Canada’s internationals are actually in the middle of preparations for the SheBelieves Cup. The invitation tournament marks the start of the World Cup year for them. On Thursday they will play against the world champions from the USA in Orlando, then against Brazil and Japan. All challenging opponents, ideal for finding out what is still lacking. However, they cannot concentrate entirely on sports – the dispute between them and the Canadian Football Association over savings and alleged lack of support has escalated.
The 2020 Olympic champions released a statement on Friday, which said the national team was outraged and deeply concerned at the announcement of significant cuts just months ahead of the World Cup, which takes place in Australia and New Zealand from 20 July to 20 August. They boycotted the training and meetings on Saturday.
“From this moment on, we will not participate in any activities until everything is settled – whether it’s training, whether it’s games. Enough is enough,” captain Christine Sinclair told Canada’s The Sports Network (TSN). In the letter, the players announced they were ready to “do whatever is necessary to raise public awareness of this crisis and compel Canada Soccer to provide appropriate support to the national teams.” So for the time being they went on strike, like the national players of Australia, Denmark and Spain in the past.
“We are tired of constantly fighting for fair and equal treatment,” the players wrote
The Canadian federation defended itself, pay equity is the focus of the negotiations, without which Canada Soccer will not agree to any deal. Therefore, after months of talks, “an amicable retrospective payment has already been arranged”. A collective agreement is needed to plan the future responsibly. Similar to the USA, the players are represented by two different unions, both of which are currently negotiating a new contract, which also involves aligning wages. Months ago, both national teams were presented with a “proposal based on justice”, the association said, “we are still waiting for a final answer to the conditions”.
The proposal, however, does not seem to Sinclair and her colleagues to go far enough. The 39-year-old record national player in her country (319 games) and top scorer of all national teams (190 goals) even said to TSN that the association had paused the compensation package and wanted to restructure its offer: “You just lied in your statement, and now it will lied to the public. That’s how they work.” The men’s team supports the women’s position and also released a statement. In the summer of 2022, it went on strike itself in a dispute over prize money negotiations for the World Cup in Qatar – also five months before the start of the tournament – and was now “deeply disappointed”. How Canada Soccer allocates or uses funds is unclear and secret, and requests have been denied or ignored.
The internationals complain that preparations for the World Cup are being compromised “by Canada Soccer’s continued inability to support its national teams”. The association has reduced the scope of the training camps, reduced the number of participating players and employees and further restricted measures by the youth teams. In addition, there is great uncertainty about the remuneration. More than a year had been negotiated: “We are tired of having to fight for fair and equal treatment.” The women are told that there is not enough money for adequate financing. Football is so popular in Canada and the national teams – also financially – more successful than ever.
The strike is over, but the conflict is far from over
To underline your point, Sinclair, for example, published a financial overview of the Canadian Soccer Association on Twitter. While around eleven million Canadian dollars (7.7 million euros) were spent on men in 2021, it was 5.1 million (3.5) on women. The figures for last year are not yet known. Speaking on TSN, Sinclair noted that it would be difficult to negotiate if it was unclear what had been raised for the men ahead of the 2022 World Cup. “We are once again being treated with profound disrespect by Canada Soccer,” the internationals said in a statement. The fact that a top performance is expected at the 2023 World Cup, although they did not receive the same support, is “an unacceptable burden”.
Nevertheless, the strike ended after just one day. Both sides sat down for an emergency meeting on Saturday, representatives of the association with representatives of the Canadian Soccer Players Association union. The national players said the concerns had been discussed in detail. However, if they do not compete against the USA, the association threatened them with consequences before the meeting. Not only would “legal action be taken to force us back onto the pitch, but steps would also be considered to possibly demand millions in damages” from the union and the current squad: “We can’t take that risk,” said the players. The association replied that it respected the right to organizebut a strike is not legal under Ontario labor law.
“To be clear,” Christine Sinclair wrote on Twitter: “We will be forced to go back to work in the short term. It’s not over. We will continue to fight for everything we deserve and we will win.” Their anger at the association is only likely to increase, even if Canada Soccer wants to respond to the demands and acknowledged: “There is still a lot to do.”