Stuart Neely

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Stuart Neely is a Scottish-born soccer administrator, coach, scout and technical director from East Kilbride, Scotland. He has spent decades working across Canada and the United States, in colleges, provincial bodies, professional clubs and national organizations.

He began as head coach of Centennial College’s women’s soccer program in 1994 and also led the college’s indoor team in 1995. In 1997 he joined the Ontario Soccer Association as director of player development and in 1999 coached Ontario’s under-17 women. He moved into the professional game as an assistant coach for Toronto Inferno in the USL W-League in 1999. From 2000 to 2001, he served as head coach of Canada’s women’s under-20 team. He later worked as a high-performance scout for the Manitoba Soccer Association (2004) and, in 2005, assisted Canada’s men’s under-20 team, helping the side reach the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Neely also spent time in club football, serving as technical manager for Caledon Soccer Club (2007) and working as a scout for RRFC Montegnée in Belgium. He joined Toronto FC’s academy in 2008, eventually becoming the junior team head coach in the reserve division and winning a divisional and championship double. He later became the academy director before stepping down after the 2011 season. In 2012 he joined Vancouver Whitecaps as head of player management and advancement and in 2013 led Vancouver’s academy team in the USL Premier Development League.

In 2014 he briefly headed football development in New Zealand before returning to Canada to coach K–W United’s men’s and women’s teams; the women reached the playoffs and the men finished second in their division. He rejoined Toronto FC in 2015–2016 as senior head coach of the academy and as an assistant for the reserve team in USL Pro, then continued with the senior academy in 2016. From 2018 he worked with Canada Soccer as manager of coach education under Jason de Vos, a three-year tenure. He then became technical director for South Delta United in British Columbia, joined Pacific FC as technical director in 2022, and moved to Vancouver FC in 2023 in the same role before leaving the club in the summer.