A Tale of Two Clubs: Bologna Soars While CF Montréal Stagnates in MLS

In the world of football, sister clubs are often meant to share a symbiotic relationship, with success and resources flowing between them. For CF Montréal and Bologna FC, that ideal appears to be a one-way street. As Bologna celebrates a historic season in Serie A, their MLS sibling is mired in a familiar cycle of underperformance and instability, leaving fans to question their place in the family.

A Club in Perpetual Crisis

The 2025 season has begun disastrously for CF Montréal, with five defeats in their opening six matches, including heavy losses of 5-0 and a pair of 3-0 defeats. This dismal start culminated in the dismissal of head coach Marco Donadel, whose tenure yielded a meager 0.88 points per game this season. This coaching change is far from an anomaly; since joining MLS in 2012, no manager has lasted 95 games in charge, with only one, Mauro Biello, surviving two full calendar years.

The club's struggles are systemic. With a league-low payroll of $12 million in 2025 and a record signing speculated to be under $4 million, they have failed to keep pace with MLS's rapid evolution. Their academy, a potential lifeline, has produced just three homegrown players with significant minutes. The result is a franchise that has reached the MLS Cup playoffs only four times in 13 seasons, never advancing beyond the first round.

The Bologna Contrast

This stagnation stands in stark contrast to the fortunes of their Italian sister club, Bologna FC. Owned by the same Saputo family, Bologna is enjoying a golden era. Last season, they competed in the UEFA Champions League and lifted the Coppa Italia, a testament to significant investment and sporting ambition.

The family ties are deep. Joey Saputo, the owner, chairs Bologna, while his sons oversee Montréal's sporting operations. Another son was even transferred from Montréal's academy to Bologna's in 2023. Yet, the flow of benefits seems exclusively eastward across the Atlantic. For Montréal fans, the success in Italy only highlights the neglect at home, a painful reality for a city still scarred by the departure of baseball's Expos two decades ago.

A Symbolic Disconnect

The club's current woes feel like a fulfillment of the fears voiced during its controversial 2021 rebrand from the Montréal Impact. Supporters groups lamented the move as the "dismantling of a dream," predicting a descent into blandness. They even vandalized the new crest—a minimalist design co-creator Justin Kingsley defiantly framed as a symbol of an "impenetrable wall" when snowflakes unite.

That defiant blizzard has failed to materialize. Instead, CF Montréal finds itself in a perpetual thaw, easily brushed aside. The promised storm has been nothing more than a flurry of coaching changes and empty promises, leaving a passionate fanbase out in the cold while the family's other club basks in the European sun.

Key Takeaways

• Systemic Instability: CF Montréal has cycled through 11 coaches in 13 MLS seasons, with none lasting 95 games, highlighting a chronic lack of long-term vision.
• Resource Disparity: While sister club Bologna FC invests in a Champions League and Coppa Italia-winning squad, Montréal operates with MLS's lowest payroll and minimal academy output.
• Fan Alienation: The current crisis validates fan protests during the 2021 rebrand, which warned the club was losing its identity and ambition.