Ramblers.
CNSL Championship finals
St. Catharines Roma won the CNSL Championship finals by beating Toronto Rockets 1-0 in the second leg on October 17. The two teams had drawn 0-0 in the first leg. Roma won 1-0 thanks to a goal by Tom Bernardi in the 20th minute.
After the season the Toronto Rockets replaced Toronto Blizzard in the APSL.
Results and standings
West Division GP W T L GF GA Pts Toronto Rockets 16 9 6 1 40 13 24 Toronto Croatia 16 7 7 3 19 10 21 Toronto Italia 16 6 6 4 21 14 18 St Catharines Roma 16 7 2 7 17 16 16 Toronto Jets 16 4 6 6 15 20 14 London City 16 5 4 7 19 26 14 Scarborough Astros 16 6 2 8 16 26 14 Windsor Wheels 16 7 0 9 16 31 14 Winnipeg Fury 16 4 1 11 22 28 9 Top six teams qualified for playoffs Leading goal scorers (West): Tomasz Radzinski (Toronto Rockets) 15 gls Gary Gonsalves (London City) 7 gls Nick Maxwell (Scarborough Astros) 7 gls Hardley Scott (Toronto Italia) 6 gls Dan Kolic (Windsor Wheels) 5 gls East Division GP W T L GF GA Pts Croatia de Montreal 16 9 4 3 47 20 22 Cosmos de LaSalle 16 7 3 6 48 25 17 Ramblers de Montreal 16 6 5 5 27 31 17 Corfinium St-Leonard 16 6 3 7 28 41 15 Luso Stars Mont-Royal 16 1 5 10 13 51 7 Top two teams qualified for playoffs Leading goal scorers (East): Dwayne Dear (LaSalle) 15 gls Elias Greige (Corfinium) 12 gls Krunoslav Piperkovic (Croatia) 8 gls Zoran Petkovic (Croatia) 8 gls Pierre Groulx (LaSalle) 8 gls Tomislav Bobic (Croatia) 8 gls Quarterfinals September 26, 1993 Esther Shiner Stadium, North York, Ontario Toronto Rockets 3 London City 0 September 29, 1993 London Stadium, London, Ontario London City 0 Toronto Rockets 2 Toronto Rockets won series 5-0 September 27, 1993 Montreal Croatia 5 Lasalle 1 September 30, 1993 Riverside Stadium LaSalle 1 Montreal Croatia 3 Montreal Croatia won series 8-2 September 27, 1993 Esther Shiner Stadium, North York, Ontario Toronto Jets 2 Toronto Croatia 2 September 29, 1993 Centennial Stadium, Toronto, Ontario Toronto Croatia 1 Toronto Jets 2 Toronto Jets won series 4-3 September 29, 1993 Club Roma Stadium, St. Catharines, Ontario Toronto Italia 2 St. Catharines 2 October 4, 1993 Centennial Stadium, Toronto, Ontario St. Catharines Roma 2 Toronto Italia 1 St. Catharines Roma won series 4-3 Semi-finals October 3, 1993 Hébert Park, St. Leonard Montreal Croatia 1 Toronto Rockets 2 October 10, 1993 Toronto Rockets 4 Montreal Croatia 0 Toronto Rockets won series 6-1 October 7, 1993 St. Catharines Roma 1 Toronto Jets 0 October 13, 1993 Toronto Jets 0 St. Catharines Roma 1 St. Catharines won series 2-0 Finals October 15, 1993 Toronto Rockets 0 St. Catharines 0 October 17, 1993 St. Catharines 1 (Tom Bernardi) Toronto Rockets 0 St. Catharines won series 1-0 on aggregate
